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Jubril Adamu
Classical believers in democracy hold that its basic fundaments rest upon three ideal pillars, equality among all people, liberty and respect for law and justice. But even Contemporary democratic theorists such as Schumpeter, Riker, Przeworski and Hardin who argue that such idealism is untenable still maintain that at a minimum, democracy offers a system in which rulers are selected by competitive elections. For the sake of the latter utility, Karl Popper insisted that democracy is thus preferred over other forms of government because of its propensity as the only type in which governments can be changed without bloodshed.
Unfortunately, between 1999 to 2007 and again between 2015 and 2019, the experiences of Nigerians with democracy has defied such Popperian faith that it can bring about political transition and leadership turnover without violence to citizens and violence to the Law. What is however most disturbing is how election, the minimal pillar of democracy, has suffered more grievous decay since 2015 and how 2023 may usher in the end of democracy in Nigeria if there is no drastic change in the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
After the electoral fiascos of 2003 and 2007, a revival of faith in democracy was growing in Nigeria after the 2011 Election, when Professor Attahiru Jega, a member of the Uwais Electoral Reform Committee was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan to head INEC. Jega took up some of the key recommendations of the reform Committee and set about introducing several remarkable changes. Backed by a supportive executive leadership under the Jonathan regime, which liberally promoted an ambience supportive of democratic practices, the electoral Commission under Jega introduced innovations such as an electronic biometric Voter Register, a Smartcard enabled Permanent Voters Card (PVC) generated from the biometric Voter Register, electronic Smart Card Readers for verifying voters as they present their PVC at polling units, customized ballot papers making each ballot paper unique to specified polling units and useless for electoral fraudsters and ballot snatchers who will usually steal such ballot papers and use them in preferred locations.
The electoral Commission under him never accepted elections conducted under obvious voter suppression, particularly those recorded with viral videos circulated all over the world. INEC under his leadership though recorded some inchoate elections but never made inconclusive election results an art for collusion with preferred electoral competitors. The Commission under Jega stamped its regulatory authority on elections and ensured minimal deviations from international election norms and standards, generating not only credibility for the electoral process but fidelity in the outcome on the part of many Nigerians and the image of the country improved significantly within the international community. It was therefore not surprising that the outcome of the two elections conducted under his leadership of the Commission in a single term were widely accepted as generally credible without seeking a second term that he deserved.
Unfortunately, since the exit of the Jega leadership, the fidelity of election outcome and the credibility of the electoral process have undergone continuous decline. Vertical and horizontal accountability of elected political actors are significant indicators of a thriving democracy or stated in another form, they are barometers of good quality in democratic practices. Since the emergence Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the conduct of elections has changed. First, in Kogi, the Commission declared the gubernatorial election of 2015 inconclusive and subsequently conducted a supplementary election by which time a new candidate brought to replace the deceased candidate. Then again in the gubernatorial election that followed in Edo state in 2016, INEC could not stamp its regulatory authority and control on the electoral process, besides the postponement of the election that was forced upon the Commission by political actors, the election result collation was brazenly taken out of INEC’s control.
Again in Osun, against the allegations of voter suppression and results manipulation. Further, in 2019 despite long periods of preparation, the logistics of delivering election materials for the general elections was so shambolic that INEC had to concede a late postponement, despite the postponement, there was evidence that in several states, politicians had pre-knowledge of the design of the result sheets and went ahead to print them for their uses, while some had result sheets delivered to them before the elections.
In addition to the stated irregularities, the Electronic Smart Card Readers which the Prof. Jega regime had procured and used extensively to improve the fidelity of the election process, by deploying the device to prevent fake and bogus results were not used in many places across the country, yet INEC leadership allowed results to be returned from such places. The use of card reader to verify the fingers of a holder of a PVC (if he or she is the same person) that recorded impressive performance of 54% in the 2015 election surprisingly dropped to less than 20% in the 2019 elections and has further dipped in recent elections to 16% in Nasarawa bye election. Statistics after the Edo election are not yet out but what is shocking is that under Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, polling results are accepted where card reader finger authentication were not carried out contrary to provisions in the guidelines published for the election. Moreover, the same INEC leadership distanced itself from the electronic transmission of results which it had promoted prior to the elections. Beyond promoting the use of electronic transmission of result, the Commission had not only procured resources to implement the plan, but also accepted installation of central Server equipment and the training of its staff to accomplish real-time electronic monitoring to record election activities, electoral incidents and election outcomes. As evidence of this fact, there are ad-hoc staff and election assisting institutions which have evidence trails of INEC’s monitoring activities using such electronic devices with transmissions from z-Pads, pictures of staff in Monitoring centres, printouts of tracked activities from field officers, as well as other significant evidence trails in the public domain that will forever blemish the current INEC’s leadership as lacking in courage and as collaborators in Electoral malpractices and fraud rather than neutral election umpires.
The Commission’s leadership which had instituted several new guidelines and implemented them in places such as Ekiti State prior to the general election as the Constitution and extant Electoral Act had empowered it to do, rather found shelter in the excuse that, the executive arm had not signed an amendment to enable electronic transmission. In other words, it cherry-picked what it wanted to implement as it suits its electoral collaborators.
As Yakubu’s tenure ends in November this year and given the background set out above, there is need to change the current leadership of INEC. Lovers of democracy must insist that the right thing be done to restore the credibility of INEC.
Adamu writes from Kaduna
