Democracy evolves. It is an incremental system of government. If it bends too fast, it may break. Slow but steady wins the race in this benevolent system of government. In democracy, even the ark of justice sails slowly but surely. The destruction visited on the people by violent revolutions justify the measured approach to governance found in democracies. We would have, just like anyone else, preferred a faster pace for our advancement in democracy, but when we remember that democracy is a marathon, not a sprint, that must be consciously run temperately not speedily, we still have a place in our heart to have hope.
Let us note that the paramount leader of the Yoruba race, the Ooni of Ife, had openly challenged the National Lawmakers that most of them cannot go back to their constituencies because of insecurity. None of them had refuted such a direct accusation against the National Lawmakers. Indeed, the members of the hallowed Chambers of both the Senate and the House of Representatives spend most of their time in the Chambers requesting for one minute silence for the citizens of Nigeria from their constituencies who were either senselessly murdered, maimed, kidnapped or terrorised. They make endless resolutions condemning the spate of insecurity across the land, yet, curiously, none of them brought up the issue of State Police. They seem to have left Nigerians to the fate of the overstretched, under equipped and under motivated armed forces, who are doing their utmost best to wipe out insecurity but of whose efforts are not good enough. Let us acknowledge that there has been moderate laudable achievements in the area of insecurity, due largely to the arrival of para military and vigilante forces like Amotekun, JTF and so on, but there’s still much room for improvement. We believe that security is the most paramount responsibility of every government and it was an unfortunate oversight for the Lawmakers not to consider and approve State Police in the latest Constitutional amendments and they should expeditiously amend the Constitution to reflect the current reality. We have had enough of bloodshed in our land and the time to put an end has come.
The Electoral Act Amendment that grants the Independent National Electoral Commission the independence to determine the electronic mode of transfer of results and accreditation is the highlight of the amendments. This will inevitably enhance the quality of our elections and the possibility of realising free and fair elections. We must note however that the computers and electronic appliances that will be used for the elections will be ultimately manned by human beings and without character, it will be garbage in, garbage out. This is a notice to the general public that this is not the time to sleep on the basis that the most fought for amendment has been signed into law by the President. Eternal vigilance will always be the safeguard to our democracy.
We must commend the President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Muhammadu Buhari, for his statesmanly attitude in signing the Electoral Act amendment, despite his reservation on the eleventh hour introduction of Section 84(12) which bars political appointees from voting or being voted for during the parties primary elections, because he was aware that the public opinion is overwhelmingly in support of the signing of the Bill.
There are two arms to this amendment. Voting and being voted for during primaries. The Legislative and the Executive arms of government can reach a compromise. There’s a point in the argument that allowing unelected political appointees the right of statutory delegates during primaries give undue advantages to their appointors and political associates. The only thing a Governor or a President needs do to tilt the primary result in favour of his second term or his preferred candidates in all the primary elections is to appoint more ministers, commissioners, special advisers, senior special advisers and so on. It will enhance the fairness of our primary elections to remove the political appointees from voting during primaries. Any of them that wants to vote should strive to become an elected delegate from his ward to vote in the primaries. However, it will be unfair to insist on their resignation from office before they are voted in. If the elected political office holders do not resign before contesting, why insist that political appointees should resign before primaries. We submit that the Lawmakers should amend the Electoral Act to the extent that political appointees can contest political offices in primaries without resignation but should not be allowed to vote during primaries unless they are elected as ward delegates for the primaries.
The passing of the financial autonomy and financial independence for local governments, state houses of assembly and state judiciary is quite commendable. The honest truth is that any Governor who is opposing the financial independence of local governments, state houses of assembly and state judiciary is a thief whose only aim is to steal the meagre resources of these institutions. He also wants to use the disbursement of the finance due to these institutions as a bait to compel them to tow his line in everything he wants on the basis of whoever pays the piper dictates the tune. This explains all the questionable judgements state governors obtain from state high courts. This also explains why the National Assembly is shifting some jurisdictions in some matters of national importance to the federal high courts. The gross under developments in local governments can also be partly explained by the brutal assault and vandalisation of their funds by some of these kleptomaniac state chief executives. Nigerians should insist on the sustenance of these amendments and ensure that they ultimately sail through and become laws of the land.
The rejection of the conferment of immunity on the presiding officers of the legislature and the judiciary is commendable. Granting them immunity means placing them above the law which is antithetical to the norms of democracy. The immunity presently granted to the executives is not absolute, it is restrictive. The executives, despite the immunity, can still be tried by the legislature and if found guilty can be removed from office and thrown to jail if confirmed guilty by the court of law. There’s no check and balance for any immunity granted to any of the legislative or judicial officers. It was commendable that such provisions were shot down by the national lawmakers.
Approval of independent candidacy is a fortunate development in our democratic evolution. This will enable us further tighten the conditions required to register political parties without impeding the democratic right of anybody to aspire to any office he chooses even when he cannot find any bearing within the existing political parties. It will also lower the tension generated in our polity when godfathers single handedly choose their successors without due regard to democratic norms and interests. The affected aspirants can find solace in the independent candidacy and try their luck there rather than visiting their grievance on the system.
All Gender Bills brought before the National Assembly failed. It must have been disheartening for the noble women who fought relentlessly to see to the passing of the Bills. Not even the presence of the First and Second Ladies could help the Bills to survive. The Bills were made to create more than one hundred special seats in the National Assembly for women and compel about thirty-five percent political appointments for them. The problem with pressing for additional seats may be the reluctance of some politicians to add more financial burden of catering for additional national assembly members whom Nigerians believe enjoy bloated budget on the fledgling economy. Nigeria economy is very stressed now with heavy borrowing for projects and the citizens may be reluctant to bloat its expenses through additional members of the National Assembly. The Advocates of greater representation for women must come with a creative way in which their increment in the National Assembly will not add more members to the Parliament.
Moreover, these noble women should seek political solution not legal solution. We are not advanced intellectually and politically as to guarantee the exclusion of primordial sentiments against the proposal of women equality with men in the Nigeria politics. If the Houses of Assembly will vote against itself in the area of financial autonomy, simply because the Governors wanted them to vote that way, you can imagine how some men will be influenced by their culture, religion and possibly ego to vote in a particular way. The women were more miffed when they discovered that some of the co-sponsors of the Bill did not eventually vote for its passage. I can guarantee the women that some of the co-sponsors did not even read the proposed amendments before signing on as co-sponsors. Some of them signed on to please the Speaker who was a major sponsor of the Bill. When the push came to shove, they chickened out.
The women decided they will name and shame those who opposed them. This is understandable going by the amount of work they put into this Bill. However, the women should pause and wonder how they constitute more than fifty percent of the voting population but are going cap in hand to the men who are less in the voting exercise. This is like the majority begging the minority to allow them eat from the crumbs that fall from their tables. If the women want a breakthrough in their political career, they should stop agonising and start organising. They should look inwards. If they want to name and shame anybody, let them start naming and shaming fellow women who betray their cause. Sarah Jibrin scored one vote during her presidential primary contest. She prophesied that her one vote will later come back to haunt women. Obviously no woman voted for her. The former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Patricia Ette, was removed from office unceremoniously on spurious allegation of suspected intention to inflate the contract of the rehabilitation of some residences. Women were the majority in calling for her removal. Till date, she was not found guilty of any criminal offence. The allegation was orchestrated just to remove her and women did not come to her aid. During the election of Mulikat Akande, women did not fully back her election as Speaker, despite the post being zoned to her Geo-Political Zone of South-West. So women should start naming and shaming their colleagues who are sabotaging their efforts as this will ensure their cohesion and increase their bargaining power. All in all, there are great innovations in these amendments that can transform our democracy for the better and all dramatis personae should be commended.