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By Omoniyi Salaudeen
After a prolonged buck-passing, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can now boast of a new Electoral Bill to guide its operations for seamless conduct of the coming general elections.
While the latest amendment lasted, both the executive and the legislature had had to disagree on a number of contentious issues bordering on direct and indirect primaries, consensus arrangement as well as Section 82 that requires government appointees to resign their appointments before going for elective positions.
The one that generated particular concern among the stakeholders is the direct primary option, which according to the argument of many people, is a usurpation of the rights of political parties to determine the process for selection of their candidates.
Even when that had been settled, the intrigues arising from President Muhammadu Buhari’s reservation about the resignation of political appointees seeking for elective offices crept in, thus raising anxiety over the possible negative impact of the prolonged delay in the passage of the bill on the election time table earlier released by the INEC.
Last week, the President’s assent finally laid the matter to rest. With this development, the elections will now take off with the Presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, February 25, 2023, a week after the February 18 date originally scheduled for the polls.
This will be followed by the governorship and state houses of assembly elections slated for Saturday, March 11, 2023, two weeks after the earlier timeline assigned for the polls.
The Chairman of the INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, explaining the reason for the slight adjustment barely 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Electoral Bill 2022 into law, said the decision was to ensure compliance with the provisions of the new law.
According to him, this is the fourth time that the Electoral Act would be amended since the advent of the present democratic dispensation.
Following the revised timetable, the campaign for the presidential and National Assembly election by political parties will now commence on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 and Thursday, February 23, 2023 while that for governorship and state assembly elections will take place between Wednesday, October 12, 2022 and midnight of Thursday, March 9, 2023.
His words: “As you are aware, Friday 25th February 2022, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria signed the Electoral Bill 2022 into law.
“This is historic, being the fourth time since the restoration of democracy in Nigeria in May 1999 that the Electoral Act was repealed and re-enacted.
“The 1998-1999 elections were administered by transitional decrees until the 2001 Electoral Act was passed into law.
“Then the Act was repealed and re-enacted as the Electoral Act 2002 which was in turn repealed and re-enacted in 2006, 2010 and now we have the 2022 Electoral Act.
“You may recall that in 2017, the Commission decided to establish fixed dates for general elections in Nigeria.
“This decision was based on our determination to create certainty in the electoral calendar and to enable all stakeholders in the electoral process (the electoral commission, political parties, and candidates, security agencies, observers, the media, etc) to prepare adequately for elections.
“By that decision, presidential and National Assembly elections shall hold on the third Saturday of the month of February of each general election year, while governorship and state houses of assembly elections shall follow two weeks later.
“Consequently, the 2023 general election was scheduled to commence on 18th February 2023 with the presidential and National Assembly elections, followed by the governorship and state houses of assembly elections on the 4th of March 2023.
“However, the Commission could not release the detailed Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the General Election, as it normally would, because of the pending enactment of the Electoral Act 2022.
“The Bill has now been signed into law.”
Expectedly, mixed reactions have been trailing the new law. While some have expressed cautious optimism that it would guarantee the credibility of the electoral process, others view it with a cynical disposition.
A former Minister of Works and Housing, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, while describing the bill as a right step in the right direction, challenged the INEC to come up with new guidelines that would curb undue manipulation by desperate politicians.
He said: “It is a nice step in the right direction. It is now left for the INEC to determine the procedure that will guarantee the credibility of the election. There must be accreditation before voting so that all the voters within the polling booths will know the exact number of ballot papers recorded at a particular unit.
“What usually happens is that the INEC will not bring ballot papers to the polling unit, but instead go somewhere to write result and then transmit it electronically. But where you insist that there must be accreditation first, people who are supposed to vote in that polling booth will know whether there is accreditation or not. If they don’t see proper accreditation in a particular unit, they will shout. We have about four hours to do accreditation and another two hours to vote. That is the best way to go about it so that the gains we have received from the new electoral law will not be lost.
“It is the responsibility of the INEC to prevent politicians from the rigging. They have practiced all these options before and they know which is one is more difficult to manipulate for rigging. They should be able to tell us. There must be accreditation before voting. That, for me, is the best.
He dismissed the suggestion for possible synergy between the INEC and political stakeholders, saying “it does not need to tell politicians the option to adopt because everybody wants to win. They are not too sincere people. Everybody wants power because power is too sweet in Nigeria. Everybody wants to win because they know that if they win, it is a lot of money for them and their families. So, it is for INEC to prevent rigging and they know how to prevent rigging.”
Also speaking in the same vein, an erstwhile Minister of Transport, Ebenezer Babatope, charged the electoral umpire on the urgent need to redeem its image by ensuring proper implementation of the amended electoral act.
He argued: “The success of the electoral bill will depend on the way the INEC will handle the elections. INEC may have the best of law, but they may not organize the elections well. Now that the umpire has got a new electoral bill signed into law by the President, let them go ahead and organise a credible election.
“It is the INEC that will determine the credibility of the process, not because I am a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but because former President Goodluck Jonathan did his best to deepen our democracy by conceding power to the APC despite the obvious irregularities that characterized the 2019 general elections.
“When the INEC declared that the PDP lost, he said he would hand over power to the person who won the election because he did not want the shedding of the blood of innocent Nigerians. And the PDP did well by taking the decision to hand over to the person that won the election.
“Now, INEC is the body that will give us an election that will give us credible person. I can’t see any sign that the INEC will do that. With all the conspiracies of the APC, PDP handed over to them on a platter of gold. But now, they are afraid of their shadow. The APC government has been behaving very badly. They rigged the election that brought back Buhari for a second term. This time around, it is left for the INEC to give us an election that will ensure that democracy in Nigeria is safe.”
However, Senator Anthony Adeniyi, a chieftain of the APC in Ekiti State, maintained that it is the responsibility of everyone to obey the new law.
“I think the electoral act is now perfect with some of these amendments. The major point there is the electronic transmission of results that people have been clamouring for. The second thing is the issue of consensus, which our party APC has done fraudulently.
“I agree that the attitude of politicians will determine the successful implementation of the electoral bill, but it is not as simplistic as some people think. Once there is a law in place, you must abide by the law. I don’t think it is going to be that easy for politicians to manipulate. The Electoral Act has put the snatching of boxes or manipulation of the accreditation process behind us. Before you cast your ballot, you must have been accredited electronically. Though it is not foolproof, it has eliminated fraudulent practices,” he said.
All things being equal, the coming National Convention of the APC will be a litmus test for the practicability of the consensus arrangement as contained in the new Electoral Act as speculation is rife that President Muhammadu Buhari might have settled for Senator Abdullahi Adamu as his preferred choice for the chairmanship position of the party even when other aspirants are still very much in the race.
And on this note, Adeniyi expressed his reservation for the rumour, declaring that “you can’t force consensus on people.”
He argued: “Even the party’s constitution says that consensus is achieved when people are united in choosing their candidate. If others are contesting, then we must go for a vote. There can’t be consensus when other people are aspiring. We can only achieve consensus when other aspirants have agreed to drop their ambitions.
“Some people might weep up sentiment, but the president has not declared his interest in any particular candidate. If it is so, the president would have called other aspirants to say this is where my mind is going.”
He also disagreed with the position of the President on Section 82 of the amended bill, insisting that political appointees should resign before seeking elective positions.
“With due respect; he is my president, but I disagree with him on that. Whosoever wants to aspire should resign and contest,” Adeniyi declared.
Whichever side of the divide is right, Osun and Ekiti states governorship elections would ultimately decide how far INEC can go in delivering credible elections.
Nigerians are watching with keen interest. The hope is that the 2023 election is going to be a departure from the past.
