Electoral reforms: The Senate should lead the charge

Let me start this article by stating my new found discovery that democracy is not the best form of government despite many contrary views by experts and politicians. Let me also state that some nations embrace it simply because it allows the people to gather every four years to choose their leaders through the ballot. China is a communist country but it is also among the most developed countries in the world today. It is even more developed than many countries that wear democracy as a chieftaincy regalia.

It is no longer news that democracy is dying in many countries and there are many reasons why democracies die. Democracy is dead in many African countries. Some countries, Nigeria inclusive, will witness the death of democracy if the relevant organs of government refuse to carry out extensive electoral reforms now. Democracy has died in many African countries with sit-tight leaders. Cameroon is one of such countries. It has also died in African countries with military leaders. We have many such countries in West and Central Africa. There is no point bothering readers with the list of such countries, which are public knowledge already.

Considering the technical glitches that marred the 2023 general election and the attendant refrain ‘go to court’ if you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll. Let me also state clearly that our elections since 1999 have never been perfect. Even before 1999, our lections had been imperfect. Some will add, there are no perfect elections anywhere in the world.

Granted that there are no perfect elections anywhere in the world, ours have grown from bad to worse if not the worst. We are no longer ashamed of rigged polls. We tend to gloat and rejoice over compromised polls. The quest for electoral victory at all cost has blinded our conscience and blunted our sense of fairness. I shudder at champions of democracy of yesterday dancing naked today over tainted poll victories.

It is perhaps against this backdrop that the European Union’s (EU) urgent call for electoral reforms ahead of the 2027 general election can be clearly situated. The call was made by Barry Andrews, a member of the European Parliament and Chief of the EU Election Observation Follow-up Mission to Nigeria, during a meeting with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja. Andrews wants the government to quicken critical electoral reforms before the 2027 general election.

Not quite long ago, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) warned that Nigerians would not accept technical glitches excuses from INEC in the 2027 elections. According to the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, the party will lead the crusade to ensure a credible election in 2027. “We, as a party, are going to take charge. Nigerians will not listen to any story about glitches, there must be none because the infrastructure in the country today can support it. If you can support the Point of Sale (PoS) in a remote part of the country, INEC should be on notice. The 2027 general election must be seamless, free, fair, transparent and credible. Any attempt to abridge the rights of Nigerians to choose their leaders will be resisted,’ Ologunagba stated.

The PDP chieftain probably captured the mind of most Nigerians over the 2027 elections. The era of electoral heist should be gone and give way to an era of credible polls. A transparent and credible election is good for the winner and the loser. It is good for the electorate. It will enable the winner to celebrate the electoral outcome and for the loser to bear the loss gallantly and for putting up a great fight. It will also reduce to recourse to unending litigations and avoidable waste of time and the deployment of inelegant language in electoral discourse.

As we await the appointment of the new INEC chairman, the call for electoral reforms has intensified. The Youth Initiative for Advocacy and Advancement (YIAGA) Africa calls for good handling of the appointment of the new INEC leadership. The Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo, enjoined President Bola Tinubu to demonstrate leadership by being transparent in the appointment of the new electoral umpire.

Now that the erstwhile chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has bowed out after 10 years of conducting our elections, Nigerians will like the new electoral umpire to be someone who will surpass the achievements of Yakubu. No doubt, Yakubu did his best as the boss of our electoral commission. Granted that there were errors here and there, he introduced many electoral reforms which the new INEC chairman will build upon. Part of the new electoral reforms will centre on electronic voting and transmission of election result in real time. We are tired of queuing under the sun or rain for hours before casting our votes.

We must allow technology govern our electoral system. If people can cast their votes electronically just as people can register for voting electronically, it is going to reduce voter suppression and intimidation. It will reduce ethnic tensions and violence that trail some of our polls. It will reduce rigging, falsification of election results and other infractions associated with elections in the country.

The leadership of the National Assembly should, indeed, lead the charge for urgent electoral reforms before the 2027 general elections. Instructively, the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, on Tuesday called for urgent legislative action, constitutional reforms to strengthen our democracy. Akpabio had in his welcome address to senators at the resumption of plenary drawn attention to the hardship in the country, including banditry and terrorism, soaring food prices and natural disasters, and stressed that the crisis demands urgent legislative attention.

According to him, ‘Let us hear the cry from the farms and the markets across the nation. Hunger cannot be defeated with words. Hunger requires policy direction and diligent execution to defeat it. Our people do not look to us for lamentations. That is not why they voted for us. They look to us for action.’ He went on to say that ‘Every home afflicted by disasters, insecurity and hardship, the 10th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria hereby extends to them the hand of fellowship and the prayer of comfort. We promise them that we shall not flinch from the duty of redress for our people in this country.’

Akpabio also declared: ‘We must revisit the constitutional amendment, the alterations to make our federation stronger, our governance more efficient and our democracy much more inclusive.’ The 10th Senate should lead the crusade to give Nigerians the needed reforms that will make our elections more transparent and credible. There should be no excuses or margin for error in the conduct of the 2027 polls.