Liberia has become a beacon of hope for democracy in Africa. The country, just like Nigeria, held its presidential election this year. But while Nigeria’s poll, held on February 25, 2023, was highly contentious, that of Liberia, which was concluded last week, turned out to be a good example of how to conduct free, fair and credible elections in Africa.
Twenty candidates contested for Liberia’s number one position. But there was no clear winner in the first ballot held on October 10, 2023. The candidate of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), President George Weah, and former Vice-President and candidate of the Unity Party, Joseph Boakai, later went for a run-off on November 14, 2023. Boakai garnered 814,481 votes of the available 1,625,684 votes cast in the run-off to clinch victory. Weah, a former international football star, got 793,914. Even before the final result was announced on November 20, Weah had conceded defeat and congratulated Boakai.
In his congratulatory message, the President urged his supporters to follow his example and accept the results of the election. As he put it, “The CDC has lost the election, but Liberia has won. This is a time for graciousness in defeat, a time to place our country above party, and patriotism above personal interest.”
Weah’s patriotic act was a replica of what former President Goodluck Jonathan did after the 2015 presidential election that ushered in Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s President. Like many other Nigeria’s elections, that election was contentious. But Dr. Jonathan quickly conceded defeat and congratulated Buhari. This saved the nation some post-election crisis that would have erupted then.
Outside Jonathan, no incumbent President has ever conceded defeat in Nigeria. Usually, they use power of incumbency to manipulate the electoral process. Even the governorship and legislative elections are not immune from the malaise of Nigeria’s elections. The introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the touted electronic transmission of election results were seen as the game changer. This did not happen as politicians still found a way to circumvent the system and rig elections in their favour.
Before Nigeria’s last presidential election, former President Muhammadu Buhari promised to bequeath a legacy of free, fair and credible elections to Nigeria. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also promised free and fair elections. It pledged to make use of BVAS for accreditation and voting and to transmit all election results electronically real time from each of the 176,606 polling units to the INEC servers. But, INEC failed to keep to its promises. It bungled the transmission of presidential election results to INEC servers, blaming it on technical glitches. This gave room for manipulation of the results.
This type of shoddy arrangement did not happen in Liberia’s poll. The election went smoothly. There was no report of inducement of voters or snatching of ballot boxes. People simply cast their votes and went home, trusting that the electoral umpire would do a good job.
Contrarily, Nigeria’s elections are usually characterized by violence, intimidation and inducement of voters, and falsification of election result. All these happened during the last presidential election. In some parts of Lagos, Rivers and some other places, political thugs had a field day attacking perceived political opponents. Those supporting opposition party candidates were asked not to come out and vote in some parts of Lagos. In some polling centres, INEC officials either came late or failed to turn up at all.
By contrast, the National Electoral Commission of Liberia took effective charge of affairs and exhibited true independence in the conduct of the presidential election. Nigeria’s INEC should be made truly independent and free. A situation where some people with partisan interests were appointed as INEC Commissioners portends danger for free and fair elections. It is against the 1999 Constitution. President Bola Tinubu should cancel those appointments immediately.
For us to have free and fair elections in Nigeria, we must make effective use of technology in our electoral processes. Electronic voting should be made compulsory. INEC said electronic voting was illegal in Nigeria and that BVAS was not an electronic voting machine. So, it will be good if the commission could join to push for the amendment of our electoral laws to make electronic voting mandatory. INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal should go beyond just displaying the Form EC8A uploaded from the polling units for the public to see. Whatever result that has been uploaded on the IReV portal should be taken as the authentic result. This will guard against rigging or manipulation of results that have already been certified and uploaded on the portal from the polling units.
Perhaps, a new constitution is what Nigeria needs now. The new constitution will largely look at devolution of powers. This will go a long way in curbing the struggle of our politicians to win elections at the centre by all means and at all costs.
For the Nigerian electorate, there is a need to show more commitment towards our elections. The last presidential election recorded the lowest turnout since the advent of this democracy in 1999. The turnout of voters was about 28 per cent. In Liberia, the turnout was 65.77 per cent. Nigerian voters are willing and eager to exercise their franchise. But they are being frustrated by the awkward system we practise. Let the Liberian electoral successes inspire our leaders to make amends where necessary.