• Urges Nigerians to demand rejiging of system ahead 2027 elections
By Cosmas Omegoh
Dr Yunusa Tanko, spokesman of Obi/Datti campaign group has called on Nigerians to demand a cleanup of the existing Electoral Act to correct the anomalies experienced during the 2023 elections.
In this encounter, Dr Tanko urged the National Assembly to immediately commence the process of rebuilding the people’s sagging confidence in the electoral process. Excerpts:
Do we need to rejig the Electoral Act to accommodate people’s fears ahead 2027 polls?
The truth of the matter is that a lot of Nigerians are not conversant with the current Electoral Act. The Electoral Act as amended in 2010 has a lot of bobby traps in it, an example is the transmission of results. It’s that law, INEC was given the leverage to do things on its own. Many people did not take cognisance of that. At that time, INEC was busy sending out messages of hope that it was going to transmit election results like it did in the preceding election in Edo State that year. People bought into that promise not knowing that there were clauses under which INEC would later hide to announce results in a different manner. The manner of collation of results gave room for manipulation and sending results in a manner that impinged on the credibility of the elections.
Therefore, the new electoral act that we are asking for and the people are demanding is to have clarity. We are demanding a position that is sacrosanct – that if we have elections, the results must be transmitted in real time; immediately the elections take place, the results must be out there in the right places.
The new law has to accommodate the vexing issue of people winning election and trading their victory with another political party; that too must be taken care of.
We also have the issue of possible proportional representation in our electoral system – meaning that if you win certain percentage in the elections, you should be represented in the government in such a way that there is no winner-takes-it-all syndrome. All of these and more are things that need to be choreographed into demand for new electoral act to give hope to hopeless Nigerians who are no longer believing in the electoral system or an electoral umpire that can work. We need to do that.
We need to mount pressure to ensure that the Mohammed Uwais report is adhered to. The report recommends that selection of men for appointment as INEC chairman must be seen to be clean, free and fair to all Nigerians. Their names must be published. It has to be seen that those nominated are people of implacable character – people the people know have nothing to do directly with the executive. That way, we will have a leadership that will be strictly independent – not surrogates of Aso Villa. That is what we want now.
Then, we have to quickly have delineation and an enforcement agency that will be responsible for the enforcement of rules against election malpractices – an agency that will be dealing with election malpractices immediately because the level of impunity in our electoral system now is very high. Every year in our election cycle, one sees new manipulative tendencies; we need to clear those things out of our system.
Therefore, the demand and the quest for a new electoral act are sacrosanct; they have become very expedient.
Yes, some people still believe that if we have our head on our neck, no matter how bad our Electoral Act is, we can still have good elections.
But then, this is Nigeria. So we need to have a clean and clear position on what our electoral laws are as a guild to the elections that will take place in 2027.
What do you currently believe the mood of the people still is after the 2023 elections?
The people are disillusioned. They have lost a lot of confidence in the electoral process, I tell you.
In the build up to the 2023 elections, the people’s spirit was so high because INEC gave them hope of a free and fair election – possibly because of the previous election that took place in 2019 in Edo States, which seemed to be a little bit clearer; people saw the results real time. So that gave everybody hope. Then INEC went on advocacy campaigns assuring that the people’s votes were going to count.
But, people have seen it that it was the same INEC which gave them hope that crashed their hope. So we need to find a way of cleaning the electoral process in such a way that people will once again believe in the electoral process. Otherwise in the coming elections, we will have what might be totally unacceptable. I tell you, if what we are seeing now persists, people might not be interested in coming out for any form of elections because they will believe that once again, the results will be manipulated.
What do you make out of the opposition joining in singing ‘On your mandate shall stand?’ Are they the same people you trust to fashion out electoral reforms?
To tell you the truth, it was so disappointing seeing people singing and chanting that slogan in the National Assembly. It was the highest form of unethical conduct at the parliament on that day. It was unethical because the House does not belong to one political party. Yes, the APC is in majority, but they were not supposed to be chanting such slogan at the National Assembly. Yet it happened. Now, the people have to take a decision.
The people must in a way take a strong position on how their votes will count going forward. We, on our part, are working very hard. Many people are advocating for a clean electoral act that will represent the yearnings of the people. That, too, is what we will continue to advocate for.
Do you see the current NASS standing up to correct the ‘glitches’ INEC said marked the last elections?
No, no, no! I don’t see this current National Assembly working to correct that on its own.
This Assembly is already skewed towards the government in power. We have seen it; we have heard it – especially when the members were collectively singing and dancing ‘On your mandate we shall stand!’
But what they don’t know is that, doing so reduces their integrity in the eyes of the people. The people are not seeing them as a National Assembly that represents their interest. Let me give clear examples. How can members of the Assembly who claim to be representing the people sit back and allow electricity tariffs be increased astronomically without commensurate power being supplied to the people? How can a National Assembly sit back and see the cost of telephony go us astronomically? How can a National Assembly sit back watching the common needs to the people not being met?
Now, look at the state of our roads. Is it not the same National Assembly that passes the budget? It has oversight function to carry out, yet this is not being done. Look at the state of the Kaduna-Abuja road, the Abuja- Benin road. Look at the state of Nigerian roads in general, yet it is the National Assembly that approves the budget for their construction and maintenance. And much of the same money is ending up in phantom projects. Look at the much vaulted Lagos-Calabar coastal high way for instance which does not seem to add value to the immediate needs of the people. Whose interest is that supposed to serve?
How can the National Assembly pass laws on security, yet the life, property and security of Nigerians cannot be assured? How can a National Assembly which is also the hope of the common man not care about the state of the country’s educational system? How can the National Assembly be there yet it cannot pass laws that will take the people out of poverty? These are the areas the National Assembly ought to be taking care of the people who voted its members at the elections. Yet its members are not caring. Instead, the current Assembly is engulfed in sexual harassment issues or none of it, and shirking its responsibilities. It is laughable!
If the NASS does not rejig the laws to compel INEC to stay within its boundaries in the next elections, what do you foresee?
Perhaps those elections will have the character of anarchy. We will be gratifying a few people who milk the people to the point of stupor. That will be against the will of the generality of the people who are in dire need.
Nigerians have been shouting that they cannot feed themselves; on a continuous basis, they are clamouring that they are insecure more than ever before.
The needs of the people are not being considered; we are not a poor nation; we have everything to make us the rich nation we are. These are the fundamental issues. So, we are setting ourselves up for anarchy.
What do you say is the place of good laws in guaranteeing good elections?
For heaven to help us all, now is time for the National Assembly to quickly commence deliberations on the new electoral act to complement the existing the 2010 Electoral Act as amended. If they can start that now, they will be seen to be giving hope to the people if they truly mean business. The truth of the matter is that good elections will only bring candidates that will lead the people to prosperity.
Isn’t it time to start galvanising people – civil society organisation towards advocating for new electoral act?
We in the Obidient Movement are currently working on that. It is on our agenda – to start advocating a reform of the electoral system based on the experiences of 2023.
We are also aware that it is still possible that this particular government might pick another person stooge after the tenure of Prof Yakub Mahmud as head of INCE has ended. Once that is done, of course they will be stoking the anger of the people.
Just look at the ripples the appointment of the new Account General of the Federal (AGF) is currently causing. All of that create doubt that this government is putting round pegs in round holes; that too will further give credence to the already high-level clannish disposition of the current government. Yes, some people still argue that the immediate past administration also did that, but does that make what is happening now right? As long as the current government continues to do what it is currently doing, the country will continue to wallow in total in danger. We don’t need that at the moment.
We have enough credible people to do the INEC job. If we put the right persons in the right position, we stand a good chance of rebuilding this country for greater prosperity.