How to Fix Nigeria: The Electoral Process
By Pat Utomi
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Most reasonable people recognise that elections did not take place in Nigeria in 2007. We do not need the testimony of former US Secretary of the State, Madeline Albright or former Canadian Prime Minister, Joe Clark, who were part of an army of international and local observers who dismissed the elections as pitifully below acceptable standard to make the point. The key is recognising the impact of flawed elections for making democracy work, and in raising the quality of lives of citizens.
I should have anticipated the disaster that was to come. Something in me which rebels against condemning a person in advance of an offence made me give the benefit of the doubt in the INEC leadership. What astonished me the most was the brash loquaciousness with which the INEC Chairman continued to try to justify the mess. But I should not have been surprised. Maurice Iwu and I had shared a platform at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington a year before the elections. He was so brusque and bullish in canvassing the perfection of his electronic voting system that a high ranking US electoral official who made remarks, marveled at Nigerian sophistication which made a process still fraught with scepticisms and challenges in the United States assured of seamless efficiency and effectiveness in Nigeria.
The point of the foregoing is that critical entry point for reform of the electoral process is the process of selecting the election umpires. Who appoints the structure of the team and the character of individuals appointed to electoral commissions could be key to overcoming the crises of legitimacy that cripple governance in Nigeria and in many cases affect disposition to corrupt practice by public officials.
A great lesson from 2007 is that a sense of shame is an important part of the character trait for sensitive assignments. It occurred to me watching the Obasanjo-Iwu combination after the elections that greater damage was done to the legitimacy of the election by low sense of shame quotient in the principal players. Where silence could have healed, the absence of a sense of shame premium assured governance would go though a sad patch in the aftermath of the 2007 elections. Those principals took legitimacy from the Yar’adua team by their conduct.
Besides, taking both the appointment of member of INEC and its funding away from the presidency, our electoral process will profit much from massive citizenship education campaign and strengthening of Civil Society engagement in the electoral process.
Another area in great need of fixing is punishment for those caught in election malpractices. So far, the incentives to abuse the process are high and there is hardly much sanction. Most have managed to get away with it. Besides, ensuring that the foot soldiers are punished severely, it is important that candidates pay a high price for action on their behalf whether they are directly complicit or not. That should provide motivation for them to check their supporters. The examples of clubs being penalised for the actions of their fans have no doubt contributed to the decline of hooliganism in British Football. Brazil has implemented that in their electoral process. So if people know they will be disqualified for some supporters falsifying results or removing a ballot box, they will behave differently.
Also important for fixing the electoral process is ensuring that candidates adopt town hall format of debating issues around the geographical zone of the constituency to ensure that our politics become more ideas-driven and issues-oriented. This will re-connect the polity to the people, increase the legitimating attributes of the process and reduce tension generated by raw scramble for power with no ideological learning from political parties.
Finally, among the few issues of electoral reforms, we need to focus on is campaign finance reform. We must draw lessons from the American laws. We need to limit contributions to de-monetise elections and save candidates from the strangle hold of godfathers.
Nigeria needs to overcome electoral challenges for the people and their leaders to be united in the common cause of nation building. This is why overcoming the problems of 2007 is preparing Nigeria for the future it deserves.
Utomi is a professor of political economy and presidential candidate of African Democratic Congress in the 2007 election.
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