INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu( right), INEC National Commissioner, Festus Okoye and Chief Executive Officer, Zabe Software, Khalil Halilu, at the Conference on Electoral Integrity in Nigeria, organised by CDD
As the 2019 electoral process shapes up, especially with the conclusion of political party primaries, conversations around how to promote and protect the integrity of the electoral process have been taking place. At the level of civil society, these discussions have sought to draw experiences from Nigeria’s less than salutary history of flawed elections. Although, these discussions have always being a part of the age-long advocacy around credible elections, the outcomes of the various party primaries as the country heads towards 2019, have further challenged the stability of the electoral space, making productive conversations around the critical issues of importance to the electorate very difficult. As things stand, the tug of war within and between the partisan political camps has been made much more toxic by other challenges including identity politics, the effect of social media, especially with respect to the spread of fake news, as well as misinformation and disinformation.
When the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and its consortium partners, Action Aid and Centre for Communication and Social Impact (CCSI) brought together the leading voices in the field of elections to converse on the issues in Abuja recently, part of the focus was to explore how to address the major flaws and contradictions plaguing the electoral process in the build up to 2019.
In terms of recent experiences, the last two off cycle elections in in Osun and Ekiti State raised very serious concerns among stakeholders and analysts in the political space. There was the major issue of vote buying, the role-played by security agencies, which in some cases were accused of interfering with the conduct of the process. In the area of litigation, the losing candidates in Ekiti and Osun are currently before the Election Petition Tribunals, seeking to overcome the outcomes of the elections on account of alleged irregularities, which they insist characterized the polls. Beyond the claims being made at the tribunal, one of the camps in the partisan divide has repeatedly voiced its lack of confidence in INEC.
It has therefore been taking continuous pot shots at the electoral umpire, possibly with the aim of reducing its credibility in the mind of a section of the electorate. This plethora of issues provided a fitting background, when a constellation of activists, election observers, citizen journalists and election managers from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) gathered in Abuja recently, to pin point the major drivers of electoral corruption. The experts who took part in the two-day event include the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, INEC National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, Professor Shola Omotola, Ezenwa Nwagu, Jide Ojo, Eze Onyekpere, Dr. Dayo Kusa, Esther Uzoma and women aspirants from political platforms like Christina Ude, among others.
The conference equally grappled with the practical steps to take towards ensuring the drivers and other manifestations of electoral corruption are not only contained, but are also prevented from damaging the credibility of the 2019 polls. Chairman of the International Governing Council (IGC) of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Dr. Kole Shettima who was represented by Senior Programs, Mr. Shamsudeen Yusuf gave an overview of the strategic thinking, which informed the convening. He said when it comes to irregularities in the electoral process, most analysts tended to focus on the problem of vote buying. He however noted that vote buying was just one of the many other typologies of electoral corruption, and there was therefore a need to have an understanding of those other realities.
The INEC Chair took up an issue, which many agreed was at the heart of the integrity of any electoral process. This has to do with the credibility of the voter register. His words: “As part of our efforts to ensure the integrity of our elections, there has been a lot of emphasis by this Commission on the credibility of the voter register. That is why we will be displaying the register in the 8809 wards across the country. It is an opportunity for all stakeholders, including the electorate to interrogate the register. We look forward to civil society taking the lead on this.”
Apart from the credibility of the register, other issues, which affect the integrity of elections, were spotlighted by the representative of the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency in his keynote speech to the conference. Dr. Davidson Aminu, who stood in for the NOA helmsman asserted that the responsibility of achieving electoral integrity in Nigeria is a task that requires collective effort of all Nigerians, particularly the critical stakeholders. He said: “We cannot talk of democratic consolidation in Nigeria, if elections are not driven in terms of being free, fair, credible, transparent and violence free. Parties to the electoral process must perform their duties with the highest level of efficiency, responsibility and transparency.” The representative of the NOA DG went on to list some key standards, which if observed would positively affect the integrity of the electoral process, come 2019. He noted for instance that as an umpire, INEC must strive to provide a level playing field for all the political parties.
The Commission, he stressed must sustain the current momentum in the planning and preparations for elections. Added to the role of INEC was the admonition to political parties that they exhibit actions, which would contribute to the stability and integrity of the electoral process. The point was made with all emphasis that political parties have to be mindful of their actions and utterances by guarding against provocative statements capable of overheating the polity and precipitating the break down of law and order. As the 2019 electoral process shapes up, the push is to have the political parties run responsible and civilized campaigns driven in the main by issues, ideas and developments.
The political actors are being further advised to eschew all forms of mudslinging or statements, which appeal to primordial emotions, while upholding internal party democracy. He said: “Events that occurred in some parts of the country recently during the party primaries and gubernatorial elections have tended to question our preparedness to imbibe the culture decent political behaviour. The ugly trends must not be allowed to continue. There is the need for us to eschew all forms of violence capable of derailing the current democratic process and our peaceful coexistence.”
Beyond the keynote speech, the panel discussants took up some of the key issues fuelling electoral corruption in Nigeria. According to one of the panellists, Dr. Hussaini Abdu, the political party delegates system for election of candidates is a system driven by corruption. According to the development expert, there is a nexus between Nigeria’s reputation as a very corrupt country and the ethical lapses that have been apparent in the nation’s electoral system. His view on the vexed issue of vote buying is that Nigeria runs a vicious circle of corruption, which would have to be addressed to realise the goal of credible election come 2019.
Striking examples were further made with situations where some aspirants pushing for the tickets of certain parties that are perceived to be viable spend more to get the ticket, than they would eventually spend on the actual election. The effect of this according to panellists is that many of such aspirants spend inordinate amounts to buy up delegates in order to win the ticket. He therefore recommended that if stakeholders in the electoral process really want to deal with manifestations of electoral corruption like vote buying, the country must be ready to deal with the wider corruption, which has hobbled its developmental aspirations.
Subsequently, the discourse moved on to the role of election of observers, and how to ensure that there reports are provide a basis for electoral justice, mandate protection and some form of redress for the victims of electoral corruption. An example was given of CSOs, which spotlighted the fact that votes were bought in the recent elections. It was argued that beyond these diagnosis from the reports of observers, there exists a question of what next or so what? In answering those questions, there was consensus that observer reports should not merely be issued and allowed to gather dust on the shelves of various civic groups. The point was strongly canvassed that election observation reports should ideally motivate pursuit of cases against all forms of electoral injustice. Analysts at the conference therefore insisted that there was a dire need to bring the political parties into the conversation and get them to commit to initiatives, which would enhance the integrity of the process.
Nonetheless, in the face of the challenges, which could affect the integrity and credibility of the elections, the point was also strongly canvassed that no political actor gives money for charity during an election. With this understanding, citizens were informed that any politician giving out money to buy votes and induce voters would always act to recoup “their investments.” It was noted that this is why electoral corruption impacts society in a very serious way because vote buying takes away the dignity of the voter and his vote. However, another dimension of the discourse was the insight provided that Nigeria is a country still searching for the meaning of corruption, which is why suspects facing corruption trials do so with so much fanfare.
In a society with this kind of worldview, electoral corruption, it was argued is only a natural extension of the impunity that pervades the broader spectrum of society. In the end therefore, to push for a credible electoral process, citizen action was strongly canvassed. Also, whistle blowing, investigative journalism, strengthening of legal processes, as well as emphasis on a political debate culture driven by concrete issues affecting ordinary people were put forward as ways of mitigating the damaging effects electoral corruption. There was equally unanimity that voters, especially the youth and other vulnerable groups should resist machinations, which seek to deploy them as cannon fodder to engage in electoral crimes or breach the peace during the 2019 electoral cycle.
