The need to ammend our electoral process (2) -By Eddie Mbadiwe

In many cases, the panels picked by par­ties to conduct the primary elections had instructions on whom to deliver thereby making the exercise merely academic to satisfy the electoral law.

The flip side to these shenanigans is that thousands of eminently qualified Nigerians out there are prevented from contributing to our national growth since they do not have the stomach to dare. Consequently, our country is much poorer by their non-participation.

For those who scale through the intra-party skirmish, the next stage which is the main election is full scale war. Pro­fessor Jega as INEC Chairman did a good job within what was under his immediate watch but the battle fields are very far from Abuja. The current INEC acting Chairman has complained that INEC (as a co – re­spondent in all election cases) cannot cope with the astronomical legal fees at tribu­nals.

We have trumpeted with glee to the outside world how free and fair the last elections were. But is this really the whole truth? Undoubtedly the last election was a major departure and improvement from the charade which obtained in previous years where in some cases governors where elected and results written a day before polls opened and the polling day was for formal announcement of the pre-elected governor.

The perpetrators of these crimes against Ni­geria know themselves and will certainly re­ceive their due reward as they are consigned to damnation and infamy in the dustbin of his­tory.

We will be doing ourselves great disservice as a nation if we fail to truthfully tell ourselves what happened. No sane person will lie to him­self.

For the outside world, we can shout from roof tops about free and fair elections but as children of the bed chamber, we are aware there were instances where electoral officers were compromised; there were occasions where stubborn electoral officers were kidnapped and forced to rewrite results at gun point. There were cases of underage voting some of which was captured on national television.

This intervention is not a diatribe against any individual but it is rather a sober reflec­tion on our collective deficiencies so that we can improve and move forward to building a Nigeria we all can be proud of.

With the elections over, the tribunals kick in. This is a very expensive night-mare for those declared winners by INEC. In Rivers, Imo, Anambra and Enugu states every successful candidate is in court. This is the season of har­vest for lawyers and their bills run in millions.

One senior lawyer appropriately summarized it to me this way: when going for an election he said, your resources should be shared in the following ratio: 30% for primaries, 40% for the main election and 30% for tribunals.

These tribunals are explosive mine fields with no detectors for the location of the mines. One exasperated governor said to me that the tribunals are so powerful that they can change a man to a woman.

Victory at the tribunals lands the legislator at the hallowed chambers of the National Assem­bly. From day one, legislators walk into an en­tirely new set of challenges from their constitu­encies. Demands stretch from providing rice for Christmas and rams for Sallah; paying universi­ty school fees, hospital bills which can translate to funeral bills. The legislator is expected to set up his own stalwarts in business. One legislator summarized it appropriately when she said that the constituency sees the legislator as their ATM machine whose cash never runs dry.

This is a snap shot of how the system current­ly operates and the corruption pressure it puts on the practitioners. The corruption starts at the pri­maries and penetrates through the entire edifice. The poison is infectious. It looks like a system designed ab initio, to fail. The weak ones buckle and corruption perpetuates itself. The system is poisoned at birth. Can it be rectified? Yes!!!

It is not yet Uhuru; it is still possible to re-ori­ent our psyche and conduct elections in a truly free and fair manner. It is less than four years to the next election cycle and that is a short period in the life of a country. It is desirable that the President sets up a small but effective commit­tee made up of members from the three arms of government together with representation from civil society groups, students and trade unions to expeditiously take a look at our entire elec­toral process.

The current electoral act needs a complete overhaul. As a parting shot, an Igbo proverb rec­ommends that we start looking for a black goat while it is still daylight.

Concluded

-Dr. Mbadiwe writes from Abuja