November 5, 2012
In view of the relative successes recorded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in the recent governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States, stakeholders suggest staggered system for future elections in the country. RAZAQ BAMIDELE writes:
The recent governorship elections conducted in three states in Nigeria were not planned. They were as a result of political accident. The states were Anambra, Edo and Ondo. Governor Peter Obi of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), started the process in 2006 when he sent packing through legal processes Dr. Chris Ngige of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who was earlier declared winner of the 2007 governorship election in Anambra State.
And since the constitution stipulates that an elected governor’s tenure starts the very day he takes the oath of office, Obi had to spend his four years which terminated in 2010. Ngige has spent over three years in office before he was shown the way out. After Obi, Adams Oshiomhole of the then Action Congress (AC), now Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), also followed the footsteps of Obi by displacing, Professor Osarem Osunbor, also PDP from the Edo Government House.
Later, it was the turn of Dr. Abdur-Rahaman Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party to show Dr. Olusegun Agagu the way out from office through legal processes also. Later, it was the turn of Ekiti, where Dr. John Olukayode Fayemi (ACN) shoved aside Mr. Olusegun Oni (PDP), and and the State of Osun, where Ogbeni Abdur-Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola (ACN), gave Prince Olagunsoye Oyinloa (PDP) a legal pinfall, to toe the same line the aforementioned trio had earlier toed.
Right now, the first three, Obi, Oshiomhole and Mimiko had gone through second term in office elections on different days thereby set the stage for staggered elections in the country. Other affected states are Adamawa, Sokoto, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers and Kogi. These states had staggered elections as a result of the Supreme Court judgement that upheld the elections of the governors in the state. And going by the level of credibility those elections commanded, some stakeholders now show preference for staggered elections to a lump some arrangement where governorship elections are conducted throughout the country on the same day.
A lawyer and National Convener of the Coalition of Democrats for Credible Election (CODER), Mr. Ayo Opadokun described the idea as a welcome one, saying “It is in our interest to work out an arrangement which would enable us to quarterize in a very staggered way where elections would hold.” His submission: “In the very good nature of what happens, particularly in credible environments where they also run presidential system, elections are staggered there. In India which is the biggest democracy in the world, elections are staggered to almost six to eight weeks to conclude. The North-west votes today, South-west tomorrow and so on.
And in the United States of America (USA), state governorship elections are not conducted the same day. Not at all. Each zone has its time for its governorship election.” The consequence of that, according to the former Afenifere scribe is that it reduces the crisis of gross inadequacies during elections, insisting that “it is of greater interest of our electioneering for our elections to be staggered so that there would be proper monitoring and greater attention and focus are guaranteed in the parts of the country where elections are holding.”
He stated that “We are not doing ourselves any good by wanting to hold our elections in one day, querying wheter there is any scientific explanation for what Nigeria has been doing. “I cannot see, however, how we can hold credible election in this country because the logistics is hazardous. It is very difficult to manage because of the size. It is in our interest to work an arrangement out which would enable us to quarterize in a very staggered way where elections would hold.
It is better opportunity to put in place better logistics arrangement that would help us produce better election results and guarantee sufficient security” he suggested. Another contributor to the debate is the General Secretatary of the Conference of Nigeria Political Party (CNPP), Chief Willy Ezugwu who said the process would help to gradually reform and transform the electoral processes and institutions.
Though the Founder and President of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Fredrick Fasehun subscribes to the idea of staggered future election in the country, he expressed apprehension that the process might be too expensive to handle. His words: “If our political programme allows staggered elections, let us have it. This is because the trouble we always have during general elections can be avoided in staggered elections. Everybody thought that Ondo State would go up in flames in the just held governorship election. But it came out to be one of the most well conducted elections in the country.
But the factors that guaranteed security of the exercise in both Edo and Ondo States were very costly factors. “As it is, Nigeria is spending billions of naira to sustain Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Would we be able to sustain the body if the elections were to be staggered across the 36 states of the federation and Abuja? If we could spend a lot on Ondo State alone, can we be able to cope with the huge amount that would be involved if we were to stage the elections in ten states at a time? Do we have the manpower?
These are the factors we have to consider. “But however, where political accident makes staggered elections inevitable, then, there is nothing we can do about it. But to deliberately organize staggered elections, it would be very expensive, time consuming and energy sapping. And Nigeria does not have the manpower. Or else, because of the security aspect of it, it is what everyone of us would have preferred.” In his own view, the National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Mallam Shetima Usman Shetima would like only the governorship election to be staggered suggesting that “that of the President should be left to hold throughout the country the same day.
Hear him: “I am against staggering of the Presidential election. A law can then be made that the governorship ones be staggered to give room for proper monitoring and to guarantee that the most popular candidate wins at the end of the day. What happened recently in Edo and Ondo States has clearly shown that the wish of the people will prevail if proper monitoring and adequate security is put in place. It will also frustrate the efforts of the evil minded politicians, who might have wanted to hide under a chaotic atmosphere to perpetrate electoral malpractices.”
The Secretary-General of a monitoring group, Centre for Ethics, Democracy and Development (CEDAD), Mr. Gbega Soloki also admitted that the system is good but too expensive.? Speaking out of experience, the youthful activist said “from the experience so far gathered during my monitoring of elections in Nigeria, I have discovered that it is very expensive,” admitting however that “staggered elections are potent weapons in checkmating rigging and electoral malpractices in our polity.”
According to him, all eyes would be on the states in which the elections are holding, adding that “there will be proper monitoring of the electioneering from the selection to the final process and so my take is that staggered elections will be more beneficial to our democracy.” But former governor of the old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa vehemently disagreed saying it would be so expensive that the resources of the country would suffer.
To Musa a truly independent INEC would do the magic asking whether the present INEC as it was constituted is truly independent, stating that the present leadership of the electoral body cannot refuse to do the biddings of the executive if the latter wants to manipulate it. “If we hav e a truly independent electoral body, our elections will be credible without staggering them,” he submitted as a matter of fact.
SOURCE: 6 November 2012.
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