By PROF. ATTAHIRU M. JEGA
Nigeria has for long been in constant search for effective electoral processes, as an integral part of its transition to democracy. A long history of badly or poorly conducted elections has, until recently, created profound scepticism amongst ordinary Nigerians about the utility of electoral democracy. The relative success of 2011 and, especially 2015 general elections, seem to have revived hope amongst Nigerians that with determined effort, their votes could indeed count. However, more efforts are required from all concerned to ensure that this hope is kept alive and that the renewed positive expectations and democratic aspiration of Nigerians are not ever again dashed.
Background and Context
I quite often say that, Nigerians have for long aspired and strenuously struggled for democracy as a suitable replacement for authoritarian military rule. This has been so from the 1970s until the late 1990’s when the so-called Fourth Republic came into being. There were many years of frustration and enormous sacrifices in these struggles, until they eventually culminated in the return to civil rule in 1999. The elections that brought the Fourth republic under President Obasanjo were really unremarkable and, at best, condoned by the international community and tolerated by Nigerians, only because they were perceived as heralding the dawn of a new democratic era, after a long spate of military rule.
Hopes and expectations that the new civilian government would pave the way for better governance that would satisfy the needs and aspiration of ordinary Nigerians overshadowed the flaws of the electoral process and the dynamics of the politics of transition under military rule, which circumscribed, if not Tele-guided, the elections.
However, as civil rule did not soon enough translate into good democratic governance, as peoples’ hopes and aspirations continued to be dashed by growing unemployment, increasing poverty, persistent insecurity and reckless misrule; and as the conduct of elections that were supposed to reflect ‘peoples’ power’ and choices of elected officials, became progressively worse, from one election to another, for example from 2003 and 2007; popular anger, resentment and disappointment soon set in. Within a decade, doubt, despair and scepticism became pervasive.
Nigerians had high hopes that the Fourth Republic, beginning from May 1999, had ushered in a liberal democratic dispensation. In a liberal democratic dispensation, citizens look forward to elections as the opportunity to express choices in the determination of those to be elected into executive and legislative positions. Through the ballot box, rather than the bullet, citizens endeavour to either confer additional legitimacy to elected public officials through re-election or, in the alternative, to effect change by voting out those whom they perceive as having failed them and voting in those whom they perceive as being capable of better in managing the national economy, governing well, and addressing their needs and aspiration.
However, it soon became clear, in successive elections, that popular choices made by the people through the electoral process were easily truncated, such that periodic elections become rituals in which predetermined outcomes are declared; or the highest bidder bought the outcome; or the most reckless, using thugs or some elements in the security agencies, steals, or robs the votes. It increasingly became evident that citizens’ genuine choices through the votes did not determine electoral outcome. For example, “the 2003 elections, unfortunately, did not represent a substantive improvement over the 1999 elections, in terms of transparency and credibility. Rather, the elections at best represented “business as usual”, in terms of inflation of votes, fraudulent declaration of results, use of armed thugs to scare away or assault voters and cart away election materials and many other irregularities and illegalities, which were committed with impunity.
“The 2007 elections were manifestly the worst in Nigeria’s history, as declared by both domestic and international observers. The EU observer mission, for example, noted that the elections fell “short of basic international standards”, and were characterized by violence and crude use of money to buy votes. There was reckless mobilization of ethno-religious cleavages and heightened use of money and thugs to influence results. The pre-electoral processes, such as party primaries were conducted in grossly undemocratic fashion. In many cases, the results were said to have gone to the highest bidder. The winner of the presidential election, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, himself admitted on the day of his inauguration, that there were serious flaws in the election that brought him to power.
Arguably, in order to pre-empt a major crisis of legitimacy, given persistent demands for electoral reforms, he pledged to embark upon electoral reforms and subsequently inaugurated the Electoral Reform Committee, with the mandate to make wide-ranging recommendations for electoral reform in Nigeria.
The modest effort at electoral reform following the submission of the report of the Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais Electoral Reform Committee (ERC), as represented by the introduction of new legal and administrative reform measures, and the inauguration of a new Chairman and Commissioners, paved the way for remarkable improvements in the 2011 and especially the 2015 general elections.
They represented a turning point away from the history of badly conducted elections towards the satisfaction of the aspiration of Nigerians for free, fair, credible and peaceful elections.” (Jega, October 28, 2015). Beyond 2015, as Nigeria strives to consolidate democracy through good democratic governance, a major priority has to be on how to continue to ensure the effectiveness of the electoral processes in delivering free, fair, credible and peaceful elections. We have to continue to revive peoples’ hope and confidence in the electoral process; we have to strive hard to ensure that elections become credible avenues for people to determine who governs them through free and fair elections.
Factors Responsible for Effective Electoral Processes
There are many ways, through which to ensure effectiveness of the electoral processes. They include but are not limited to the following:
- Strengthening the electoral legal framework
Both the 1999 Constitution (as Amended) and the Electoral Act 2010 (as Amended) contain the essential elements of a sound legal framework for the conduct of elections in Nigeria. However, there is tremendous scope for improvement to ensure a more robust legal framework for greater effectiveness in the conduct of future elections. INEC has identified all the areas where improvements are needed in the Constitution and the Electoral Act and engaged the National Assembly.
Regrettably, no amendment came into effect before the 2015 general elections. We must do something long before 2019, so that subsequent bye-elections, long before the next general elections, could benefit from an improved legal framework. The earlier this is done the better.
- Professional competence and administrative capacity building
With the restructuring and reorganization of INEC after the 2011 elections, a lot of additional work is required for upgrading the professional competence of staff, through a range of capacity building and skills provisioning training programs. Rigorous training of both the permanent and temporary staff of INEC augurs well for efficiency and effectiveness in electoral services delivery.
- Increasing Knowledge-sharing amongst African EMBs
There are many good electoral practices amongst the African EMBs, which we can share with each other. There is indeed even scope for sharing electoral resources, in addition to sharing knowledge and experiences (Jega, November 10, 2015). INEC should play a leading role in driving this and other mutually beneficial initiatives.
- Strengthening financial autonomy of the Commission
To a large extent, effectiveness of electoral processes is conditional on availability of financial resources to deliver efficient services consistent with international minimum benchmarks and global best practices. Electoral processes cannot be effective if an EMB is starved of funds and/or has to go cap in hand to an incumbent executive begging for funds before it can conduct an election.
The financial autonomy of INEC needs to be strengthened. It should continue to be on first line charge and have all its funds released through the statutory transfer fund as appropriated by the National Assembly. Subjecting an electoral Commission to the so-called single treasury account, I believe, is a recipe for disaster.
- Increased Engagement with Stakeholders
Bringing about free, fair and peaceful elections is not the business of INEC alone. All stakeholders and indeed all citizens have important roles to play. Thus, constant engagement with all the ranges of stakeholders in the electoral process by the electoral commission is necessary. It helps to jointly review issues and challenges and find acceptable solutions to them.
Regularised and periodic meetings between INEC and political parties, civil society organisations, Security agencies, development partners, and many others, between 2011 and 2015 helped to build trust and confidence, as well as provide a platform of exchanges ideas and share information, all of which have tremendous value-added on the conduct of the 2015 general elections.
- Technology Adaptation for Transparency and Effectiveness
There is no doubt that increasing use of adaptable technology in carefully selected areas goes a long way to ensure transparency and effectiveness of the electoral processes. For example, use of technology for biometric registration of voters, for the issuance of smart permanent voters card (PVCs) to voters and for voter verification and authentication using the smart card reader, have all added value to the integrity of the 2015 general elections.
So has the initiative to scan and upload on a database all result sheets for all the elections, which were made accessible to all for some months after the elections. Thus, use of technology in general and ICT in particular has helped to address persistent challenges, such as multiple voting, inflation of the register and many other fraudulent activities, associated with the conduct of elections in Nigeria in the past.
There are however many challenges in the use of technology, which have to be constantly reviewed and addressed if the use of technology is to have the desired effect. Lack or inadequacy of original equipment manufacturers in our environment, and therefore, lack of local content, is a major challenge. Procurement has to be made abroad, with all the associated constraints of using vendors, licensing of software, repairs and spare parts replacement.
Another challenge has to do with security of data, whether in storage or while being transmitted via the Internet. Yet another has to do with matters of training of staff to acquire the requisite competencies for technology use.
INEC has had to grapple with all these in past five years or so, as it deployed technology in the electoral process leading to the 2015 general elections.
No doubt, in the years to come, as we strive to consolidate the discernable gains of, for example, the use of PVCs and Card Readers, in the Nigerian electoral processes, a lot of attention needs to be focused on addressing these challenges.
Conclusion
As the 2015 general elections clearly illustrate, Nigeria has come a long way in the improved effectiveness of its electoral processes. From an unwholesome situation of a series of poorly conducted elections, which created apathy and skepticism amongst the citizenry, we are beginning to see the culmination of determined reform efforts into better managed elections, with renewed or revived hope amongst the citizenry that their votes are beginning to count in electing their leaders.
What remains to be seen is how better elections would translate into good democratic governance, but the prospects are bright. When votes count, politicians sit up and listen; and begin to take into account with seriousness the needs and aspirations of the voters. They ignore the voters at their own electoral peril.
Even more significantly, the 2015 general elections point to the direction of enhancing the use of technology for greater effectiveness of the electoral processes. Use of technology is not without its challenges. Indeed, the challenges could be enormous. But they are not insurmountable, and they in no way diminish the need for improved and increased use of technology in our electoral system.
We therefore need to forge a strong stakeholder alliance for the consolidation as well as expansion the scope of the use of technology in the Nigerian electoral process for greater transparency and effectiveness in delivering free, fair, credible and peaceful elections.
Thank you.
Prof. Jega of the Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano, and the immediate Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), delivered this keynote lecture at the eNigeria conference 2015, in Abuja, organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).