Recurring pitfalls in elections

In the buildup to Edo governorship election 2024, the major concern was whether law enforcement agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would remain above board and stay neutral. It is not only INEC and law enforcers that are responsible for bad elections; political parties and their supporters also complicate electoral processes. However, where INEC and the police act with utmost integrity, chances are that margins of error and mischief would be minimal.

For an off-season election, with 35,000 policemen and another 8,000 military and personnel of other agencies on ground, including accredited observers from the civil society bodies, it was thought the exercise should be sufficiently transparent and without complications. But at the end of the day, there are allegations of disruptions, inflated votes, vote buying and undue interference by law enforcers. Independent observers have also testified that the election was not free and fair.

It’s a shame that despite promises to deliver a credible contest in 2024, Edo could not live up to the standard recorded in 2020. The 2020 governorship election was less complicated and contentious. The counting was smooth and by Sunday afternoon, the final tally was announced. There was no reason to delay collation and transfer the process from one centre to another.

It’s much like, instead of attaining progress electorally, each election turns out to be more nightmarish than the previous, despite the deployment of more technology and funding. Complications begin with primaries of the political parties. For parties that have clout and proven capacity, their tickets are well priced and parties often get it wrong at this point, putting wrong candidates on the ballot and doing anything possible to defend their decision.

When primaries go awry, there is a tendency for that to affect parties’ electoral chances. It might be remote, but nonetheless it is a pitfall parties have not overcome. Matters tend to get compounded when INEC that should be the unbiased referee gets boxed in a tight corner, either by law or by collusion.

When Justice Ephraim Akpata (1927-2000), former Justice of the Supreme Court and Dr. Abel Guobadia (1932-2011), educator, administrator and diplomat,superintended INEC between 1998 and 2000 and 2000-2005 respectively, political parties were not as brazen in the manner they manipulate and intervene in processes.

Back then, INEC was more detached and less supple. There used to be an INEC that commanded greater authority and enforced stricter compliance to rules. Those were days when INEC’s presence at party primaries was a must for the process to pass. These days, the laws have been engineered to make it look like INEC’s presence at parties’ primaries is a needless meddling, just to aid party’s imposition of candidates and enable shady replacements.

In those days, there was nothing like a ‘place-holder’, which is the phantom candidate created and presented to INEC, until whatever time the party unveils the real candidate. All that is made possible because of the fluid timetable the law provides to accommodate shenanigans and indiscipline. INEC condones this laxity.

With the connivance of lawmakers, parties can now choose from three primaries as packaged in the Electoral Act, 2022. Section 84 (2) of the Electoral Act permits parties to nominate candidates for elective positions by direct, indirect or consensus. It is not a bad idea that there are choices for parties to select from, but what parties do with the freedom to pick candidates is the matter here. Their capacity to do mischief is greatly enhanced by the provision. Depending on the mood, parties can use whatever primary mode to enhance a candidate’s chances and frustrate others. The devil is in the details.

It can be explained that today’s INEC has more work to do supervising 18 rascally political parties (they were close to 100), and is probably overworked. It could also be argued that in the past, there were just three parties and INEC paid a lot attention because of the urgencyfor democracy to survive. The Federal Government even subsidised party funding at the time. Now that democracy has survived, stakeholders are taking it for granted and the regulator appears shy to enforce discipline, particularly unruly behaviour during parties’ primaries.

In the case of Edo governorship election 2024, the three leading parties had issues with their primaries, a development that raised the stakes and heightened the desperation. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), failed to bring on board all contestants for the primary election. Instead, there were parallel primaries, which is still being contested in the court. That did not stop the national leadership from deciding which faction to endorse, unable to put the house together to project a formidable campaign and voter mobilisation.

The All Progressives Congress (APC), similarly had parallel primaries from which emerged different claimants to the party’s ticket. The one who was sent by Abuja to manage the process, Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, did a hopeless job of it. The national chairman of the party, former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, cluelessly and hurriedly endorsed Uzodimma’s one-sided job. That left the party polarised, until President Tinubu stepped in and the two factions were reconciled to form a joint ticket. That saved the day and the party went to the field with one voice.

The Labour Party (LP), was also polarised and the candidate that got the ticket of the party only represented a faction of the party. The point is that, apart from the APC that managed to paper over its cracks, PDP and LP went into the contest with serious internal injuries.

The afflictions parties brought upon themselves weakened them before the election proper. The PDP was highly fragmented in the homebase. The fragmentation was made worse by the fusion and entanglement of the parties. Both APC and PDP in Edo, for instance, look like two sides of a coin, minus the personalities’ clashes.

Until election day, some voters couldn’t make up their minds on which party has the authentic message and which was lying. Voters deserve a clarity of election messaging and where parties stand on key issues. It was also a problem disaggregating the parties based on their antecedents. Labour Party promised a breath of fresh air, but the people were very clear on the direction geo-political dynamics pointed. That was crucial.

One convoluted situation people in Edo North needed to manage was the nomination of Omobayo Godwin, to replace Deputy Governor Philip Shuaibu in April 2024. The nominee used to be a Labour Party candidate in the 2023 elections. If Governor Obaseki intended to use that as a bait to win votes in parts of the North, that 11th hour appointment was not sufficient to obliterate his dismal performance in the North. From the result posted by INEC, the APC worn majority in the North, suggesting, perhaps a miscalculation.

Sadly, in the midst of the confusion in Edo PDP, all the national leadership in Abuja could do was to incompetently and arrogantly assume that some people don’t matter. Just the same way they mismanaged their outing in 2023 presidential election, from which they apparently haven’t learned lessons. Big shame.

As for INEC, the Edo Scenario got people remembering the recommendations of the Justice Mohammed Uwais committee on electoral reform, particularly on the appointment of INEC chairman and Resident Electoral Commissioners.

There were complaints in July that card-carrying members of APC were nominated into INEC. That was not the first time and similar complaints in the past didn’t seem to bother lawmakers who ended up endorsing the nominations.

Before the election, there were complaints that the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Edo State, Anugbum Onuoha, is a cousin of FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike. The PDP complained that it didn’t have confidence in his ability to conduct a free and fair election in the state, and asked for his redeployment.

Indeed, being Wike’s cousin does not automatically mean the REC will work in favour of Wike, who is now estranged with Obaseki and Edo PDP, but fairness demands that where there is an iota of doubt in a contest, no matter how remote,it must be sufficiently addressed. It seemed unwise that INEC did not make sense of PDP’s complaint.

Before the 2027 elections, this is the time to vigorously campaign and insist on further electoral reforms, particularly the fundamental aspect of INEC’s independence, not just in name and funding. Nigeria needs an INEC that can call the bluff of any party in government as well as recruit electoral officers that are willing to step aside for the good of the nation.

If politicians continue to lobby for positions in INEC the same way they lobby for ministerial and board appointments, then this democracy can’t go too far. There should be a process to democratise appointments into INEC.

Law enforcers deserve commendation in their management of the election, to the extent that it was violence-free and no casualty was recorded, despite threats.There are, however, emotional casualties that must be accounted for.

The show of force displayed by security personnel before, during and after the election was a form of psychological drubbing, depending on the side it is viewed from. It’s high time electoral processes are civilianised. Minimal security is recommended but that depends on the level of civilisation politicians and their parties are willing to display. Apart from allegations of buying and inflating votes, there were no reported cases of physical assaults, threats and intimidation of voters. That’s fair.

However, the decision by INEC and the police to move the collation of results from Oredo and Ikpoba-Okha local government centres, to the State Collation Centre, Benin, is one that must be explained with forensic evidence.

INEC’s explanation that the movement was to protect ballot boxes and collation sheets doesn’t add up. There was no prior report of any threat and if there was, all stakeholders, including the media and civil societies should have been notified. Let’s get serious!