Ojo: Elections postponement as devil’s option

LIKE a thunder in the bolt, the general elections originally scheduled for both February 14 and 28, 2014 have been shifted to March 28 and April 11, 2014. To the undiscerning, this may be nothing spectacular more so that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), would be ready to conduct the polls on the new dates. But conduct of the polls goes beyond the dates, it has to do with democratic sustenance and consolidation. In plural federal states like ours, election conduct enhances democratic sustenance cum national integration. It is not an issue that is handled with levity without taking adequate cognizance of its significance vis-à-vis a deeply divided and plural society like Nigeria.

    Since the advent of democratization in Africa in the 1990s, and in all regions and climes of the world, elections are a hallmark of democracy and an important instrument through which leaders are elected to public office. The idea of democratic self-government is incompatible with electoral farces. In the common phrasing, elections must be free and fair in order to pass as democratic.  No polity can be adjudged democratic if elections are not free and fair. 

  Undoubtedly, the election postponement was done in bad faith while the reasons offered could not hold water in this 21st century and in a country that got independence since 1960! Two major reasons were offered for the postponement while the third one so latent is known to all that is discerning too. INEC argued that it was not in control of security. In the words of the commission chairman, Prof. Jega, ‘whatever the commission does may not be sufficient to guarantee the success of elections. There are others like security which is not under the control of INEC’. What a beautiful argument but an outright negation of common sense. When the 2011 presidential election was concluded, better part of the northern parts of the country were engulfed in unprecedented post election violence related crisis. The concomitant effect happened to be the emergence of the much dreaded Boko Haram insurgents. Between 2011 till date, only God knows how many Nigerians have been murdered in cold blood. The new wave of insecurity does not convince anyone that Nigerian state is alive to its responsibility at all. To now postpone elections and hinge the reason(s) on security bothers much on paucity of ideas by the ruling elite in this country. As developed as the United States of America is, presidential elections do not hold same day. Election may be conducted on regional basis and result banked for final collation. If presidential election is staggered then there would have been no reason on earth why it should have been postponed even by one day. Agreed that the northeastern part of the country is currently being consumed by violence but what of the other regions that are at peace? The south-west, south-south, south-east, north-central, federal capital territory and the north-west? Logical reasoning should tell INEC that election could take place in those areas and result banked while security operatives may be moved to the troubled area for election to hold. Whatever argument anybody may like to put up, if election does not hold in any state or region for presidential election for that matter, the process becomes inconclusive and a serious stalemate which may give birth to political logjam ensues. In that wise, INEC, must ensure that it is not used for dirty job by the Federal Government. 

   Notably, the National Security Adviser Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) first released the salvo in far away London on the imperative of polls postponement. Nigerians don’t like being taken for a ride. To tie postponement to security reason is to tell that to the marines. If in the last four years, insurgency in the north could not be contained, what assurance(s) do we have that it will abate in just one month for election to hold? Another contradiction that puts our supposedly independent electoral body in a bad corner is the fact that they have danced to the tune of NSA! It ought to be INEC that should complain loudly about security for NSA to act swiftly but rather it is the other way round now. Logical reasoning dictates that security challenge that could not be resolved in four years may not be taken care of in six weeks. We wait and see how it plays out.

    INEC and their co-travellers should be told in clear language that the postponement is not good for democratic consolidation that we desire. It is an outright negation of the spirit of electoral reform initiated by the late President Musa Yar’Adua to have presidential election on March 28 and governorship poll on April 11 while handing-over is mandatorily May 29, 2015,  the time lag between the conduct of the elections and terminal date is less than a month! What happens to aggrieved candidates who may like to approach the election petition tribunal before the inauguration of a new government both at the state and federal levels? Alternatively, usurpers will hold forte while awaiting court judgments.  This was the case in Osun before Ogbeni Aregbesola was sworn in, similar scenario in Edo State before Oshiomhole came on board and Ekiti State too before Dr. Kayode Fayemi came in. This postponement has brought us back to pre-1999 era rather than democratic improvements.

   Beyond security matters, the commission has also been found wanting as regards adequate preparation for the polls. Ordinarily, the first step in conduct of a free and fair election, generally, is compilation of credible voters’ register. Perhaps because of the techno-economic structure of our society, the commission is greatly handicapped. Till date, millions of eligible voters are yet to collect their permanent voter card (PVC). When you have election where large chunk of the electorate are disenfranchised, the new government suffers seriously from what we call legitimacy crisis. Such government formed becomes their government rather than our government. If the last election was conducted in 2011, what reason on earth should hinder the electoral body from preparing adequately for 2015 polls! It is in Nigeria that we rationalize what is absurd. To import PVC from another country bothers on our lack of technological innovation. Why is South Africa not coming to us to import voters’ card. The crop of leaders at the federal level deserves to resign and go home for their inability to add value to the system. What hell is it to produce PVC and distribute in a week. This could have been done more than six months ago. But an electoral body that was starved of fund. which also complained loudly may have been programmed to fail whatever pretension to the contrary. The truth of the matter is that no matter how developed, no country has ever achieved hundred per cent voter turn-out. Thus if as much as 80% of the eligible voters got their cards election should hold. 

But alas! PVC has become so critical an issue to shift election nation-wide rather than determining what per cent got PVC for election to hold or not to hold.

  INEC and the Federal Government is taking a big risk with the democratic future of this country, more so that nothing should or can extend the tenure of the present occupant of public offices by one day as their signature becomes invalid after May 29, 2015. The 1999 Constitution does not make any provision for tenure extension or an interim contraption. Much care should be taken so that 2015 election  does not become an endgame eventually.

   May the good Lord endow our leaders with wisdom.

•Dr. ‘Gbade Ojo is a political scientist and currently Special Adviser on political matters to Governor  Ajimobi of Oyo State.