Date: 2012-04-21

I contested for office of governor of Kwara State at the last election under the banner of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). My party and I challenged the results of that election all the way to the Supreme Court and the outcome of that challenge is all too well known. That is a matter for another day.

I am here motivated by how I felt while innocuously watching A.I.T on March 25. I cannot remember what I was watching, but I remember the breaking news items that were rolling in at the bottom of my television screen:

1 "President Jonathan congratulates Macky Sall, says its triumph for democracy and that by that election the Senegalese people have confirmed that their democracy is a mature one."

2 "Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade concedes defeat and congratulates Sall."

3 "Ghana to start a six-week biometric voters' registration exercise for the December 2012 general elections."

While these breaking news items were coming in, I saw Prof Attahiru Jega hosting a two-day African Election Managers' Conference in Abuja. Addressing the participants, the Vice President, on behalf of President Jonathan, told the gathering that: 

"When we invest the electoral process with credibility and transparency, we would be able to effectively overcome the adverse implications of political and governance crises. Enduring peace and stability would necessarily engender growth and economic development."

Jega on his part said the conference was aimed at replicating best practices, facilitating exchange of information and encouraging development of professionalism in the continent's electoral process.

On the Internet, I came across a statement issued on behalf of Wade that went as follows:

"My dear compatriots, at the end of the second round of the vote, the current results indicate that Macky Sall has won. It is the whole country that has just won… this is a big moment for democracy and President Abdoulaye Wade has respected the voice of the people".

The context of Sall's victory and Wade's exemplary concession is worth examining. Wade was elected President in 2000 for a seven-year term. In 2001, a new constitution was adopted which limited the tenure of the President to five years and set a term limit of two terms. In 2007, Wade was re-elected for another five-year term. By a constitutional amendment in 2008, the Presidential term was increased back to seven years. In 2009, Wade indicated that he would run for a further term, "if God gives me a long life." He was 83 at the time. This provoked widespread protests and precipitated a constitutional legal battle. Wade argued, and Senegal's Supreme Court agreed, that he was entitled to run for a "third" term, as, according to him, he was not caught by the limit of two terms set by the 2001 Constitution, as he was elected for his first term under the old constitution. 

Sall was Wade's political protégé and to Wade he owes his political career. He held various cabinet positions under Wade, leading to his becoming Prime Minister from 2004 - 2007 and President of the National Assembly from 2007 - 2008. Significantly, Sall had also been the director of Wade's re-election campaign for the 2007 Presidential elections. The two men were close but they fell out over the handling of public funds by Karim, the President's son, and over the widely held belief that Karim was being groomed to succeed his father. 

No outright winner emerged after the first round of voting, and in the ensuing run-off election, Sall won with the support of his defeated opponents (there were no less than eight of them, including the support of the disqualified candidates, one of whom was the world renowned musician Youssou N'Dor. 

Closer to home Ghana has commenced a biometric voters' registration exercise ahead of its general elections in December. On the website of the Electoral Commission of Ghana is information on how long the registration process would take; where to register (registration points, demarcations of electoral constituencies and polling units are stated); how to vote etc. It even contains the challenges made since 1995 by voters and political parties to the voters' register. But what I found most instructive is the fact that the website contains voters' registration figures since 1992 and the results for every Presidential and parliamentary election since 1992.

Would a Mackay Sall in Nigeria have been able to successfully challenge and defeat his mentor, the incumbent President? Memories of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar"s travails in 2007 at the hands of former President Obasanjo for daring to vie for the Presidency are still fresh in our minds. Had Mackay Sall been a Nigerian, would the EFCC & Co. not have been used to thwart his ambition? Would he not have been vilified as a traitor? And in the unlikely event that he was able to mount a challenge and win, would he have been declared winner? Memories are again fresh of June 12, 1993 when M.K.O Abiola won what was widely regarded as the freest and fairest elections in Nigeria. He was never declared winner. Rather, the elections were annulled. Since a Mackay Sall in Nigeria would never have been declared winner in the first place, the question of the incumbent calling to congratulate him is clearly fantasy.

And what about INEC? Its website is pathetic and is a national embarrassment. Unlike that of Ghana's Electoral Commission that is packed with necessary and useful information, INEC's website has next to nothing and what it has is of very little use. Under the caption "Voters' Registration" all you will find are two speeches by Jega in 2010, espousing the need for a credible voter's register and that conducting a credible election is a national emergency. Whilst Ghana openly parades its voters' registration list on the Internet and even publishes challenges made to that register, in Nigeria our own register is shrouded in secrecy. To date, INEC is yet to publish an authoritative figure on it and how it was arrived at. INEC's website has no results for the April 2011 elections, not to talk of those of earlier elections. The only results you will see are those for the recently concluded governorship elections in Kogi and Adamawa and those of the Rivers East Senatorial re-run elections. Yet foreign-hosted websites have published the results of the April 2011 general elections. 

Ghana, we've seen, is going through a biometric voters' registration exercise to ensure that the electoral system delivers one-man, one-vote. This is an irreducible minimum deliverable for any credible electoral system. This is what Professor Jega was supposedly appointed to deliver after the fiasco of Maurice Iwu's 2007 elections. Jega was given a whopping N87 Billion (about US$585 Million at the prevailing exchange rate at that time) in August 2010 for that purpose. Although our fingerprints were taken during voters' registration, biometrics played absolutely no part in the elections with the result that the basic deliverable of one-man, one-vote was not and could not have been delivered. Since then what has happened to that effort? INEC has told us nothing and nobody is asking.

Surely, it cannot be that we lack the ability and resources to deliver such a credible electoral system. If countries like Ghana and Senegal can do it, why can't we?  We are fond of calling ourselves giants of Africa and we arrogantly claim superiority over everyone else on the continent, yet we are light years behind several of these countries in our attitude to elections and with our electoral system.

What is really lacking is the political will. How many of our political office holders today owe their positions to legitimate election results? How many would be elected if we had conducted our elections on the principle of one-man, one-vote? 

Prof Jega has been quoted a few times as saying "we are doing our best"; "the electoral law today does not allow for electronic voting". These are puerile excuses. Jega was appointed to deliver a credible electoral system that meets or at least comes close to international best standards. Can anyone honestly say that the 2011 elections were an N87 Billion improvement on Maurice Iwu's highly discredited 2007 elections? N87 Billion is a colossal amount of money. For public accountability and transparency, a full and frank account of how that money was spent ought to be published and subjected to debate.

Today, electoral malpractices are no more about violence and thuggery, but about multiple thumb printing and falsification of results. None of this can be carried out without INEC's complicity. INEC records the results, INEC announces them. The only exception is the farcical situation where Professors are brought in to act as returning officers. This in itself is the height of deception. There is nothing professorial about that role as the hapless Professors merely read out the results they have been given. Therefore, today, elections cannot be successfully rigged without INEC's involvement. 

The Electoral Act and our criminal law contain a whole range of offences that cover acts of electoral malpractices. High-profile prosecution and conviction of some erring INEC officials would send out a strong message to the public that INEC means business and would also serve as a deterrent to other electoral officers. 

Also INEC ought to conduct a postmortem of the 2011 elections and evaluate its own performance. In every election petition that was filed, INEC was made a party and there were allegations (meritorious and unmeritorious) against it. Whilst most of the petitions did not succeed, their failure do not amount to an affirmation or praise for INEC's conduct. INEC ought to look into each and every allegation made against it in each case and take steps to address them. The dismissal of an election petition does not equate to a pass mark for INEC's conduct of the election. INEC must engage in some self-examination and recrimination if it is to improve its performance.

Without deluding ourselves, we cannot in all honesty say that we have an electoral system that is capable of delivering credible and genuine results. And we cannot create one with mere platitudes. The President and Jega's speeches show that they fully appreciate the value of a credible electoral system to the proper functioning and development of the country, but so far, their will to deliver such a system is questionable. The period between elections is the time to improve and perfect the system. That period is now. A fire brigade approach months before the next general elections will not give Nigerians the electoral system that we can be proud of. 

Just as the James Ibori conviction by a London Court is an ugly slur on our morality and values and our standing in the comity of nations, so also is a deliberately inept electoral system. We must therefore act now.

By Mohammed Dele Belgore