BEVERLY HILLS, February 03, (THEWILL) – Since independence, Nigeria’s electoral turf has been laced with myriads of electoral frauds. Among these are rigging, violence, snatching of ballot boxes, and ballot surfing, bribery and connivance with electoral bodies. While the ghost of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election continues to hunt the nation, recent developments in Kogi and Bayelsa States governorship elections have shown that the time has come for a comprehensive reform of our electoral system.
In Bayelsa, electoral violence took a twist, leading to cancellation of elections in the entire Southern Ijaw and the attendant supplementary election. The inconclusive elections came on the heels of similar experiences in Abia, Imo and Taraba States in the April 2015 elections. The death of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Abubakar Audu, while the results were being collated, has opened a new vista in our election process. His death and replacement with Yahaya Bello created a lacuna in the nation’s Constitution and the Electoral Act.
Apart from the controversies that followed, another abnormality cropped up as Bello was sworn-in without a deputy. That was the first time such would happen in the history of Nigeria. Erstwhile deputy to Audu, Hon. James Faleke, had declined to play a second fiddle to Bello, insisting he is the governor-elect. Later in the year, other governorship elections would hold in Edo and Ondo States. It is feared that any of the regular electoral frauds may again play up to challenge the current stance.
THEWILL calls on government to urgently commence the process of reforming our electoral processes. The vexed electoral absurdities experienced over the years, should guide the canvassed amendments, including other mundane issues hitherto thought to be impossible in our nascent democracy. The necessity of a reform is justified by the little gains that arose from INEC’s introduction of customized ballot papers in the 2015 elections. That innovation reduced the age-long incidents of ballot box snatching during elections.
The reforms must look into both intra and inter party relationships, particularly the rancorous conduct of party primaries, which have been identified as one of the causes of electoral violence. Also to be considered in the reforms are ways to check the do-or-die mentality of politicians, which encourages all kinds of schemes and malpractices during elections.
THEWILL wants government to narrow the time frame between conclusion of elections and swearing-in of winners. This would stop the trend whereby those who fraudulently win elections assume office, while the rightful owners fight the battle of their lives at the tribunals. For instance, the courts recently upturned the elections of some governors and members of states/national assemblies. We restate our earlier call for the setting up of elections tribunal, so that electoral disputes can be settled speedily.
Government should also consider the use of electronic voting as a way of reducing rigging. It is imperative too, that the electorates be given an opportunity to monitor the performance of their elected officials. This should include the power to recall any elected official considered inefficient in the delivering of dividends of democracy to the electorates.
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