By Alfa Belgore

There is a lot to reflect upon in what Ake has stated. Is western type democracy and its mechanics impossible to inculcate in our environment? We however need not agree completely with the suggestion of futility of democratic processes in this part of the world. The successes so far in Ghana, our next door neighbour, would seem to indicate otherwise.

And so, with this background that I have already given, I will like therefore like to discuss this lecture by taking you through the following sub-heads briefly-  History of elections and electoral bodies; . Elections and 1999 Constitution; . Electoral Act 2006; . Key proposals of Justice Uwais Report; . Political behaviours-politicians and state actors; finally, Which way forward?

History of elections and electoral bodies

Let us now look at the electoral body as a key stakeholder in the process. We have had electoral chair persons like Mr Eyo Esua, Chief Michael Ani, Justice Victor Ovie Whiskey, Prof. Eme Awa, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, Chief Dagogo Jack, Prof. Edet Uya, Justice Ephraim Akpata, Alhaji Shehu Musa, Chief Abel Guobadia, Prof. Maurice Iwu and now Prof Attahiru Jega.

All these are eminent Nigerians and patriots in their own right. The electoral institution has itself transmuted and undergone several re-inventions. In 1959 it was the colonial Electoral Commission of Nigeria- ECN that organised the independence election. Then it became Federal Electoral Commission- FEC after independence which handled the 1964/65 elections under Mr Esua.

In 1978 General Obasanjo established Federal Electoral Commission but tagged it FEDECO under Chief Michael Ani. General Babangida’s government renamed the body National Electoral Commission in 1987 that conducted the 1990, 1991 and 1993 elections. General Sani Abacha the set up in 1995 NECON National Electoral Commission of Nigeria and for now, finally in 1998 General Abdulsalami Abubakar set up INEC that we have today.

In comparison to  what is known as western democracies, elections for political offices do not have that much of a long history in Nigeria. From tentative beginnings with very limited suffrage, that is the right to vote, under the Clifford’s Constitution of 1922 which provided for only four elective positions in the then Nigerian Legislative Council, electoral effort  steadily began to grow. This was followed by the Richards Constitution of 1944 which at the time made provisions for Regional Assemblies even as it retained the four elective positions.

The Macpherson Constitution again further expanded the sphere of electoral activities by additional creation of Regional Councils. So Nigeria really, has had pre-independent electoral exercises from that early period to the much broader ones of 1951, 1954, 1956 and 1959. In some sense, because most of these were clearly supervised by the colonial administrators, large measures of objectivity and balance in the conduct of those elections resulted in minimal disputes if any.

However, the first post independent election of 1964/1965 can be classed as the very beginning of the ‘do-or-die’ electoral warfare in Nigeria.  Every shade of abuse and subversion were brought into play. For example, denial of permit for campaigns or rallies to opposition parties,  thuggery, ballot box stuffing and snatching, violence at poling centres, falsification of results, arrest and detention of opponents, physical elimination of opponents, arson, etc. The whole idea was often to return as many of your parties candidates as possible ‘unopposed’. Each party tried to out do the other party in rigging the votes and election in order to retain political power at all cost.

The political parties at the time were the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens-NCNC, Northern Peoples Congress-NPC, Action Group- AG. These parties had some alliances before and after, for example NCNC/NPC alliance; later NCNC/AG alliance which became UPGA (United Progressive Grand Alliance); NPC/NNDP (Nigeria National Democratic Party) which became NNA-Nigeria National Alliance. The electoral processes were thus theatres of violence, deceit and confusion.

To take an account from Okoi Arikpo in his ‘Development of Modern Nigeria’ as quoted by Professor Yemi Osinbajo recently, ‘The most notorious example of this travesty was the case of a man who won the election in one of the Owo constituencies; his NNDP opponent was declared the victor. He thereupon announced that he had upon deep reflection decided to join NNDP. A few days later after this announcement, the electoral commissioner declared him the successful candidate and quietly dropped his opponent’ .

This we know was the scenario in the country and the subsequent ugly events that followed; the famed ‘wild-wild-west’, break down of law and order and massive civil disobedience which precipitated the military intervention in 1966. The Nigerian civil war followed those sequence of events, and after the ugly carnage of the war, the reconciliation exercise and the return to democratic governance in 1979.

In fact, on the state of affairs in the 1960s, Professor Ben Nwabueze noted that, ‘by the closing year of the Nigerian first republic, the institution of free elections, the cornerstone of democracy, had ceased to have any meaning in Nigeria, so blatantly had it been perverted. As long as an election posed any possibility of defeat for the government, the same perverse techniques perfected at every turn, would again be called into use to avert the imminence of defeat”
Since that era passed, we have had elections in 1979, 1983, 1993, 1999, 2003 and 2007.

The 1983 elections again lapsed into, and mostly recreated part of the extremes of the old ‘wild-wild-west’ particularly in Ondo and Oyo states, for example. In those states then, houses were burnt, many people including top politicians were killed in their homes , candidates of opposing parties were chased all over the place and many ran away for their dear lives. We remember that Chief Omoboriowo who was earlier declared the winner in Ondo State governorship election had to run from Akure to take refuge in Lagos. Again the military returned to take government that year after those terrible events.

The 1993 elections went on fairly well but the military annulled the June 12 Presidential election in their own wisdom. After that we have had elections in 1999, 2003 and 2007 only the 1999 elections can been said so far to be free from serious allegations of electoral disturbances or barefaced malpractices.

Now, even as we take a look at the period, upon which component of the electoral structure do we put the blame? Is it the citizens, that is the electorate? Is the blame to be placed on the enabling legislations or the government of the day? Do we simply put the failure on the  supervising agency? Admittedly, each must have played some role, but our focus to day is to begin to identify where to lay fresh emphasis for reform.
Electoral behaviour

At the end of the last 2007 elections, all manners of complaints were lodged by various aggrieved persons. Over three years after, we are still battling with the effect of many of the disputed outcomes. Some of those matters are still plodding their way through various stages of judicial inquiry. Without doubt, it is costing the nation and tax payers so much time, huge resources and uncertainties in the political arena. Every constituency in Nigeria would seem to have recorded one form of electoral abuse or the other, from all the available records.

Let me give you some examples of the complaints that were commonly made their presence before many tribunals with regards to the 2007 election apart from voter intimidation and release of doctored results, a. Presence of fictitious names in voters register- several example of unknown names in the register like Mike Tyson, Michael Jackson, etc; b. Existence of fake voters list- allegation of fake list prepared by some candidates or their sponsors; c. Possession of ballot boxes by politicians or their aides- ballot boxes stuffed and kept in private homes preparatory to the election date; d. Private printing of voters card-printing fake voters card by candidates of their sponsors; e. Stuffing of ballot boxes, using subterfuge and deceit to stuff ballot boxes with materials; f. Multiple voting- arranging for agreeable persons to vote as many times as possible; g.Underage voting- recruiting underage school children to vote

There were several other situations well documented by reporters and many observers, some of which are still before the law courts. The problems itemised above are known to have existed in 2003, and they were also there in some of the previous elections already mentioned here. What it shows is that not much progress has been made in terms of electoral culture. The perpetrators of these problems are certainly not foreigners but Nigerians; many of them attend lectures, workshops, seminars, etc where good electoral conduct are discussed but they will remain adamant.
Elections and 1999 Constitution

The 1999 Constitution has a preamble, eight chapters divided into 320 sections and seven schedules. It is not a perfect document and it needs be said that no constitution is ever perfect. What is required of citizens is to respect their constitution as the supreme law of the land and amend only when it is imperative to do so. The 1999 Constitution itself guarantees constitutionalism, federalism, justice and fairness. Even some of its provisions directs the state towards welfarist principles as in Chapter 2, fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.