COLONIAL governments determined the security and orderly governance of colonial societies. From this structure of the provinces of the British Empire arises the statecraft challenges of the post-colonial society of independence Nigeria.

THE anti-historically impatient analysts may question the base line chosen for the identification of the issues addressed in these election reform series. There is good reason why the choice of the colonial as base is the relevant empirical base. The reason is that Nigeria’s transition from colonial condition to the post-colonial was evolutionary and that post- colonial changes in the structures and functions of our inherited institutions have been adaptive.

AMIN, a Uganda soldier became President of Uganda for eight years (1971-1979). He came from the Kakwa people of the West Nile area, in the far north of Uganda near the DRC and Sudan borders. For several decades many Kakwas and various other Sudanese peoples (together called “Nubis”) served in the British colonial army.

BOTH the old rulers and the rulers-in-waiting ruled the same society, the colonial province of Nigeria. On September 2, 1957 Tafawa Balewa became the first Prime Minister of the British Colony, Nigeria. After the 1959 Independence elections he became on October 1, 1960, the first transitional Prime Minister voted for in colonial Nigeria and to be Prime Minister of an independent Nigeria. The federal election in 1964 was the first organised by the Federal Government of an independent Nigeria.

THE importance of this issue will now be apparent as in retrospect we appreciate the fact of one party rule in Africa’s first two decades of independence. Similar conditions produce the supplanting of these one-party rule systems by military rule.

I HAVE found it and still find it difficult to think of Stanley in past tense. There are many angles to the man and his is like that story of several blind men asked to describe an object called elephant.

THE elections were not primarily for selection of persons for office in the colonial government but for the transfer of ownership of the British colonial estate from the British Government to Nigerian colonial parties organised to contest the elections.

FOLLOWING the coup d’ etat of July 23, 1952 which replaced King Farouk with General Neguib, Amer was appointed director of the New Head of State’s office. He became a Major-General the following year and from then on until 1958 was Commander-in-Chief of Egypt’s armed forces. Promoted Field Marshal in 1957, he served from 1958 to 1962 as Commander-in-Chief of the United Arab Republic Forces.

THESE election series deal with eight issues two of which have already been addressed. Issue No.3 is how to constitutionalise and democratise election party competition over control of government.

THE Elections were not primarily for selection of persons for office in the Colonial Government but for the transfer of ownership of the British Colonial Estate from the British Government to Nigerian Colonial Parties organised to contest the elections.

IN my “Addressing The 2011 Elections” serialized in the Tuesday Platform, issues of electoral reforms in Africa in general, and in Nigeria in particular were as listed ending with the quoted conclusion. These issues are:

MO IBRAHIM is one of Africa’s global leaders who has not merely stayed at the sidelines wringing his hands in despair about Africa’s travails. Through his foundation he has set out to provide a platform for encouraging good leaders in and out office.

TRANSITIONAL elections are thus only one of several ways of effecting reform of the political order. Separatist movements are another way of achieving the same result. Revolutions are another way of effecting change of political order.

IT is this impatience with strategies and statecraft that informed the political thinking of our first generation politicians roundly outclassed by the shrewd British independence: Granting politicians with whom they sat to negotiate independence contracts.

A NATIONAL newspaper of February 25, 2010 had the following blurb on its last page.
Carson to INEC : “Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has performed poorly over the past decade and has not served the interest of Nigeria well… I stressed that Nigeria’s next presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for April 2011 must be credible. They must be free, fair and transparent and they must be a significant improvement over the country’s 2007 presidential election, which were deeply embarrassing and deeply flawed”.