The Imperatives of Constitutional and Electoral Reforms in Nigeria

The Imperatives of Constitutional and Electoral Reforms in Nigeria

Burtonsville, MD, USA

INTRODUCTION

I am often engaged in vigorous discussions with Nigerian compatriots who argue that all Nigeria presently needs is a GOOD LEADER, some kind of messianic figure, to lead us to Eldorado. My argument always is that NO PERSON can rule Nigeria well the way it is presently constituted, and in any case HOW would we get such a person - or preferably PERSONS AT VARIOUS LEVELS of government - elected?

This is what has led me to this present discussion of constitutional and electoral reforms.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS ----------------------

No group of people can progress if they do not agree on certain RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, REWARDS for obeying such rules and PUNISHMENT for flouting them. For a nation, the "ground norm" for such rules is the NATIONAL CONSTITUTION, which, if it is to be obeyed with dignity and not flouted with impunity should be a PEOPLE'S CONSTITUTION, with input from and periodic changes by them, understood by them, and taught to them from cradle to grave.

Our present 1999 Constitution is now agreed by an overwhelming number of Nigerians to be UNSUITABLE for the kind of diverse-nations country that we are. It is the product of thirty five years of military rule less four years of civilian rule, exhibiting all the unitary features of such a military rule, in anti-thetical opposition to a truly federal structure.

I do not intend to go into the nitty-gritty of the reforms needed for our constitution - serious discussions are ongoing in the country - but simply to assert that whatever the course:

(i) the people must be involved INTIMATELY in the construction and approval of a new constitution. The semantic difference between "Sovereign National Conference" or simply "National Conference" is diversionary, because if the process is properly constructed, the final rubber-stamp approvers of the new document - the National Assembly - would be intimately involved in the formulation of the document. Nevertheless, no free citizens worth their self-esteem would allow a small group of people to simply tinker with decisions consciously and seriously arrived at: that is the concept of "sovereignty" which supporters of a Sovereign National Conference will continue to insist upon.

(ii) it must result in the greater devolution of power from the center to the states and local government. The present situation where Abuja deals with 36 governing state entities and 774 local government entities is absolutely unwieldy and militates against progress.

(iii) it must result in a justiciable and easily-understood Individual Bill of Rights and Responsibilities of the Nigerian citizen, which weds him or her proudly to the nation.

ELECTORAL REFORMS -----------------

Democracy takes many forms from nation to nation, but a PRIMA-FACIE feature of any democracy are elections, through which the people should be able to choose their representatives in a free (from intimidation) and fair (in deed and in truth) manner, and change them periodically.

The basic components of an electoral process are of course the CANDIDATES themselves, the PARTY PROCESS as well as the ELECTION(S) proper. Let us look at each of these in turn.

Identifying the Candidates --------------------------

First, how can we assure good candidates? In most places in the world, the order of importance in considering a candidate is:

(i) track record in -

(a) prior elected position; and/or (b) prior unelected (administrative or business) position; and/or (c) prior educational endeavors for those joining the electoral process for the first time.

(ii) new and innovative ideas (both vision and ability of articulation);

(iii) ability to raise and work in a team of implementors; this could be evident in the political party or a smaller select group of co-workers of the candidate.

(iv) access to money to campaign, part of which may or may not be needed to buy........

(v) patronage from influential (or wealthy) citizens in the community or party.

The problem in Nigeria is that our order of priority in identifying candidates is both virtually REVERSED and truncated as follows:

(i) money (considered as "investment" in the candidate); and (ii) patronage;

and that is it! In fact, in many situations, it is patronage followed by money.

I posit that if a SUCCESSFUL TRACK RECORD were used as a prima-facie basis, it would eliminate many failed school-certificate holders (e.g. many currently over-paid local government chairmen and councillors), failed businessmen and failed former heads of states from the Nigerian electoral scene. I bet you that NO candidate in the US or other developed country would avoid this particular kind of scrutiny and win, even if he or she perchance became a candidate.

Try building a house from the roof down, without certain ingredients, then see whether the two houses would not be much different!

Party and Electoral Process Reforms -----------------------------------

An equally important issue is that if the voters make a mistake their first time around, the electoral process should be such that they can change their representatives, and not have the situation where their unworthy representatives use money obtained corruptly during their representation to perpetuate themselves in power.

That is what is most frustrating about Nigeria, and why we need electoral reforms.

What are those reforms? I suggest ten of them:

1. The first part of electoral reform is to ALLOW INDEPENDENT CANDIDACY. By definition, an independent candidate operating outside a party will choose whether he wishes to accept patronage or not, and how much money that he will spend.

2. Another electoral reform is to ALLOW AS MANY PARTIES AS POSSIBLE. By forcing people into just two or three parties, the tendency is for DESPERATION to set in - hence seeking patronage and using money to grease one's way. The more parties there are, the greater the possibility that there will be a few of them that will eschew PATRONAGE and adopt IDEOLOGIES. A party system without ideology merely encourages patronage and opportunism.

3. A third issue is one of CITIZENS' PARTY MEMBERSHIP and FINANCE CONTRIBUTION, coupled with GOVERNMENT FINANCING of parties. Party membership in Nigeria right now seems confined to the money bags who finance virtually 99% of the party expenses, and hence the grassroots people are mere observers looking up from way down there! There should be demonstration of party membership and financial support, together with a cap on contributions by any one member (say N200,000?), followed by provisions for matching (one-to-one or even one-to-three as the case may be) from the government. These provisions should be followed by requirements for STRICT transparency in party accounts: no mago-mago, wuru-wuru!

4 Adequate time to register to vote (e.g. three months) must be provided.

5. Voter registers should be published two to three months ahead of time for all interested parties to have at hand and to verify randomly.

6. Staggered ELECTIONS. With three tiers of government, conducting all elections at once, with ALL elected government functionaries concerned about elections ALL AT THE SAME TIME creates a CIRCUS ATMOSPHERE. Each tier should conduct their elections in separate years, or one-third (or any determined fraction) of the elected candidates in each tier should be up for re-election during each year, so that we do not have a whole-sale turnover in governments throughout the country at the same time.

7. The notion of INDEPENDENT MONITORS at each and every polling station, including international ones, should be enshrined in the reforms, to verify AT THE VERY LEAST that the number of voters who show up at a given polling station equals the total number of votes cast for ALL CANDIDATES. The sad situation in our presidential elections in February 1999 where Jimmy Carter physically counted only 60 voters in a particular polling station, and yet soon thereafter there were 500 votes announced should never be able to be allowed to pass. Such a polling at that particular booth should have been CANCELLED, and such a strict compliance need not await the use of National Identification Cards.

8. The retention of ALL POLLING BOXES for at least a month after the elections to enable random checks for authenticity of results.

9. Traditionally disadvantaged states (eg due to low education or poor physical infrastructure) should be given special attention during elections to reduce suspicion of deliberate delays in announcing their election results.

10. The publication of a Voters Bill of Rights in as many languages as possible to explain to citizens that under no circumstances must their ability to vote be abridged.

CONCLUSION ----------

Nigerians are quick to point out that it is not some of these ideas are not already known by the powers that be, but that it is just that many gain from the chaos that exists by their non-implementation. That might well be - but that must not stop us from continuing to call for constitutional and electoral reforms. It certainly will not stop me. In fact, electoral reform in particular is a crusade that lawyer-activist Olisa Agbakoba of the United Action for Democracy (UAD) has embarked on through both legal and other means. Agbakoba has engaged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in some court suits, and is also circulating a signature drive in the newspapers asking for a number of the reforms listed above.

The cause needs our active support.

Have a good week.

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