Our new electoral umpire By Muyiwa Adetiba

Mahmood

Our electoral commission was in the news most of last week for all kinds of reasons. It was the week the name of the new electoral umpire was presented to the Council of States and subsequently to the nation. Regional positions that had lapsed were also filled with fresh names. It was also the week some election tribunals delivered landmark judgements in the South-South.
And for those who thought the Ekiti State election and the role the Army and Security Agencies played in the events leading to the gubernatorial election had gone the Nigerian way, last week was when the Government announced a revisit. And as if to draw some parallels and teach a lesson or two, it was also the week Canada announced the result of its national election.

First, the fact that there are so many petitions and tribunals shows that INEC at best, is still a work in progress. One can argue that Nigerians are bad losers and that the stakes are way too high for losers to just walk away. But I am yet to see any good loser anywhere in the world. Like the saying goes, a good loser is a loser; period.

I know many Canadians who are not pleased with the emergence of the young Trudeau as Prime Minister. Many felt he was too young and too soft to grapple with the problems confronting Canada. Many simply did not like his politics and wanted a continuation of the status quo. Many scoffed at his chances especially because he had a slow start.

But at the end of the day, he won fair and square to use the Nigerian cliché and the losers—good or bad—had no choice but to accept the result of the polls. What Canada, and many similar countries in the world have is a system, a process that lets you know if you have been chosen by the very people you want to serve. It is a system in the main, that is easy to follow, easy to understand, easy to implement and therefore easy to accept.

It is also not a system that depends so much on the integrity of the electoral boss or the magnanimity of the head of government. In fact, you hardly get to know the head of the electoral organisation. This is what we don’t have in our country. And this is precisely what we must strive to have – a system that is simple, effective and transparent. A system that does not cost an arm and a leg to set up and thus does not lead to financial compromise of the electoral officers.

A system that is not overly concerned with the tribe and private politics of its boss. A system that is allowed to do its work unhindered. Until then unfortunately, we have to worry and fret about things we should ordinarily have taken for granted.We have to worry about the integrity of whoever is chosen to head INEC. We have to make a fuss about his religion. We have to be concerned about his geo-political zone and the dominant politics of his zone.

We have to fret about his antecedents and his friends. I believe these, and many more, are the things the government of the day looks at when deciding who the next electoral umpire will be. Professor Mahmoud Yakubu is academically accomplished by any standard. In fact, his C.V indicates a very brilliant man. He also seems to have had requisite experience working for quasi-government organisations. On the face of it, he is a good fit.

But he is a Northerner and a Muslim, the same as the incumbent President who could be contesting in 2015.You cannot blame those who are concerned with where Prof.Yakubu’s sympathies might lie in a crunch situation. A government that is sensitive to the nuances of ethnic, religious and geo-political balancing would have chosen someone from the south, preferably from the South-East or South-South.

As an illustration -and this is not taking anything away from Prof. Jega’s character and efforts—would a change in government have been possible if the INEC boss for the 2015 election had been from the south? Especially South-East or South-South?

Now with the appointment of a Muslim Northerner as the INEC boss, the onus is on the Federal Government to de-emphasise the position of the chief electoral umpire by setting up a clearly transparent system that allows the true will of the people to triumph. President Buhari knows what it is to contest for an election and lose in a manner that is far from fair and free. He should not allow it to happen to anybody else.

He also knows that what we get from the tribunals is not necessarily justice but legal manipulations of a flawed process. In any case, Nigerians do not troop to the polls in their millions to have their will and say interpreted by a three-man panel. The new INEC boss also has the added pressure to prove he can rise above his religious and regional affiliation with the incumbent President. Being brilliant is not enough—many of his predecessors were brilliant but they ended up being tarnished.

Being loyal is not enough— many were loyal to the government of the day but ended up disgraced. In fact, only Jega and maybe Chief Michael Ani in recent times left the office with their heads high. He should also recognise that for all his efforts, his predecessor left a flawed process that is open to manipulations and abuses. It is left for him to straighten the system and put forward a simple process that we can all identify with.

The card reader system can be improved upon; electronic voting should be introduced. Nigerians in the diaspora should be included in our voting system. Option A4 introduced by Prof Nwosu can be revisited. Above all, his words and actions in the coming months must allay the fears of some sections of the country who believe he is there to protect some interests.

President Buhari has made some appointments that have been curious. Not necessarily in terms of competence but in terms of the need to balance power and positions in the country. This appointment seems to be another one of them. He should realise that his current appointments have put him in under closer scrutiny as to his intentions for EVERY section of the country.

Corruption is not just in people stealing money from the public purse as bad as that is. Corruption entails much more than that. Our President has to prove that he is not only incorrupt, he is incorruptible. After all, according to him, he is for everybody and for no one.

VANGUARD

END

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