The role of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC in stabilizing democracy in this country came under focus last week when President Muhammadu Buhari swore in its new chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and his national commissioners. Apparently drawing from our unsavory electoral experiences, the president had charged the commission to abhor external influences in their duties as they will be held accountable for their actions.
Buhari who promised not to interfere in the affairs of the commission said the change mantra of the APC will be all embracing in electoral matters such that it will give boost to the conduct of free and fair elections.
The president’s promises are as heart-warming as they are equally refreshing. No doubt, one of the greatest challenges to the sustenance of enduring democracy within these shores has been the glaring inability of electoral umpires and politicians to abide by the rules of free and fair competition. This has over time resulted in the subversion of the pristine values on which the wheel of democratic governance revolves.
Before now and especially during the regime of Obasanjo, the management of elections had left so much to be desired. Rigging, falsification, outright writing of election results and all manner of malpractices were the order of the day. The bastardization and corruption of the electoral process came to an all-time high that the electorate began to lose confidence in its capacity to reflect the true will of the people as expressed at the ballot box. The conduct of the two elections that were supervised by that regime shook peoples’ confidence in their capacity to approximate the collective will of the people and cast serious doubt on the underlying philosophy behind representative democracy.
So much damage was wrought to the electoral process that the future of democracy was put in serious jeopardy. The Yar’Adua administration had to contend with public disenchantment and cynicism on the continued relevance of voting during elections when such votes will count for nothing in determining those to emerge from the exercise. This in turn, threw up a crisis of legitimacy. Yar’Adua fought to contend with the situation as it posed obvious threats to the future conduct of elections. His successor, Goodluck Jonathan was left with no option than to make the conduct of free and fair elections a cardinal goal of his regime apparently to gain legitimacy and restore peoples’ confidence in the electoral process.
The 2015 elections, despite shortcomings arising from the refusal of politicians to play according to rules, was devoid of any grand plan by the government in power to manipulate the process as was previously the case. Perhaps, that in part, accounted for why the Jonathan government lost power to the opposition.
Even Buhari had admitted Jonathan had an option to manipulate the process but opted out in the overall interest of the country. It was for the same reason he received accolades from the international community as his action brightened the prospects for the deepening of democracy in the country. The outcome of that election was very symbolic given that it represented the first time in our political annals an incumbent will concede power to the opposition at that level.
As a beneficiary of this goodwill, Buhari does not seem to have an alternative than to improve on the records set by Jonathan in restoring some modicum of credibility to the management of elections. That is why his promises not to interfere in INEC’s affairs and also to reflect the change philosophy of his party in all electoral matters are very timely. We say so because, in a couple of week from now, that commitment will be facing its true test. Elections are at the corner in Kogi and Bayelsa states.
Their handling will serve as a litmus test to the commitment of the Buhari regime to institutionalizing orderly succession through the reflection of the collective will of the people in the final choice of their representatives. That is the challenge before Buhari and the new INEC. The way it is handled will point the direction to the future of democracy.
It is true that the management of elections is the sole responsibility of the INEC. But it is no less correct also that the overall success of that electoral body will depend on the support and cooperation it gets from the government. There is therefore a whole world of difference between promises and giving effect to them when the need arises. Buhari should therefore move beyond promises to initiate actions that will imbue confidence in the electorate that INEC will remain an impartial umpire in electoral matters.
One issue that will continue to create concerns for political observers is the tendency for people to gravitate to the winning party. This has raised genuine fears of a possible slide to a one-party state. These fears cannot be wished away especially given the awesome powers at the disposal of the central government.
Not surprisingly, governments at the centre had through sundry contrivances encouraged this tendency. That is the danger created when undue emphasis is placed on compensation to those who voted the governments in power especially in a clime the same government controls virtually everything.
Unfortunately, Buhari was the first to be publicly identified with this centripetal viewpoint which Nasir El-Rufai has also referenced upon in respect of the sharing of the perquisites of office in Kaduna State. Such a disposition has all it takes to increase the slide towards a one-party state that may sound the death knell to democracy. There is no reason for every voter to vote for the same political party. It is not intended to be so and the electorate must not be coerced into it. All parties should be able to win elections in their areas of strength with the right ambience provided by the electoral body. That is the objective our leaders should seek to approximate.
But the buck for whatever finally transpires during elections will eventually stop at the table of Yakubu and his lieutenants. Buhari has told whoever cares to hear that he will not interfere in the affairs of the commission. He has promised change in its activities. He will be judged by these commitments. The new INEC management must take copious notice of these promises and conduct itself as an impartial referee despite the challenges it will encounter in the hands of government officials.
But the government still shares vicarious responsibility in the overall management of elections. The role, manner of deployment of security personnel and the ferrying of logistic support during elections are areas government still has much work to do. Before now, allegations have been traded on the use of sundry security personnel to intimidate voters and manipulate the outcome of results. It will be interesting to see what the situation will be under Buhari and the new INEC chief.
NATION
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