West Africa: Ghana Must Come Before 2011

Public disenchantment with Nigeria's 2007 elections was so widespread that in his inaugural address on May 29 2007, President Umaru Musa Yar Adua said his administration would embark on electoral reform to put an end to the endemic flaws that plague our electoral process.
Three months later, he appointed a 20 member Electoral Reform Committee ERC with the following terms of reference: to identify factors that affect the credibility and quality of elections, examine relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution, the Electoral Act and other election related laws and make recommendations on how the legal framework as well as institutions relevant to elections can be strengthened. Several individuals and organisations have sent memoranda to the ERC which has since submitted its report to the President. We are now anxiously waiting for the government's response to the recommendations made by the ERC for it will determine the sincerity in the reform agenda the government promised its citizens. Happily, the National Assembly where the law reform will take place has also set up a Joint Constitution Review Committee.

In most of the memoranda civil society organisations sent to the ERC, the reform of the Independent Electoral Commission INEC which presided over the controversial elections of 2007 featured prominently. INEC itself said it wants some amendments to the electoral laws to ensure that it gets 'the much needed financial independence and operational flexibility". Women's groups met several times and established a coalition which made following recommendations in its memorandum to the ERC: Marginalisation of Women in the political parties and the need for affirmative action whereby quotas will be adopted to correct past marginalisation of women. The coalition recommended the establishment an appropriate, mandatory and sanctionable legal framework for a minimum of 35% representation of women at all levels of government as contained in the country's National Gender Policy. This will address peculiar grievances of women when contesting for public office and hasten the bridging of the gender gap in political and appointive positions. Since women often experience monetary disability, the establishment of a Women Aspirants Funds was also recommended with a view to raising resources to assist qualified and credible women aspirants thereby attenuating the stress and burden associated with resources for campaigns. Several recommendations had to do with the role of INEC and its composition. They include the partisan role of INEC in elections where Section 156 of the Constitution which created the commission erodes its independence by stating that only politicians can be members of INEC. INEC's lack of financial autonomy which also compromises its independence, INEC's inefficiency in delivery of materials and inability to provide a credible voters' register leading to manipulation of the Voters Register. It has been documented that manipulation of the electoral roll or register is one way of rigging elections. To strengthen the role of monitors, it was recommended that clear criteria for the accreditation of observers and monitors of elections should be stipulated thereby curtailing the discretion of INEC in the selection of such important, independent groups.

Other recommendations include addressing gaps in the Electoral Law and other procedural omissions, electoral malpractice underscoring the cases of monumental irregularities perpetrated by politicians in collaboration with INEC officials and security agents which were meticulously documented by election observers, swearing in contentious candidates as 'winners' of elections and failure to punish violators of Electoral Law and deviant political behaviour such as godfatherism which fuels monetisation of politics and violence. The case of Chris Uba and Chris Ngige in Anambra State readily comes to mind. Other areas that attracted attention and for which law reform were recommended are the undemocratic nature of the political parties. It is indeed an irony that political parties which are critical components of democracy lack internal democracy and are the least democratic institutions. The coalition also recommended that alternative dispute resolution mechanisms should be put in place for political parties, thereby providing an avenue and mechanism for addressing grievances at primary level. Recommendations were also made on ensuring the existence of a comprehensive code of conduct for officers on election duty which should be widely publicised. Given the role the media could play in promoting or sabotaging democracy, the coalition recommended mechanisms to sanction government owned media that display partisanship in their political reportage, the need to mandate state-owned media to provide regular free air time for civic education and grant all candidates and political parties airtime for programmes on an equitable basis and on equal financial terms.

Although reform of the electoral process is important and should be pursued with vigour, scholars of politics who have adopted a multi pronged approach to the issue of sanitising the political terrain believe we should also be looking beyond law reform to mobilising for community action. One of them is Salihu Lukman, a social critique and civic educator who was a colleague at the Political Reform Conference CONFAB. He has developed a recipe for change. Salihu believes that this is the time to plan for the 2011 elections because 'very soon, politicians will start parading themselves as saints, righteous individuals and saviours requesting for our votes. The process will be driven largely by money-politics. In which case, the elections have been concluded and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party PDP will win with a land slide. 'The money that will be employed to campaign is not a function of earned income but largely product of graft, underhand deals and unhindered access to public wealth. This means that the bulk of the resources would be public funds and therefore the current managers of public funds, which dominantly are PDP members, would direct the process.'

To prevent this sadistic approach to creation of a one party state and our descent into despair, we must create 'new organisations that have the necessary orientation, meaning and value to support the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians. These new organisations would then be the levers for new governments with promising programmes and potentials to produce high quality changes in the realities facing citizens'. Salihu said we must prevent a situation where an individual aspirant contributes 100% of the campaign fund and instead 'organise political campaign initiatives that would be based on delegated community structures with accountability framework such that the candidate is only a functionary. In other words, the candidate is selected based on established criteria and by that measure could be disciplined accordingly, including dropping him/her. The main focus thus is the ward and local government levels. The theoretical orientation would then be bottom up rather than the current top down approach where the focus is on higher offices. As we progress toward 2011, the political landscape will be saturated with people aspiring for Gubernatorial, Senatorial and House of Representatives positions. And it is these people that would dictate placements for offices at lower levels i.e. house of assembly, local government chairmen and councillors.' Perhaps before the Ghanaians arrive we can at least develop a proposal for change?

Credit: Hajiya Bilkisu

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