It’s a bad sign for general election if party members find it difficult to express their minds —Agboke, ex-REC

 

Dr Mutiu Agboke is the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Osun State. He speaks with WALE AKINSELURE on the peculiarities of the nation’s electoral process, conduct of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) and opposition politics.

The primary for the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State held last Saturday, was reportedly  characterised by usual allegations of violence, disruptions, deprivation of voters and other misconduct. What do you consider the most critical issues to having a near flawless process in the conduct of primaries, which is a mini-election and main elections in the country?

There is no small election in whatever form. Like you have rightly put it, this is a mini-election among political class that share the same views, understanding and perception, therefore, it is expected that such a situation will have been a free day for members. Unfortunately, it was otherwise. For us, as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been saying, some of these things, before they rear their ugly head, the commission will have envisaged, warned and will have given advice. The INEC chairman recently said parties should work along their rules and regulations. They should avoid a situation where primaries, congresses will be rancour-soaked such that at the end of the day, even political parties will not be able to make headway. So, the critical issues are, we should allow internal party democracy. If members of parties find it difficult, on their own, to express their minds, then, it is not a good signpost for the general election. It means that some people feel that their will should be superimposed on others and it is very disastrous. Also, parties, among themselves, have their constitution, rules and regulations. When you stage primaries, congresses, they have guidelines. We should learn to do everything according to laid down procedures. I believe if we allow the rules to guide our processes, we allow the constitution of the party to be the pathfinder of whatever we need to do, then, we may not have any problem. Anything short of this will always result in inconclusive primaries and disorganised political parties.

Over the years, whenever lapses are observed at elections, accusing fingers are mostly pointed at the INEC? Should attention rather be more on other stakeholders in the election? Moreover, INEC is joined in all electoral matters.

To be in the middle between two people is a very Herculean job. Our job is like that of a judge. A judge sits on a bench, two people come before him, you have a claimant and a defendant, the judge was not privy to the fact except what was presented before him and he needs to adjudicate on the matter, this is herculean. Ditto for a man that is always put at the centre of a football pitch, he also knows that he has got his job cut out, whichever way he goes, he must be criticised, this is the same for INEC. It is only the man that has won that appreciates INEC for doing the right thing; the other party will not see anything good in what INEC has done. By our electoral act, if you have to go by our Electoral Act to seek for any redress with respect to any election conducted, for you to sustain your claim in respect to execution of the judgment, you must join the electoral body. So, joining the electoral body does not make it a big deal. We are the ones that call out parties for election, so, in whatever way, INEC must be joined. If you do not join INEC, to be able to execute the judgment becomes difficult. And any other institution that you know that will be affected by the judgment must be joined. The commission is always on top of its game. There is no 100 percent electoral process in the world but, the commission is doing everything possible, as a matter of constitutional responsibilities; that we better our electioneering process year in, year out, by deepening the process with the introduction of technology. So, to be a referee is not an easy job. The important thing is, as a commission, we must not dance into the arena in any manner of election.

To have a more efficient INEC, several references have been made to the need to implement the recommendations of the Justice Muhammad Uwais committee report, especially the unbundling of INEC. Why does it seem difficult to implement this recommendation?

That question is for both the legislature and the executive. People throw these policy issues to INEC whereas INEC is guided by law and it is whatever the legal framework prescribes that INEC follows. INEC has duties to register political parties, to conduct elections, ensure that political parties finances are monitored; ensure that it monitors the congresses, primaries of parties. There have been arguments in the public domain that the issue of registration of political parties should be taken away from INEC, and INEC should be left with the duty of conducting elections. If that becomes a law, why not? Let there be a legal framework in that direction, INEC has no choice but to comply. As it is, INEC carries out its functions in conjunction with what is contained in the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.

 

Knowing the number of election-related cases and how prolonged they are, what do you particularly make of the calls to hasten implementing the recommendation that special courts be created to handle election related cases?

It is still the same thing. If special courts are created, yes, it gives us the opportunity to quickly move our cases to such courts and perhaps, expedite prosecution and action on some of the judgements. INEC has also keyed into this. If this happens, it is an additional development in our electioneering activities.

 

State Electoral Commissions (SIECs) have always been criticised for bias in their conduct of local government elections. It is commonplace for the ruling party in states to clear all chairmanship and councillorship seats when local government elections are conducted. In the desire for fairness, several have asked that the law be amended for INEC to conduct local government elections. 

It is also a constitutional matter. State Electoral Commissioners are creations of the law. Each state has its own state law and they have their electoral laws provided. In these laws, it is the executive, particularly, the governor that is empowered to recommend members subject to the ratification of the state Assembly just the same way the chairman of INEC, 12 national commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) are appointed. I prefer to lay emphasis on the action and inactions of the SIECs rather than individuals who are doing the actions. I am a product of the state electoral commission. In 2012 and 2016, I was a member of the electoral commission in Ogun State. I conducted two local government elections, one in 2012, the other in 2016. In the first one, councillorship candidates of opposition parties won four seats, the same as the second one. Let us look at the attitude of the various opposition parties in all the states. In 2012, when I was a member of the SIEC, 28 political parties initially showed interest, when we rolled our timetable for their screening, I was the Chairman, Screening Committee, 28 became 18. As of the time we were ready for the election and published the names of eligible candidates, it was about eight of them that were ready. We saw that all of them were already queueing behind the ruling party. Do we force them to contest? I know of a particular state that will conduct local government election in the next few days, I tried to look at posters on the streets, you will find it difficult to see posters of opposition parties, you will find it difficult to see the opposition parties campaigning vigorously, going out for electioneering activities. I want opposition parties to be actively involved in the local government election.

 

Let them campaign, contest, and be vigorously involved. Where they are defeatist, where they have accepted fate, where they believe that the winner will take it all, you can’t blame anyone for that. That Mr Governor appointed the chairman and members should not be an excuse. We should look at what the members of the commission are doing: were they shrouding their activities in secrecy? Did they carry out what they were supposed to do, in terms of screening of candidates, publishing of notice? Was the election an open ballot? Did they allow people to freely express their voting rights? These are what we should focus on. Let us talk less. If you continue to complain till the Day of Judgment, there is nothing that will happen because this body is a creation of law and whatever the constitution of the personnel of the body is, it is also covered by law. Before we have the change of law, let us look closely at what they are doing, criticise what they are doing, perhaps there can be some change in how the election happens and the attitude of the major stakeholders in the elections. There are several factors behind a party winning an election not because it is the ruling party that nominated the electoral commission.

 

What cues can SIECs take from INEC to improve their conduct of elections?

Election management bodies, whether state, federal, local, the expectation is that you allow the constitution, electoral laws, to guide your activities.

Yes, you have your state laws that guide your electoral activities but none of them should be allowed to conflict with the constitution and electoral laws. They always request for the register of voters, we interface in that regard. Also, SIECs should look at the standard of declaration of results by INEC. To take the blame away from INEC, we engaged independent personnel like members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), lecturers. We allowed them to do some of the field work and make a declaration of results. To a large extent, Nigerians have agreed with us that with the involvement of the academia in the electoral process, there has been some level of sanity. The SIECs can imbibe this as well. Also, INEC has introduced BVAS. Some SIECs have applied to use our BVAS but we could not have given them as INEC election come year in, year out and there are many things we have to do. It is not wrong for SIECs to deepen their processes with the use of technology.

 

Isn’t it time we jettisoneed the mandate that the President appoints the INEC chairman since the president is an active player in the electoral process.

That is the law as it is.

 

What do you make of party discipline, party organisation in Nigeria?

Party activities should be hinged on the legal framework that set up the party. Once parties allow this to guide their activities, it will reduce various litigations that INEC are joined. Parties are expected to be more coordinated, allowing decency to guide their activities. INEC meets with parties on a quarterly basis, we talk to them; we tell them what we think; they also air their views. Most of our parties are more organised today but they can still do more.

 

Vote buying continues to be a menace in our electoral process. What must the various stakeholders, including INEC, do to deal with vote buying?

INEC cannot be the organiser of a party and still be the one to look out for those who have come to steal phones. Election is a multi-stakeholder activity. People who are joining us in organising elections are more than INEC. Security agencies, journalists are major stakeholders. What are the stakeholders doing to help INEC reduce the incidence of vote buying? It is for other levels of stakeholders to step up their arrangements. The security should have a better configuration of getting these people who are hell-bent on using money to confuse, mislead, and dissuade the free minds of our electorate. They are the ones to follow them up. When the issue of vote-buying reared its ugly head, INEC reconfigured the placement of the voting cubicles in a way that, when you cast your vote, you would not have opportunity to show your voting pattern. The security agents can do more. They can lay siege, provide intelligence, find a way around it and make arrests. If we have more convictions, no matter how highly placed, people will be very careful. Look at the issue of naira abuse being addressed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), people are now more careful about spraying money at parties, that consciousness is now in the mind of Nigerians. We need similar things for our elections such that when they see you attempt it on Election Day, you know that it is dangerous. INEC will continue to talk about it; INEC will continue to engage political parties; INEC will continue to educate members of the public but I cannot be the election manager on that day and begin to run after those sharing money. We have to engage those who are to arrest and those meant to ensure we don’t have such practice in our elections.

 

Ahead of the 2027 elections, what developments should we look forward to?

All we have been saying in all elections before now is that political parties should ensure there is a free atmosphere for all candidates to participate, particularly in the primaries. Congresses should not be allowed to be factionalised. Let us allow due process to run all these arrangements in our political parties. Parties should allow the guidelines and legal framework of INEC to guide their activities. Once you have a lesser number of litigations in political parties, INEC may not have any problem going into elections. Look at the number of pre-election litigations that we have, the INEC chairman reels out the figures and Nigerians are not bothered. This is something we should talk about so that we have less litigation before elections. The commission will continue to talk about all of these. Strict adherence to INEC regulations, with regards to primaries and congresses is very key. INEC is very firm in ensuring that we allow our laws, guidelines to guide various processes. I know that political parties are also ready. We will continue to engage the political parties, security agencies; we have started engaging the CSOs; we will engage the media.

 

The huge cost of conducting elections is something to worry about. INEC usually adduces logistics for conducting elections as a major percentage of the cost. Would you consider a reduction in the number of political parties as reducing cost?

Maybe; maybe not. It depends on inflation. Whether we have more or fewer parties, we deal with what we have. INEC, at intervals, reduces the number of parties, especially those not worthy of being called parties. INEC will work with whatever is available. We will always do what is allowed within the framework of law.