INEC’s theory of honesty

Each time I realise that we have done 25 years of unbroken constitutional government in Nigeria I feel like breaking into song and dance. I deserve to dance because our magazine Newswatch was proscribed because we published the Cookey Report on Democracy which the Babangida government never wanted published. So by having democracy despite the opposition of anti-democratic forces we won. Then we had an interview with David Mark, one of the coup plotters that overthrew Ernest Shonekan and brought Sani Abacha to power. In the interview Mark said that Abacha wanted to stay in power longer, much longer than they had planned. Then we were hammered, thrown into detention and charged with mutiny for publishing that interview. So by eventually having a democratic government ushered into Nigeria in 1999 by a decent man General Abdulsalami Abubakar who ran the affairs of Nigeria for only 11 months despite pressure for him to stay longer, we won. But I am still not ready to push my ageing bones into a dance because we still have a long way to go towards making our democracy close to perfect.

MaHmood Yakubu

Last week a Professor of Human Kinetics at the University of Uyo was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for electoral fraud in the 2019 election. He was the Collation/Returning Officer for Essien Udim State Constituency in Akwa Ibom State. The presiding Judge Justice Bassey Nkanang convicted him on two of the three charges raised against him. So his illustrious life as a Prof has come to an ignominious end because of greed.

When Professor Attahiru Jega, INEC Chairman decided on picking university professors and vice chancellors as Collation/Returning Officers he must have said two things to himself (a) as professors they had a good name to protect and would do nothing to damage it (b) as professors they were earning a good income and they may not allow themselves to be tempted by money from politicians. These would constitute INEC’s theory of honesty. In theory this is a viable theory because many of the professors and or vice chancellors did their election duties without damaging their reputations through greed for money. Professor Uduk who has just been convicted is an exception. By messing up himself he has proved that human beings are not perfect, no matter how highly placed.

By choosing to pick mainly professors to help him conduct free, fair and credible elections Jega ignored three things that have been happening in Nigeria’s university system (a) some professors sell marks for money (b) some professors sell marks for sex (c) some professors do all sorts of dirty things to become vice chancellors. Their professional rank does not even matter to them. Right now a Dean in the Faculty of Law in one of the universities is in detention for alleged sexual offences with some of the students in his department. He earns enough income to be able to spend some money and chase a girl anywhere in the town where he lives but he didn’t. He preferred his students, soft targets on whom he will not spend his money. He wants awoof sex. Cheap man. Penny wise, pound foolish. Now his career has come to an inglorious end and while he is in prison there are many pretty girls walking about that he cannot touch.

Jega and INEC were not entirely wrong in their theory of honesty. Many of the professors did an honest job. As Shakespeare says there is no art to find the mind’s construction on the face. That is also why the banks in Nigeria prefer to employ women as cashiers. They are partially correct for two reasons (a) most women are not as greedy as men and have a deeper sense of shame than men (b) most women are not bread winners for their families and therefore have no need to get money by corrupt means and mess up their reputations in their banks. But then some of the cashiers get caught with their fingers in the till. That does not mean that making most of the cashiers women is wrong. It only means that human beings, whether men or women are imperfect. There is also the view that human want is insatiable because the more we have the more we want.

The reasons why elections are never perfect anywhere in the world are because human beings are imperfect and also because power is an addiction; anyone who has it wants to keep it and anyone who doesn’t have it wants it. That is why people who lose elections and accept their fate are respected globally. In Africa a sitting President in Liberia George Weah accepted defeat without making any fuss. It happened in Ghana too. It is only once that it has happened in Nigeria. In 2015 a sitting President Dr Goodluck Jonathan accepted defeat and called Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him. That is the first time that has happened in Nigeria. That is why Jonathan is treated like royalty anywhere he goes today.

Nigeria’s elections are rigged by three sets of people (a) some corrupt INEC officials (b) some desperate politicians (c) some hungry voters. INEC is a major but not the only culprit in the election process. They delay, and or divert election materials; they alter election figures; they void even votes that are genuine with the complicity of party agents; they find frivolous reasons to void some votes; they merge votes that belong to different parties and do a series of other magical things to favour their sponsors. However, the biggest election riggers are the politicians. They use anything and everything that can be used to seduce the potential voter: money, Ankara, rice, beans, motorcycles, bicycles, KK Napep, smart phones, laptops etc. Anything that can lure people to vote for them are used. And in this era of poverty, money becomes the most prominent instrument for vote catching. And of course the major target of this expenditure is the voters, especially the poor voter who is not committed to any party or candidate. He is committed only to cash, cash with which he or she can cook afang or bitterleaf soup with pounded yam.

The Prof Uduk case took six years for a decision to be reached. This does not help our democracy. We need election tribunals that can decide election cases within months, not years. We must shorten the process. We must bring more offenders to justice; we must find more honest human beings to appoint as Collation and Returning Officers in our elections; we must stand guard over our election results so that our votes count when they are counted. We must be honourable enough to accept defeat when we lose. We must not be bad losers. And when we win we must be humble. We must not be arrogant winners.

We still have a long way to make our democracy close to perfect. That is a job to be performed by all of us who occupy the Office of the Citizen.