BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
The fact that the National Assembly has voted against the Electoral Act Bill which proposed the amendment of Section 62(1) to empower the Independent National Electoral Commission to transmit election results electronically, means that the hope to have free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria still hangs in the balance.
The Senate, led by its President, Ahmad Lawan, unequivocally rejected the Bill by throwing it open to the floor for voting to determine its fate.
This act, according to them, was democracy in display, but the way they saw it was contrary to how the citizens of the country, including the Diaspora saw it, moreso, when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Kabir Gaya, who presented the Bill on the floor of the Senate, also voted against it.
That many senators shied away while some who voted displayed “Esau’s voice, Jacob’s hand” is no longer news, but the issue remains a topical one.
However, because the Senate tactically hanged the final decision on what happens to the Bill on the necks of the Nigerian Communication Commission and INEC, the matter seems far from being over.
With Anambra State governorship election 97 days away and those of Osun and Ekiti states lurking around the corner, there would not have been a better ground to test the workability or otherwise of the technology.
It is true that the representative of NCC has told Nigerians and watchers of democracy that the country cannot embark on such mission knowing that it is impossible because the 3G expected to be used is in less than 46 per cent coverage of the country, whereas, the electoral umpire has painstakingly repeated itself that the commission is ready and the technology needed for it is readily available.
Since both the very vital commissions are in disagreement with each other and both Chambers also are having issues over the Bill, the matter is still far from being over, because the INEC has yet to appear before it to declare its stands.
Nigerians, political parties, Civil Society Organisations, political watchers, commentators and the electorate, who are largely the ruled, are saying the denial of the use of electronics to transmit election results amounts to a rape on democracy.
Some say it is a disserve to the country and by extension the African continent where other countries depend on how Nigeria’s democracy is forging ahead to also fashion theirs.
Last Tuesday, governors of the Peoples Democratic Party rose from their meeting in Bauchi, capital of Bauchi State, to condemn, in strong terms, the failure of the lawmakers to pass that section of the Bill for amendment.
The Governor Aminu Tambuwa-led forum accused the ruling APC government of being behind it all, claiming that the party had lost the favour of Nigerians because of very poor administration that had left Nigeria and Nigerians worse than it met them and as such had plans to rig the 2023 general elections.
Part of the communiqué reads, “On the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, the Governors identified with the need for free, fair and credible elections in the country and called on the National Assembly to entrench Electronic transmission of results of elections in the nation’s electoral jurisprudence.
“The meeting requested Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the only body empowered by the Constitution to conduct elections, to deploy appropriate technologies necessary to ensure that the votes of every Nigerian is counted and made to count. The meeting further called on the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), especially, the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (NIGCOMSAT), Telephone Companies (Telcos) and all relevant stakeholders to ensure that universal access and service of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are provided especially in rural, un-served and under-served areas of the country before the 2023 General elections.”
The APC on its part discharged the major opposition party’s claim with a wave of the hands, pointing out that the senators that voted against it were not only APC senators.
All the tantrums being thrown from the two major political parties have not received any form of support from the voting masses. They categorise them together.
Howbeit, Nigerians are hungry for free, fair, credible and participatory elections in future to enable them put in place quality leadership.
A social critic and political activist, Ann-Kio Briggs, has come out strongly to condemn the National Assembly for the act she described as a sledge hammer on the democracy that has remained nascent.
“With Anambra State governorship election 97 days away and those of Osun and Ekiti states lurking around the corner, there would not have been a better ground to test the workability or otherwise of the technology”
She said the National Assembly, particularly the Senate, had, by the act, turned the hand of clock of the country’s democracy backward.
She stated, “What the senators and those of them in the House of Representatives did is not killing the Bill but killing credible elections and denying the people good governance.
“They showed how bad they hated our country and our people because that was an opportunity to correct all the anomalies associated with our elections but because of their selfishness, they truncated it.”
The senators and members of the House that voted either for or against are not contesting elections till 2023 save for those who are in the race for the staggered governorship elections in Anambra, Osun and Ekiti states.
Nigerian London-based constitutional lawyer, Mike Merenini, in a telephone chat, told The Point that what the National Assembly members did was anti-democracy and good governance.
He insisted that it was an exhibition of how bad the country was in a fast lane in its deterioration but added that INEC could still help rekindle hope once again in the populace by going ahead with the electronic transmission of election results in the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra state.
“I tell you the Nigerian National Assembly members are working against the country’s democracy. How else do you want to prove it other than their decision to continue to encourage ballot boxes snatchings, writing of bogus election results that have no correlation between them and the voting, only to leave the fate of the voters in the hands of the judiciary. It’s terrible,” he said.
The legal luminary maintained that since the Electoral Act empowered the INEC to decide on what to do on that issue, the electoral umpires should go ahead and employ the services of electronic transmission of elections results in the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State, arguing that if it made a remarkable success and improvement on Edo and Ondo States governorship elections, even the Court would not stop the usage in the 2023 general elections.
“Anambra State governorship election and the others staggered are very veritable grounds INEC can use to prove their readiness to transmit elections’ results electronically. We saw the performance in both the Edo and Ondo States’ governorship elections last year, all they needed to do is improve on that with the forthcoming election in Anambra, Osun and Ekiti, then their claim of being prepared to use the technology would be overwhelmingly supported,” he noted.
