Former Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, who is also the Chairman of the Electoral Reforms Committee, in this interview with ADELEKE ADESANYA, says Nigeria’s elections will be devoid of hiccups, if measures are put in place to curb manipulations that occur at collation centres. Nnamani also speaks on why a reform of Nigeria’s Electoral Act is imperative. Excerpts:
You have been going round conducting open hearings on electoral reforms. What has the response been like?
The response has been wonderful and great. Let me say this, any person thinking that public hearing is a political rally is making a mistake. I have heard people saying the crowd is not so much, and it doesn’t show we are supported. See, people come to public hearing to make contributions, to air their views on a particular subject, which means they have taken time to have presentations and talk about the problem and how to solve it. So, it is not a political rally; it is something that is intellectual, an exercise to think deep and come out with ideas on how to make it better. You know the easiest thing people do is to criticise, but when you ask for constructive suggestion, they rarely provide. So far, the response has been good and there are interesting responses from people.
What response have you got so far?
We are getting enough, especially from the two zones we have been to – the South East and South South. We were in Calabar and it was fantastic. We have gone through observers, people from civil societies and they have made very great suggestions. And having heard their view and suggestions, we will prepare the report and send to the executive branch that actually empanelled us. Then they will go through it and choose those areas they will like to The major electoral attrocities are committed in collation centres – Ken Nnamani send to the National Assembly. The National Assembly has the ultimate authority to now come up with the final harmonisation of the facts.
People believe that all that is needed to be said has been said about electoral reforms, but what is left now is implementation. What’s your take on this?
There is always a need to have a constant review of the electoral laws, because it is in the country’s interest. We cannot say Nigeria is 100 per cent democratic in nature, looking at how we handle our electoral system. The situation in Nigeria is a little bit different, especially considering the cultural aspect of what is going on in our electoral system. We are told that this report covers a lot of ground. If you flash back at what happened recently in Kogi State, there is no aspect of that report that anticipated such a situation, and that is why I say electoral act is dynamic, it’s not static.
But the court was able to resolve the problem with Kogi.
(Cuts in) Yes, but that is not the best. We are trying to see from our own contribution, out of this exercise, how we can reduce court’s involvement in our electoral system to the barest minimum. We are trying to see a situation where people will win election at the pooling booth, not in the court, because right now it is more expensive to pursue litigation after election than during the campaign. People reserve lots of their resources to wage litigation battles and that is not good enough. If after the electorate finish delivering their responsibility by voting for their chosen person and at the end, the person is thrown out by the court, in other words, the mandate is abused, and that is faulty. So, our culture in this manner, needs to be considered in our Electoral Act.
How does culture affect the electoral process?
Well, I said that because when people are making laws in the parliament, you take a closer look at the environment, the nature of the people, our voting system. There are certain people, who, for one reason or the other, are not able to participate in election, either because of religion or the other. Certain aspects of that has to be taken into the consideration. We have to look at how those people will vote? You ask other questions like: Is it possible for electronic voting to be applied one hundred per cent? Of course, people have been advocating for this, but it still has its own flaws, because there must be an element of paper documentation as a backup. So, we feel very strongly that constant review will bring us near perfection.
The Electoral Act is being reviewed almost every year. Do you mean that it is not enough to have a good electoral system in Nigeria?
The process of electoral reform is a continual thing. We must keep improving on the system to get adequate results. We cannot rely on past researches and findings to solve the problems of today. If you check, from 2007, 2011, and 2015, you will see that there is an improvement in our electoral system, and that is a result of constant review of our Electoral Act.
To what extent do you think some of the recommendations about elections will check politicians who believe election is a do-or-die affair?
On our recommendation, we are trying to see if we can cut down the time spent in court, regarding preelection matters that now go on for more than two, three or four years. If we can have time limit included in our Electoral Act for pre-election matters, and see how we can quicken those election litigations, it will be better. As I already indicated, if it is possible through the recommendation to come out of our committee, if we can reduce the propensity of people hoping to win elections just through court process, that will help us a lot, so that people can rely on and show confidence in our electoral system, because a situation where people give their mandate and the mandate is dissuaded by litigation technicalities does not augur well, let elections be won or lost at the polling booths.
Your commission has been going round some zones to conduct public hearing on ways to improve our system. What are your plans to ensure that your findings and recommendations are implemented?
Part of our terms of reference has to do with reviewing the previous reports and picking out the aspects of those reports that have not been implemented, fine-tuning those aspects and bringing them forward. On implementation, there is no guarantee that any recommendation will be implemented 100 per cent. We cannot guarantee that our report will be implemented 100 per cent, because we don’t expect the executive or the legislature to be a rubber stamp.
There some ideas that we will push forward in the recommendation which the executive may deem not appropriate at this time or getting to the National Assembly, where there will be little change on them. So, our report goes through several stages. It is not a law, although we have been asked to come up with a bill, which was not included in the terms of reference. So, we will probably prepare bills, some aspect of it may go through and some may not. I think Mr. President has the political will to implement what he may consider to be appropriate, because he has gone through our political system, and fortunately for him, he ended up occupying the number one position in the country. So, the thing is that we should think positively.
The Independent National Electoral Commission seems to have too much on its hands, and people believe this is hindering its effectiveness. Is there any plan to reduce the bulk of the load on the commission?
I think we have made our position public, but I will say we have taken a good look at that, and the responsibility conferred on INEC is huge. I think it may be necessary to reduce part of the responsibilities, to enable INEC concentrate mainly on electoral issues. The issue of party registration and monitoring and ensuring they play by the rules, we may be suggesting another way to accomplish them. But for now, I will not divulge the outcome of our assignment. For now, we will give feedback to the executive that set us up and from them you will have ours findings.
People have suggested the adoption of digital voting in our electoral system as a way to get rid of different malpractices in our elections. What are you doing to encourage Nigerians in this regard?
If I may tell you, we may not go into 100 per cent digitisation of our electoral process before things are perfectly fine. Even as advanced as the United States of America is, there is still an element of analogue in their electoral system. And I believe that is a way of providing a good backup for the digital technology to avoid falsification and human manipulation.
But I believe it is achievable in this country with time, and we will get there. But for now, the greatest challenge currently facing our electoral process lies with what we call collation centres. If we can minimise or reduce to the barest minimum the use of those collation centres, things will be better. If there is a technology by which the results of elections can be transmitted from the polling units straight to INEC headquarters, by bypassing the collation centres, where numbers are manipulated, things will be better. But as it is now, we are taking a hard look at that to ensure we are not behind the schedule. Part of our terms of reference is for us to look at commendable practices outside Nigeria so that we can adopt them and improve on our electoral practices. And we have been doing this by reviewing electoral systems of some countries and looking at things that will work here.
Nigerian politicians have taken politics as a do or die because of the monetary perks a t t a c h e d to public office. How do you think this can be curbed through the electoral process?
I think very strongly that our method of recruitment in our politics is very faulty. Politics is supposed to be service to the people, but when somebody, who has not served himself or herself, now says he is going to serve the people, then that is questionable.
So, as I said, our recruitment method is faulty, and if we can get it correctly, and ensure that our voting pattern is devoid of excessive monetary intervention, it will help us to elect the right individuals, and that is why we are saying that a situation where elections are won mainly through the court process does not help people s p e n d i n g their time queuing up to vote.
If members of the public are allowed to vote according to their conscience, they are likely to vote for people that will help them. But in a situation where people lay ambush and wage war, and say we must win at all cost, we will go to court, and in the court they win. That will not help us, people should win election at the polling booths, not in court.
