Irrepressible activist-lawyer Mike Igini is the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Cross River State. In this interview with Assistant Editor DADA ALADELOKUN, he reflects on the recent general elections and suggests ways of tackling their inherent challenges for improved performances in future polls. Excerpts:
You partook of the recent elections as a Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC); will you describe their outcome as satisfactory?
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| mike Igini |
The preponderant view, locally and internationally, is that the election was an improvement on previous ones. Although perfection is difficult to attain, this level of effectiveness in election management should be a matrix to develop from, especially since some people are also at the tribunal, which in itself, also reflects a degree of dissatisfaction. So, until we get to a level such as the case in the United Kingdom where for 99 years, there has been no judicial intervention in the electoral process, where the outcome of election results is taken as given by the electorate and contestants because of the level of credibility of the process, we cannot truly say that we have reached a level of acceptable satisfaction.
From your experience, what are the challenges that need to be addressed to strengthen the electoral process?
There are institutional challenges within the Commission. For instance, I worked in most cases with my own computers. People worked in rickety and poky offices with so many awkward things. I had said on my appointment that if people in different areas of government act instead of sitting on the issues, we could bring some generational changes to some of the problems we frequently complain about.
But there wasn’t much time to address some of these before the elections. So, I believe that Prof Attahiru Jega will be on top of such things now that there is time to work on them. Also, a major constraint was the attitude of public servants.
INEC requires special attitudinal requisites for people who must do the job. Some staff still see our attitude for the right outcome which respects the wishes of the electorate as a blockade to the old order where the election period was a harvest time through financial inducement from politicians. Such attitude must change. The Commissioners of Police and the AIG in my jurisdiction showed exceptional character in their attitude to national duty because security is important in elections.
They ensured that their men did not brook any breach of the laws, they arraigned offenders promptly and their attitude strengthened the resolve of all those who were ready to join INEC on the right electoral path.
What about the attitude of politicians?
Yes, politicians’ desperation to win at all costs is another. It comes from the fact that the orientation of a political group is not for the general prosperity, but for the group’s benefits. There is need for total reorientation. Irrespective of which group wins an election, the benefits of governance should filter down to all Nigerians.
Also, the attitude of political leaders matters. Thus, we must commend the exceptional attitude of President Goodluck Jonathan because the most important distinction between most of African and the developed democracies is the respect of their leaders for their electorate.
There were complaints by Nigerians over waiting for hours - about five hours in some instances - after accreditation before commencement of voting…
Indeed, I don’t know why we should shut down our economy because of elections. Is it not possible that if the voter register is right, once the poll opens and voters are in alphabetical order,
Indeed, I don’t know why we should shut down our economy because of elections. Is it not possible that if the voter register is right, once the poll opens and voters are in alphabetical order,
why is it not possible to authenticate your name which is biometrically registered and vote at just that point? Why should people wait for hours there?
But we saw some people who registered so many times in the hope of cashing in on this, causing law-abiding citizens huge man-hours at the polls. It is possible to check multiple voting if we have an effective ID system.
It is crucial to cut the man-hours lost on Election Day because in our country where many live under one dollar a day and depend on daily activities, we should not disrupt economic activities adversely. Besides, if we use an effective identity system to complement the voter identification system, we can cut off underage voting because to vote, you will be denying yourself of other benefits that are age-related.
So, are you satisfied with the procedures of the elections in the areas of sorting, counting and collation of votes from the polling units to the last stage of the process?
With the elaborate processes of the election, there was success to some extent, but there are also questions at some instances on the synchrony between what happened at Polling Units (PUs) and Collation Centers. Some people have questioned how the results in some PUs did not tally with what was declared at some centres. Professor Maurice Iwu introduced a technology with which we could relay the results, but the logistical realities of our country constrained its implementation.
We can build on this process. If we have a simultaneous recording process whereby the announced results at the PUs immediately reflect at a collation point at the state and LGA headquarters, where the parties’ representatives also view the results, we will have very few litigation cases on the declared results.
Why is it that in some cases, patently fraudulent election results once declared can only be challenged at Election Tribunals?
This is one of the imponderables of how the law can be an ass. The person who is saddled with election management should be above board. So, if the votes of the people have been counted, it is assumed this will not be changed, but this is not always the case because where the managers mess up the process.
It can only go to the tribunal to be resolved and some people use this window of opportunity to abuse the process.
That is why the integrity of the umpire is critical because the law has given it such sacrosanct position. Since we cannot change the law at this point, we have to change the people and process.
We all saw cases of spurious result declarations under duress where those who subverted the process threatened to go to the tribunal.
Thus, where tribunals find such cases, there should be laws with severe consequences through an electoral offenses tribunal, because an unpunished crime will be repeated.
You have also suggested the establishment of a Forensic Unit in INEC and that the burden of proof of how well an election was conducted should be placed on INEC. Elaborate on your reasons for this?
Yes, the Forensic Unit should be a kind of judicial ombudsman for elections within INEC.
If there is a complaint at any PU, rather than allow it to go on for years, INEC can call for the ballot for forensic attention in the presence of the parties concerned. Using administrative processes, the current practice imposes frightening costs on the people and processes that may in future breed violence.
This is also connected to the burden of proof issue. How can we ask a contestant without the evidentiary proof of election to prove it?
Even the Uwais report recommended it as part of the electoral reform that the burden of proof should be on the electoral managers to make them more diligent. In addition, there is the need to overhaul the Evidence Act of 1945 which does not align well with modern legal realities on such matters. INEC will be more diligent if the burden of proof is on it.
Gladly the 6th National Assembly introduced some changes in the Electoral Act to ensure that INEC produces evidence of its declared results within a time-frame upon the requests of petitioners.
This is a good step in this direction of post-election auditing.
In a recent interview you talked about the need to raise the bar of electoral contest in Nigeria. What exactly did you mean by this?
In our politics, we have descended from the high intellectual elitism of Awolowo to the nadir of trench combatants, where people now go to acquire cutlasses and bombs instead of intellectual prowess. Elections have thus become a war or do-or-die combat in which political contestants crumble to the point of seizing election materials meant for the voting public instead of a battle of developmental values.
Thus, by 2015, we should expand our leadership choice-making on key issues. There should be an ongoing engagement between the political class and the academia.
There should be proper sieving of contestants by the electorate to midwife a leadership that leads to collective prosperity in terms of development.
Electoral officials had been seen as corrupt people who are often willing tools in the hands of politicians. As a REC, how true is this public perception?
The task of INEC determines who gets what, how and when in our society if we must believe Harold Laski’s assertion of power. Similarly, because of the stakes inherent in the task, the job should come with equally adequate rewards to deter undue influences.
There are very honest people in INEC, but these people struggle to maintain their sanity because the bad ones have been hugely rewarded over time by politicians that they have aided to unduly get to power at the expense of the electors.
This skewed reward system has altered the value template in the commission. This is the ongoing challenge that the current national leadership is battling because the external rewards for breaking the INEC codes of integrity is high.
Some disgruntled staff even sent anonymous text messages to me that I did not allow them to get welfare packages from politicians. Since the system does not reward them for their dangerous task and so, they have lost on both sides.
To be fair to such staff, the system contributes to the frustrations that make them vulnerable; sometimes they are sent on assignments where their allowances are not ready. They are sent to remote places without any comfort provisions; there are so many lapses on the part of the system which are avoidable.
From my background in sociology and law, you cannot just address the cure of a social malaise without looking at its cause
From your experience how independent was INEC before and all through the elections in comparison with your perception from outside during the 2003 to 2007 election period?
When leadership shows trust and sincerity, it impacts on the whole system. President Goodluck Jonathan, while swearing this set of INEC team, said people should be loyal to the public and not himself unlike before.
He publicly insisted that no one should rig elections for him. Also, government under his leadership released funds as and when due, unlike previously where Professor Iwu had to go begging for funds to be released.
The National Assembly too must also be commended for the legal template which they created to enable a positive political ambience.
Though I had my reservations on some aspects of the amendments of the electoral laws, they set a good precedent based on the general current legal template for elections.
Also on a personal level, when we had issues between INEC and the parties in Cross River State on the process of party nominations which ended in the courts, the President kept a distinguished distance.
Despite the fact that the governor was the coordinator of his campaign, he never interfered even though it was his party that was affected.
This is the type of political value that we should encourage for others to emulate in state elections.
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