LET us assume, for the purpose of this debate that the gubernatorial election in Adamawa State was actually rigged in favour of Governor Born Haruna. Who did the rigging in the field? In practical terms not him. He never went out of his way to instruct any one on election day to do so for him. Today however, he is the victim of an offence he never committed.
Why? Those who did the rigging, if indeed there was any, are scot-free, partly because our electoral law does not prescribe punishment for those who engage in the committal of actual electoral malpractices. On the contrary, the law infact protects them.
A thuggist rogue knows that the worse that could happen, if he is caught rigging, is the annulment of results and this doesn’t affect him and can never earn him punishment. He indulges in it, therefore, with overzealous dubiousness, in the full knowledge that he is immuned from any form of punishment or even rebuke.
Inspite of the outcry that the last elections were rigged, it is worth asking how many have been charged to court for electoral offences? Not quite significant if at all. With such a setting who then will not be bought over to rig elections knowing that no punishment will be visited on him even if caught in the act?
Next is a situation where some one deploys millions in to his campaign. Tell me, who will allow his huge investment go down the drain? Who will watch possible wastage without a fight?
These constitute the root of our electoral malpractices. We have a situation where some one is seen committing treason, by seeking to assist in the imposition of government, outside the frame work of the due democratic process, for this is exactly what rigging is, and yet gets away with it as if what he has done is not a crime! The constitution outlaws taking over the government outside its provisions. Rigging, in its various forms, amounts to taking over government unlawfully, and in most of the cases, we have witnessed, so far, by the use of force, and therefore an act of treason. Inspite of this, we have licensed it a habitual customary act of our electoral tradition inspite of its criminality not withstanding. What could be a worse offence against the sovereign power of the people? If rigging is not treason, then what constitute it?
The point being made is that imposing a leadership on the people, outside the provisions of the constitution, is the same way coups have been doing so. It is not tenable to ague that they involve different methods and approaches. Coup plotters use guns, yes, but which guns and other offensive weapons didn’t we see during the last elections? There were indeed instances when some contestants used off duty “gunmen” to do their biddings at the polls.
In any case, what difference does it make when a people are denied the right to chose their leaders either by the use of gunmen or armed thugs? None. Same crime bearing different names. Treason therefore is another name for rigging and should be treated as such.
To tighten grips, any such electoral officer in charge of a district whose election is annulled, after all the due processes of the law, should automatically serve not less than two years in prison without any option of fine but subject to appeal.
A returning officer, who faces such a possibility, will have to think twice before allowing rigging thugs to be deployed to his area of supervision. This punishment should also apply to polling clerks, by whatever name called and security personnel deployed to ensure free and fair election in polling stations. The point is that if democracy is good for the nation and on this we are all agreed then anything done to undermine its practice is against the national interest and should therefore be sanctioned accordingly.
There has been acrimony, over the composition of the members of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The accusation has been that it has, been, largely, lopsided in favour of the ruling party at the center. For this reason, many have suggested that a serving judge, not below the rank of a Federal Appeal Court judge, be appointed, by the Chief Justice of Nigeria CJN, subject to endorsement by the National Assembly, to serve as Chairman of INEC. Sure enough this will minimize the partisanship involved in such an appointment.
Besides, he is subject to disciplinary action by the National Judicial Council NJC and this body has demonstrated competence in acting appropriately on such matters. For the same reason, State Residential Electoral Officers be headed by judges of the rank of State High Court, but not to serve in their respective states. In the case of other members of the Commission political parties be empowered to appoint them in such proportional manner of their score card in the last House of Representatives election.
However any party with not less than 5 per cent of votes cast in that election be entitled to at least one seat while such organizations like NBA, ASUU etc be also entitled to membership. The point should however be made that with the stiff penalties suggested here, even Audu Ogbeh will think twice before allowing rigging to be conducted m his favour but this is only when the laws could be effectively applied and enforced and we all know the level of law enforcement in this country.
South Korean parliamentarians did something recently. They impeached their president for alleged electoral offences. One of the reasons why this cannot happen here is that our laws are tended towards upholding electoral fraud because of the impossibility to prove them even when done in the open.
We have a case of a state, in the last presidential/governorship election, where certain parties had same number of votes, in about 15 local government, and the voters turn out, in the affected council areas, was 100 per cent. Yet the Election Tribunal returned a verdict of proper electoral conduct in a case filed again such fraud slide victories. But if this was not bad enough there was a case of 153 per cent voter turn out, in the same election, in another state! Still a Tribunal threw out this vital evidence without conscience! The disparities between gubernatorial and presidential scores, in several states, were so glaring that not even an apolitical mind will dispute clear evidence of electoral indecency in such calculations.
This again never mattered to the Tribunals. Of those mercilessly killed, brutalized and permanently deformed, in the process of defending the ballot, so far, no Tribunal has found it necessary evidence of how Nigerians were denied the right to vote in the last elections. Nor do we need to mention the application of frivolous technicalities to throw out valid cases, embarked upon massively by some Tribunals, unmindful even of public scorn.
The sum of all this is that our electoral laws are structured in such a way that it is easier for a camel to pass through the needle than for a complainant to get justice under these supportive electoral fraud legislations.The major beneficiaries of such fraud are so entrenched within the system that they will always be reluctant to initiate liberal changes for the good of the polity. And this is why the idea of a national conference is important.
We need rational minds who will look at things from liberal perspectives and not from the point of view of the status quo who are fearful of any change that may affect their vested interests. Properly organized National Conference would in the end strengthen the system. But how are we to go about this? A topic for another time.
