{"id":24065,"date":"2014-03-10T14:58:55","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T13:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=24065"},"modified":"2014-03-10T14:58:55","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T13:58:55","slug":"inec-shame-on-the-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/inec-shame-on-the-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"INEC: Shame on the opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0BySKC Ogbonia,<\/em><\/strong>
\nPh.D.SKCOgbonnia@firsttexasenergy.comHouston, Texas<\/p>\n

One of the earliest\u00a0lessons I learned from my father, Ilogebe Ogbonnia, the Ikeoha, is that a
\nhabit of excuses is an existential catalyst for failure. Nowhere is this
\nadage more evident than the attitude of Nigerian opposition parties toward
\nthe Independent National Election Commission (INEC). Perhaps it is no
\nlonger news that the INEC has been the common excuse for failures in the
\ndifferent elections in the Fourth Republic. But with the 2015 general
\nelections around the corner, and even in midst of efforts in the National
\nAssembly to amend electoral laws, recent events show that the opposition
\nis already positioning a fore excuse for another failure. This problem is
\nrooted on the long-standing scape-goating of the different chairmen of the
\nNigerian electoral body and its officials. Even though such excuse is
\ngenuine, it masks an inner foolishness for the opposition not to have
\nrecognized that expecting a commission fully controlled by a partisan
\nexecutive arm of the government to produce free and fair elections is no
\ndifferent from perceiving a stench as an aroma. The case of Maurice Iwu,
\nthe chairman of Independent National Election Commission (INEC) in the
\ncontroversial elections of 2007 is still fresh in our memory. In the eyes
\nof the opposition, Professor Maurice Iwu was the problem and the problem
\nwas Professor Iwu. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan obliged and swiftly
\nreplaced Iwu with Attahiru Jega, another radical professor, then generally
\nhailed as the Election Messiah. Yet, after 2011 elections, we are back to
\nsquare one. According to Muhammadu Buhari of CPC, the main opponent of
\nPresident Jonathan in the 2011 elections, What happened in this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s
\nelections eclipsed all the other elections in the depth and scope of
\nforgery and rigging. Initially there were high hopes that after 2003 and
\n2007 a semblance of electoral propriety would be witnessed. The new
\nchairman of INEC, Professor Jega, was touted as competent and a man of
\nintegrity. He has proved neither. (As quoted in Vanguard Newspaper,
\nDecember 28, 2011) For the national chairman of the then frontline
\nopposition party, Action Congress of Nigeria, Bisi Akande: The intention
\nof the INEC was to have it right, but what you see is total manipulation
\nparticularly by the security agencies and the lower level of INEC staff
\nbecause the PDP induced people with plenty of money. They managed to use
\nmoney to manipulate the INEC officials at the lower level of the
\ncommission and they used them to intimidate and to falsify the results of
\nthe election. (As quoted in Daily Sun, April 15, 2011) To cap it all,
\nafter the 2014 Anambra governorship election, widely seen as the pretest
\nof Nigeria\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s general elections of 2015, the opposition (including PDP in
\nthis case) also accused the INEC of colluding with security agents to rig
\nthe elections in favor of the state ruling APGA. The PDP candidate, Tony
\nNwonye, had this to say: Since the history of elections, I have always
\nknown of a conspiracy by incumbents, but this one by Peter Obi is
\nmonumental. I have never seen an election where the security agent and the
\nINEC collude to subdue other political parties. (As quoted in Daily Post,
\nNovember 17, 2013) This sweeping rebuke of INEC by the political elites is
\na rude awakening. The inmost gist is that the problem has gone nowhere
\ndespite the replacement of a distinguished professor with another. It
\napparently explains why a broad spectrum of observers has continued to
\nridicule the degree of the mass ignorance. A maverick senator, Arthur
\nNzeribe, jumpstarted the debate by arguing that the serial attempts to
\nfocus solely on the perceived individual abilities of the chairman rather
\nthan the nucleus of the problem was height of hypocrisy (This Day, January
\n26, 2009). An unbiased umpire, the Rev. Fr. Mathew Kukah followed by
\ncautioning that the mere replacement of Maurice Iwu, the individual, would
\nnot always guarantee free and fair elections in the future\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnoting that,
\n“the very fact that we say we are looking for a person of integrity does
\nnot mean that anybody that gets there would not become a crook” (As quoted
\nin Sunday Guardian, March 29, 2009). And Professor Okon Uya, a former
\nchairman of National Electoral Commission, would later place the matter
\nexactly how and where it belongs: There is no gainsaying that a leader
\nwith deep sense of independence and fairness is desirable for the headship
\nof the electoral commission, but the success of any election is far beyond
\nthe ability of a single individual (Daily Sun, February 28, 2011). Unless
\nit is enmeshed in sheer amnesia, these incisive viewpoints were sufficient
\nto have provoked the opposition to think otherwise. After all, virtually
\nall heads of Nigeria\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s electoral commission in history have been men
\nwith outstanding pedigrees before appointment. That is, even if the
\npresident is to appoint a given chairman that is most credible, who
\ncheckmates him or her to ensure that the real goals and objectives of the
\nelectoral commission are being fulfilled? Other than the national
\nchairman, who are the other electoral officers at the national and zonal
\nlevels, in the states, local governments, wards, and in the polling
\nbooths? How credible, how efficient, and how independent are these
\nelectoral officers? Who are the contractors and other personnel vested
\nwith the responsibility of providing the logistics for the elections? How
\nindependent and neutral are the security agents and Judiciary in the
\nprocess of these Nigerian elections? A review of the last Electoral
\nReform Committee (ERC) suggests that some of these questions might have
\nbeen hovering in the minds of its members when they recommended among
\nother things the following: a) the National Judicial Council should
\nappoint the chairman b) the commission should include members of
\nindependent organizations, such as the Labor Union or the News-Media.
\nWhile those considerations have their merits, the question remains: who
\nare these individuals that would work hand in hand with the
\nchairman\u00e2\u20ac\u201dagents of the ruling party or the opposition? How will the
\nso-called National Judicial Council be different from judges or other
\nelectoral agents who are always manipulated by the party in power? How
\nmany truly independent members of the Labor Union or the News-Media are
\nthere to recruit? How many independent NLC or pressmen are available and
\ncan abandon their jobs to man the over 120,000 polling booths? It is true
\nthat INEC eventually recruited members of the National Youth Service Corps
\n(NYSC) as Ad-hoc staff in the 2011 elections, but how can such susceptible
\ninexperienced staff (usually in their mid-twenties) not be easily
\nintimidated and influenced by powerful party agents and money bags at the
\npolling booths as were alleged in the pilot exercise of 2011? Another
\nscheme used in the 2011 elections was the deployment of highly placed
\nuniversity professors as Resident Electoral Commissioners. But does the
\nopposition expect these university dons to be so different from most
\nfailed politicians, who had also distinguished themselves in previous
\ncareers before turning to politics? How do they expect that the university
\nrecruits would not be wholly subservient to the ruling parties at the
\nstates where their universities are located? Any honest answer to any of
\nthese endless questions will reveal that while the INEC and its various
\npersonnel might have role to play in the different electoral malpractices,
\nit smacks of crass ignorance on part of the opposition to act as if one
\nneeds to be told that the outcomes of most national elections
\n(particularly 2003, 2007, and 2011 polls) were fait accompli\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfar
\ndetermined even before the electoral officials began their job. A former
\nChief Justice of Nigeria and the chairman of the 2008 Electoral Reform
\nCommittee (ERC), Mohammed Uwais had alluded to this irony when he remarked
\nthat the hoopla about free and fair elections without creating the
\nenabling conditions was pure baloney (Nigerian Guardian, December 1,
\n2010). Common sense dictates that the emphasis ought to have been on
\ncreating a truly independent electoral commission before discussing
\nelections. Yet, the opposition did nothing and still doing nothing serious
\ntoward producing a reliable electoral body. To improve the system,
\nparticularly with the current debate on electoral reform in the
\nlegislature, the opposition parties should without further delay compel
\nPresident Goodluck Jonathan to truly support changes to the electoral
\ncommission in two important ways: First is to create a commission composed
\nrepresentatives from the ruling party and the opposition. A structure with
\nmembers drawn from the ruling parties and representatives of truly
\nqualified opposition parties at the different levels of government will
\nstrengthen the needed checks and balances within the commission itself. It
\nhas the potential to facilitate the enabling environment for effective
\nleadership of the commission, ensure and sustain true independence
\nthroughout the width and breadth of the commission, and guarantee fairness
\nto the parties involved. To abridge the inherent partisanship, the
\nproposed structure can be augmented with a select few drawn from the civil
\nsociety: the Nigerian Labor Congress, NYSC, Judiciary; and the security
\nagents. In simple terms, the qualified political parties themselves should
\nsubmit members with clear party affiliations to the new council. The
\ncentral idea is that the different phases of the election from top
\nleadership to other areas, including but not limited to handling and
\ndistribution of election materials, accreditation, supervision, voting,
\ncollation, tabulations and declarations (or cancellations) of
\nresults\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfrom the national level to polling stations\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmust be guarded
\nand managed by an election team with full view and representation of
\nmembers of qualified parties. This approach can forestall the likelihood
\nof situations where, in absence of opposition party agents, the INEC and
\nits leadership connive with the ruling or favored party to manipulate
\nelectoral outcomes. The proposal parallels the position of the main
\nopposition party in the 2007 election, the All Nigeria\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Peoples Party
\n(ANPP), where it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Enenkwu,
\ncanvassed for members of the different political parties to be included in
\nthe leadership of INEC (Champion Newspaper, August 24, 2007). The
\nobjective fact here is that true independence or neutrality is far beyond
\nthe mere appointment of a national chairman; it is more attainable in an
\nenvironment that deters or checkmates the group or individual from acting
\notherwise. Also important, the council members or the observers of
\nelections in the different poll stations should be recruited from the
\nimmediate communities where their antecedents are better-known. Second,
\ngiven that most individual elections in Nigeria are already being financed
\nthrough looted funds from government treasury; similar to the
\nMcCain-Feingold in the United States of America, without the choice for
\nindividual contributions, Nigeria should adopt full public funding for
\ninter-party elections. Thank God that this proposal will not be burdened
\nby the number of parties as once imagined. The opposition is now gradually
\nevolving to the desired two-party structure after finally realizing that
\nmultiplicity of parties was a pyrrhic victory in the first place. Even
\nmore, in absence of a two-party structure, to frustrate political
\nmerchants who would like to capitalize on the loopholes of the government
\nfunding, more stringent conditions should be set for registration as well
\nas participation of parties in elections. Alternatively or
\nsimultaneously, the opposition should ensure that that the proposed
\nCashless Policy is fully implemented and INEC strengthened to enforce
\nextant laws on campaign finance. For instance, despite the fact that the
\n1999 Constitution and the Electoral Acts of 2002, 2006, and 2010
\nstipulated specific guidelines for campaign finance and attendant
\npenalties, neither Presidents Goodluck Jonathan, Umaru Yar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Adua, nor
\nPresident Olusegun Obasanjo before them could account for the tens of
\nbillions of naira sunk into their respective political campaigns. Of
\ncourse, there has been some musings here and there on the issue of
\nexcessive use of money and its source, with aggrieved parties occasionally
\nhollering, but none of the political parties or individuals has registered
\nany solid official complaint\u00e2\u20ac\u201deither because of their own culpability or
\nthe simple truth that INEC is not designed to implement the relevant
\ncampaign laws ab initio. Not even the Nigeria’s promising news media,
\nknown for free and sensational journalism, could charge their searchlights
\nwhen it comes to campaign finance. No one was or is authoritatively
\nasking: How did President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice President
\nAtiku Abubakar source the funds to openly \u00e2\u20ac\u0153settle\u00e2\u20ac the delegates who
\nvoted for them in the epic 2011 PDP presidential primary election? What
\nis the source of money Jonathan used to prosecute his cross-country
\ncampaign while his opponents were stalled to their regional enclaves?
\nConversely, how in the world did an ex-police commissioner, Nuhu Ribadu,
\nsuddenly land the money to offset his campaign bills? Just wait\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 To make
\nmatters worse, the very commission entrusted with monitoring electoral
\nfinance is notoriously nonchalant with this important responsibility. In
\nfact, the current Chairman of INEC, Attahiru Jega, had to confess that
\neven though the Electoral Act empowers it to monitor sources and nature of
\nfunding, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153INEC does not even have a desk that handles campaign
\nfinancing\u00e2\u20ac (As quoted in Vanguard Newspaper, May 8, 2011). While this
\nutter negligence was enough to have provoked a guided mass action, the
\nNigerian opposition seems to have coolly joined the chorus. The following
\nproclamation by Nuhu Ribadu, the presidential candidate of Action Congress
\nof Nigeria, and a former corruption czar, is an exclamation point: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I
\nwon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother myself with the integrity of politicians that will fund my
\ncampaign. I will take corrupt politician\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s money for my campaign as far
\nas the money is not put in my pocket\u00e2\u20ac (As quoted in Vanguard Newspaper,
\nMarch 20, 2011). The most annoying aspect is that some of Ribadu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s major
\ndonors were ex-governors who were indicted for looting state treasury
\nunder the watchful eyes of the same Ribadu. Besides, the very thought of
\nthe opposition competing to outdo a ruling party with looted funds is not
\nonly height of hypocrisy but also of infamy. The opposition apologists
\nare expected to roar back here with another excuse. They will cling on the
\nreigning Nigerian political value system which readily insinuates that the
\nopposition leaders have to find any means necessary to gain power first
\nbefore demonstrating the perceived sense of prudence. But such thinking
\nought to be quashed once and for all: A simple scan of history in the
\nFourth Republic profoundly reveals that the success of the opposition in
\ndifferent elections across the country has never been because of superior
\nfinancial power over ruling parties. This should in no way be misconstrued
\nas saying that money has no role to play. None of that! In fact, money is
\nas important to politics as water is to fish, but there are better ways of
\nraising money than queuing at the domains of rogue politicians. And make
\nno mistake about this: The Nigerian masses may be down but they are
\ndefinitely not out. We have not yet forgotten that corrupt military
\nbrigade that funded President Olusegun Obasanjo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s elections enjoyed
\nimmunity while he was in power. The masses still remember that President
\nUmaru Yar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Adua\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disinclination to investigate clear cases of
\ncorruption by his predecessor and some ex-governors is attributed to the
\nsource of funds used in ushering him (Yar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Adua) to power. Ditto
\nPresident Goodluck Jonathan. But given that opposition leaders also accept
\nlooted funds from government treasury, how and why should the masses then
\nview them as credible alternatives? The answer is that the whole world is
\ntired of what is going on. We are very tired and afraid that the power
\nstruggles is to replace existing leaders with others whose visions would
\nnot be different from those of their predecessors. Perhaps the
\nopposition could drop one final mundane excuse: President Jonathan would
\nnot yield to pragmatic changes to INEC. Although recent events may prove
\notherwise, but should the president dare toe that path, the opposition
\nshould courageously boycott the 2015 elections, and the masses will and
\nshould follow. This approach is so potent because, apart from the fact
\nthat Jonathan would not like to end as an Abacha monocrat; continuing to
\nengage in elections with predetermined results is a mindless waste of
\nnational resources. Further, unless you have not been following, Goodluck
\nJonathan is very accommodating\u00e2\u20ac\u201dprobably the kindest president ever. He
\nis kind to the good\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand probably kinder to the bad. But while the latter
\nhave already capitalized to accomplish their sole objective of milking the
\ncountry dry, and without qualms; the former (particularly the opposition)
\nis caught moping\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcontinuing to fail to take advantage of the unique
\nkindness to provide a viable alternative to the masses. Very daringly,
\nhis humble look notwithstanding, President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan
\nis no man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fool. This man who went to school without shoes knows very
\nwell that even as he truly means well for the ordinary people, and should;
\nthe leadership crisis is tipping the critical threshold for revolution,
\nand the political logic of resisting change no longer favors him. Jonathan
\ncan remember vividly that blind leadership made it possible for mere
\nclandestine organizations to dethrone the military power. The man can also
\nrecall that stern opposition with unity of purpose rubbished Obasanjo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s
\nthird term ambition as well as his legacy. More poignantly, the president
\nis quite aware that any effort in Nigeria similar to Arab Spring will not
\nonly doom him for life but will also gain worldwide support. Thusly, the
\nbrother is wise enough to grasp that a change through civil opposition is
\nby far a safer alternative. The problem is the failure of the opposition
\nto read the mood of both the president and the people they are hoping to
\nlead. This problem is squarely a lack of a dynamic opposition party\u00e2\u20ac\u201done
\nthat is visionary, focused, capable of differentiating itself from the
\nruling party, capable of providing the desired checks and balances toward
\neffective national leadership; and ready, willing, and able to replace the
\nparty in power. SKC Ogbonnia<\/p>\n

================SKC Ogbonnia, Ph.D.
\nExecutive ChairmanFirst Texas Energy Corporation
\n14133 Memorial Drive
\nHouston, TX 77079Office: 281-558-2233
\nPhone: 281-802-3449
\nCC:218-486-1600-Code:330667
\nWebsite: www.firsttexasenergy.com
\n…leading with integrity in the Oil &amp; Gas sector<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0BySKC Ogbonia, Ph.D.SKCOgbonnia@firsttexasenergy.comHouston, Texas One of the earliest\u00a0lessons I learned from my father, Ilogebe Ogbonnia, the Ikeoha, is that a habit of excuses is an existential catalyst for failure. Nowhere…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\nINEC: Shame on the opposition - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/inec-shame-on-the-opposition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"INEC: Shame on the opposition - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0BySKC Ogbonia, Ph.D.SKCOgbonnia@firsttexasenergy.comHouston, Texas One of the earliest\u00a0lessons I learned from my father, Ilogebe Ogbonnia, the Ikeoha, is that a habit of excuses is an existential catalyst for failure. 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