2007 And The Illusion Of Free And Fair Polls 

By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

President Olusegun Obasanjo has promised Nigerians and indeed the international community for the umpteenth time that his administration would ensure that a free and fair election is held in 2007. Apart from being
Nigeria’s president since May 29, 1999, he is presently the defacto – that is, to all intents and purposes and in reality – leader of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

But the president is not the only one who is staking his “huge reputation” on the freeness and fairness of the conduct of the forthcoming polls. Professor Maurice Iwu had told everybody who cared to listen that he would conduct a free and fair election that would make the June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by late Chief MKO Abiola and annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida look like an exercise carried out by pupils in the kindergarten. Iwu is the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the electoral umpire. He would like to be remembered as the man who broke the jinx of elections in
Nigeria, thereby giving multiparty liberal democracy a chance to flourish. 

Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has assured that the ultimate measure of his success in office would be the extent to which he ensures that evil and corrupt men are chased out of the corridors of power, never to come back again. He has sworn that the era of fraudulent men using their ill-gotten wealth to buy the votes of the hapless masses and wangle themselves to power is gone for good. Mallam Ribadu is the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He would like to be remembered as the man who put corruption on the leash and gave Nigerians a new lease of life.  

The success or otherwise of the 2007 elections depends to a very large extent on what the trio do with their good offices. I would believe also that they have every reason to ensure that the elections become huge success. If for nothing else, they would be engraving their names on stone as the men who did what was hitherto thought impossible in
Nigeria – superintending the conduct of free and fair elections. Interestingly, they have all vowed out of their own volition, without any prompting by the Nigerian people, to make the supreme sacrifice if need be so that
Nigeria will have a new beginning. 

Apart from the president, I have had a one-on-one with both Iwu and Ribadu and I came out each time with the impression that the axiomatic Daniel had come to judgement. They were passionate and convincing. They came across as men on a mission to reverse the ill-fortune of
Nigeria on matters of election. Both swore that it would no longer be “business as usual” in
Nigeria. I think it was Professor Iwu who coined the rather enticing phrase of “business unusual” in pointing out the way forward. 

To succeed in this noble mission of bequeathing Nigerians the legacy of free and fair elections that would ensure that the choices of the people as expressed through the ballot box not only remain sacrosanct but also that those with the mandate of the people actually take over the reins of power from those currently holding it, the trio, through their good offices must individually and collectively ensure that the old ways of doing things are put on a leash. 

Unfortunately, six months to May 29, 2007, the day these men ought to look back with pride and thump their chest for a job well done and mission accomplished, things are changing for the worse. If nothing is done and urgently too to halt this drift, 2007 would go down in the annals of elections in
Nigeria as the worst. 

My reasons for this assertion are two-legged. First, INEC has bungled the most elementary of all the processes that culminate in a free and fair election, which is registration of voters. It is not enough to inveigle us with the idea of electronic registration of voters because at the end of the day, the bottom-line remains that Nigerians want to be registered so as to exercise their right of franchise. Whether the registration is done manually or electronically is not much of a concern to them.  As it is now, INEC has done such a poor job of what I consider its most fundamental task in the chain of activities that will ultimately lead to a free and fair election, effectively dispelling the illusion that it could grapple with the ultimate task. Not even Dr Abel Guobadia, Iwu’s predecessor in office could have fared so badly. 

Secondly, if the outcome of the two congresses so far held by the PDP for the purpose of nominating candidates for next year’s general elections is anything to go by, there is nothing to show that Ribadu can or indeed has the capacity to rein in and stop money bags whose sources of wealth are questionable from hijacking the process. Evil men are still in control. Money is still everything. The people still have no say in choosing who flies the flag of their party in the elections. Nothing has changed and rather than “business unusual,” it is still business as usual. The dramatis personae are even more brazen now and it is still the same old cabal at work and Ribadu knows them. 

Then we come to the PDP itself, the only party that has flagged off its congresses. Again, nothing has changed. What has happened so far is a replay of the 2003 primaries that culminated in what Obasanjo recently called the Ayo Fayose Mistake. The culture of imposition of candidates on the party is still rife. The essence of primary elections is to give party members the chance to elect those that would contest the general elections on the platform of the party. This is not a privilege but a right. But as expected, PDP, the self-acclaimed largest party in
Africa has denied its members this right. Instead, the people have been served a cocktail of brigandage, killings and maiming.  

In

Rivers
State where Dr Peter Odili was declared winner with almost 100 percent of the people casting their ballot for him in 2003 even before INEC officials came back from the creeks with the results of the true verdict of the people, at least eight Nigerians were reportedly killed. In almost all the states, there was violence. In

Anambra
State, the Chuma Nzeribes are still at work. Results of congresses are still being written inside the bedroom of the most violent and powerful of the politicians. The culture of manufacturing several lists of candidates and substituting the names of winners with those of losers even after the general elections have been held has rear its ugly head again. The ward congress produced parallel results’ sheets. In fact, the exercise in five states – Delta, Bayelsa, Benue, Imo and Cross River – were cancelled outright while four local governments each were cancelled in Lagos, Kogi, Kaduna and Oyo. Out there, it is a jungle where might is right and how “successful” one is as a politician is not only a direct reflection of how brutal and nasty he is but also his ability to do the unthinkable. 

Congresses by their very nature are not supposed to be complex exercises, but they signpost the democratic temperament of a political party. It would be the height of illusion to expect a political party that cannot guarantee its internal democracy to quietly hitch a ride on the national democratic coaster without precipitating an accident. 

As I write, almost 20 people have collected PDP presidential nomination form. As the congresses progress to culminate in the national convention in December where the party will elect its presidential flag bearer, these manipulations would continue. The orgy of violence is bound to exacerbate; the killings would continue and the party members would have anything but the right to candidates of their choice. Yet, Obasanjo is telling those who care to listen that he is poised to give Nigerians a free and fair election in 2007. 

Now, through primaries, a party selects its best materials, which it would then present to the electorate during the general election for endorsement. Primaries afford the party the opportunity to put its best foot forward. A party that bungles its primaries can only expect to win the elections through fraud, which is what PDP has planned to do. 

It would be too much of an expectation; in fact, it would be foolhardy for anyone to hope that a political party that revels in rigging its own primaries would compete fairly with other political parties at the general elections. 

The most interesting thing though is that the president, INEC and EFCC chairmen, all of who have a role to play in straightening out the PDP bad boys are feigning ignorance of what is happening. Yet, they are promising a free and fair election in 2007. What an illusion.