2023: Lawmakers greatest losers of flawed electoral system ― Igini

Lawmakers at the federal level will again suffer more with a flawed electoral process as they would be booted out of office following the orders of the governors, in their respective states come 2023, Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom, Mike Igini said.

The Akwa Ibom electoral Commissioner said at the end of an administration like the curious development in 2007 and 2015 which showed a higher percentage of lawmakers replaced at the pleasure of their governor, who jettisoned internal democracy and fielded their candidate of choices, lawmakers must do their jobs to enhance internal democracy in their respective party.

He said the move to pass the new electoral bill by the national assembly was welcomed and would revolutionize the electoral system in the country. He said this on Channels TV, monitored by our correspondent.

Igini said if the national assembly failed to carry out the reform in the electoral Act amendment bill, it will again face the consequences of mass loss because it threw the opportunity to change the status quo which encourages litany of court cases that challenged processes and losses in the past.

He maintained that leaving the process to the hand of powerful governors will only lead to a flawed system that does not favour democracy in any way, insisting that the passage of the bill will elevate the nation’s electoral system.

“The first primary duty of a party is to present a candidate for election, in 2003, where there was furore, which wouldn’t have been because for enlightened self-interest dictates that, those who are actually the greatest beneficiaries of our electoral system should do things that will project and protect our democracy.

“The failure to reform party primaries in Nigeria has caused a lot of problems since 2003, this was because in 1999 to 2003 we were in a hurry to get the Military back to the barracks, it never mattered in 1999.

“In 2003 and to tell you the greatest casualty are national assembly members.

This is going to be a different bill altogether, he pointed that “in case we have any of them who think otherwise, the following statics will show that members of the national assembly have been the greatest victims of the failure to reform the primary electoral process in Nigeria, as other parts of the electoral system that will support and empower INEC to do more than what we are doing now.

“In 2003 because of the failure to reform the electoral process, those who were elected in 1999 into the national assembly that has the power to do all of these. They left the primary process to the hands of governors at the state level.

“Even though in an election that these are ordinarily are things that are subjected to the electorates of their various constituencies they would have won elections but these are things they left the entire power in the hands of the governors, in 2003 a whopping 70 per cent of members of national assembly did not return back only 30 per cent did.

“In 2007 those who were elected in 2003, do not forget that some matters went to the supreme court because the candidate who won the primaries were just removed on flimsy excuses not backed by law.

“Between 2003 and 2007, over 70 per cent of the national assembly that had the power to reform the process did not return back to the national assembly. Only 24 per cent of lawmakers returned back to the national assembly.

“By 2011, we were again in the electoral trenches calling for the need to reform process because political party members have the right to make a choice and that most of the people who are not returning now are not necessarily and ordinarily, during the elections, they will not return, like what happened in 2011, where 68 per cent of the members of the national assembly who were elected in 2007 did not return back only 32 per cent returned back.”

Igini said lawmakers owe themselves and the nation a duty to make laws that promote the well-being of the nation.

He continued that “by 2015 again those elected in 2011 69 per cent did not return only 31 per cent returned to the national assembly.

“The last election 2019, this is where we had a marginal improvement where only 56 per cent returned 44 per cent did not return.”

Igini said from the statistics above he can give a projection of the 2023 election indicating that lawmakers will lose out of the election process if they do not pass the bill that may save them.

“If we fail to do this amendment now, and continue to leave the decision of who becomes what or candidate in an election in the hands of the executive at the state, which ought not to be because it is not compliant, the decision is going to be worst.

“The members of the national assembly are going to be the biggest victims and there will be more casualties in 2023.

“The reason is that whenever you have a first time election in the part of the executive and they are going for the second term, as was the case in 2019 after 2015, the likelihood to deny people tickets in their party because it may have an impact on their own second term election they will normally give them the ticket.

“Now most state executive governors are now in their second term and some of them are also interested in going to the national assembly eying the seat of those who are there right now, and they have the right to do so there is a question about that but processes suffer,” he stated.

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