Happy New Year, dear reader. Thanks be to the Almighty God. Welcome to that long-expected 2022, the year many Nigerians hope would bring better Nigeria from the same people, the same political leaders and the same socio-political process. For instance in Ibadan, the prognosis is showing that 2022 would be a year with the same electricity power problems, despite all the beautiful promises and forceful bragging. The blackout throughout Ibadan and environ is the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC’s) Christmas and New Year gifts to their customers. It is now approaching time for their customers to pay, especially those who have not been given prepaid meters, who still receive estimated bills.
The poor electricity supply is like a metaphor though. Nearly everything that is public utility in the country is like that. No Nigerian outside the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) can confidently boast of enjoying adequate supply or availability of basic amenities in the country. This is contestable, and I stand to be corrected. However, that act or action which could set the country’s feet on the path of making basic amenities available is a credible and competent electoral process. In 2023, there would be a general election in which Nigerians hope to elect a new president, a new National Assembly as well as new state governors (where necessary or possible). Nigerians are hoping that a new electoral law would enhance the quality of elections and thus believe that the amendment to the electoral law by the National Assembly would fast-track this.
However, as things stand today with Nigeria’s Electoral Act Amendment Bill (2021), it looks like the bill is a script in the hands of some wrong, thoroughly off-beam actors. The proposed amendment to our electoral laws is suffering in the hands of the national actors who are tossing it up and down, here and there. Perhaps, expectant ordinary Nigerians are the ones who are not reading the script right. There is more to the whole scenario than meets the eye. The whole world knows that the amendment to Nigeria’s electoral law has been thrown around, sometimes in disdain, since the idea to amend it took hold in the National Assembly. And the president has not shown that amending the electoral laws has a pride of place in his heart.
Everything about the bill might be play-acting by the relevant powers. Acting is, simply put, make belief. It is the act of making those who are watching believe that you are for real. One dictionary says ‘acting’ is “to behave oneself in a specified way; to perform… to feign.” Another dictionary defines ‘acting’ as “display of affected behaviour; pretense”. It adds that when it comes to play-acting, which is “to represent or perform by action especially on a stage”; it means “feign, simulate, impersonate”. It adds that it means “to behave in a manner suitable to something.” We are either deeply in this ‘acting’ or we are not far from it.
The last time electoral amendment bill was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018, he declined assent. The president had written to the National Assembly on August 30, 2018 to announce his rejection of the bill. And that made it the third time. Mr. Ita Enang, his legislative aide then said: “Mr. President is declining assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill due to some drafting issues that remain unaddressed following the prior revisions to the bill. Mr. President invites the Senate and House of Representatives to address these issues as quickly as possible so that he may grant presidential assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill.”
These “drafting issues” of 2018 were referred to in a more direct language by some worried Nigerians, who were watching the drama as it unfurled. They called it “errors”, and laid the blame of the “drafting issues” or “errors” on the table of the National Assembly. That time too, these Nigerians expressed fears of holding election with the old law. There were worries that the mellifluous language with which the executive arm of the Nigerian government was describing the grave situation, was indeed targeted at delaying the bill to such a time that it would not be available for the 2019 elections. But Ita Enang dismissed such fears in August 2018.
That year, Nigerians may not readily remember that President Buhari refused to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill three times. The first time, he observed that the National Assembly tampered with the election sequence by making the Presidential election to be the last election. The second time the bill suffered rejection from the president, he alleged that there were typographical errors on the bill which he noted might have affected its credibility. The third was when Senator Enang explained that there were noticeable “draft issues”. When the concern that the bill might not be available for use for the 2019 elections, Ita Enang said this was unfounded because, as he held then, the matters raise could be addressed by the National Assembly “in a few weeks.”
This amendment bill has changed names many times. The names are as its years. And now that it has become Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021, Nigeria has relapsed to the same old issues. In the past few days as 2021 raced to its denouement, the noticeable (or perceived) lack of desire to truly reform the electoral process has been highlighted. Maybe, the National Assembly and the civil society organisations are shouting. Politicians are plotting. The electorate is being prepared for the gulag… as usual. A House of Assembly by-election in Ekiti State has been stalled for months, after the loss of lives of a voter and that of a policeman. Yet, these ugly incidents have not been enough of a spur for the lawmakers and the president to expedite action on giving the country an acceptable electoral law.
The speed with which the president signed the Petroleum Industry Act into law comes to mind here. He even signed the bill with a request that some of the areas that need twitching in the law should be amended by the National Assembly. He signed the PIB into law despite the protests by some people in the country and regardless of the need to amend some aspects of the law. Why has the amendment of the electoral law not received this kind of treatment? Why has the bill been going and coming (these several seasons) like John Pepper Clark’s Abiku?
The country has an opportunity, through the amendment of the law, to put right those things that were noticed as flaws in the 2015 elections. The old Act was used for the 2015 elections and we all saw how it went. On another score, we cannot throw the baby away with the bath water. There so many things contained in the bill. First was electronic transmission of election results. Now, very useful things are being swallowed in the murky waters of direct primary controversy. Why not allow political parties to conduct their primaries and thereafter deal with measures put in place by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the probable controversies? Among other things, INEC has employed electronic means to save itself some of the shenanigans of politicians and political parties. For instance, it is a political party that would upload the name and particulars of its candidate on the INEC portal. When the deadline is up, the portal closes. This shows an umpire who wishes to be impartial. But would the politicians allow this?
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, has been speaking so much about the amendment bill and the president’s denied assent. He has not kept quiet since the president rejected the Bill. He was quoted to have said that Buhari rejected the bill and declined assent from good advice. It could then be interpreted to mean that Gbajabiamila and the members of the House of Representatives gave us a bad electoral bill from a bad advice. We hope the amendment bill would not drag till it is too late to use it for 2023 elections.
and then