Mr Olufemi Aduwo is the Permanent Representative of the Centre for Convention on Democratic Integrity (CCDI) to the United Nations and he doubles as president, Rights Monitoring Group, which is a coalition of about 45 civil society organisations. In this interview, he speaks on the dangers posed to democracy by vote buying, Osun guber election and what INEC and others must do to enhance credible elections in the country. Excerpts...
Although it is generally appraised as well conducted, the Ekiti guber election leaves a sour taste with the high level of vote buying that marred it. How do you think the problem can be solved?
It is unfortunate that the election was marred by massive vote buying. As an observer myself, I provided technical assistance to a foreign mission during the election. It was a sad experience and a dangerous trend. If PDP had gone to the extent the APC has been going lately in terms of heavy monetisation of voting, then no opposition party would have been able to upstage them from power. I am not saying there was no monetisation when PDP was at the central government, but I am concerned it has now become the order of the day at elections. Nobody is ready to canvass for votes again. They just believe that on the day of election, the bigger your purse, the bigger your chance to win the election. This has eroded the beauty of democracy. What happened in Ekiti was a charade and not an election.
The first thing is that voters have unfortunately not changed. Since 2003, I have not voted because I serve as an observer of elections. With all the glamour and the noise from the campaign grounds, the voter turnout was very poor. I was shocked to read in the newspapers that voter turnout was huge. About 920,000 voters got their PVCs to vote in Ekiti, but those who came out to vote were not up to 400,000. What is huge in that? We were thinking that, by now, the average Nigerian will be thinking about their future and we projected based on this that about 800,000 people would come out to vote. It means in the 2023 elections, the story will be similar if nothing happens in the area of awareness for Nigerians. Vote buying is an issue, no doubt and the best way to go about it is to make it criminal for money to exchange hands and give Election Petition Tribunals powers to cancel an election where cases of vote buying are established. But in this country, they will bring up arguments founded on technical grounds and so on. It is more than two weeks since the election held, the EFCC has not paraded the people they said they caught buying votes in Ekiti. We don’t even know the identities of those arrested and when they will be arraigned. We may have heard the last of the story. If the offenders are prosecuted, people with similar plans will adjust and be cautious. To organise a free and fair election in Nigeria, three stakeholders must cooperate. They are the voters, INEC and the security personnel. For Ekiti election, INEC and security personnel did very well. But the voters, despite all the warnings against selling of votes still went ahead to do so. In a country where the level of poverty is so high, the opportunity for democracy to develop will be zero. Democracy thrives in a society that experiences economic development. In a society with high poverty and illiteracy rate like Nigeria, the tendency for democracy not to grow is very high. If we continue like this, politicians will no longer waste money on campaign. They will stockpile enough money to buy votes on election day.
Would you suggest the re-organisation of INEC facilities at polling units in such a way that it will be difficult for voters to show who they have voted for?
What INEC should do is to curb rowdiness in and around polling units. We can’t continue to pretend, armed policemen should be allowed at polling units. Those who hijack ballot boxes and carry out violence are armed, so why shouldn’t we have armed policemen at the polling units? INEC must ensure there is orderliness at the polling units so as to ensure that nobody else can see persons casting their votes. It may be difficult, but it is achievable. INEC and other stakeholders need to continue voter education for the voters know the reason they are voting and the advantages of voting. This will go a long way in reducing the rate at which voters eat their future through the money they get from politicians at elections. In Ghana where I have also observed elections, the madness we call vote buying here is not in vogue there. Maybe those involved in this madness will begin to rethink by the two or three people are jailed for vote merchandising and electoral victories are cancelled.
As an observer what is your assessment of INEC’s conduct of the election?
In a city of the blind, a one-eyed man is a king. There is nothing special in what INEC has done because so much money was spent and we expected that the outcome would be what it was. In some areas in Ekiti, the B-VAS technology failed, though there was quick response from the technical team. But that was in a one-off election and not a general one. Are we going to have the same level of effectiveness when the election is general? Overall, I would say INEC was fantastic in its conduct of the Ekiti election. Since we are currently running with e-transmission, I believe Nigeria is really ripe for full-scale electronic voting, regardless of the level of illiteracy. There are technologies that can be deployed to make sure e-voting is successful.
Do you see INEC replicating the Ekiti success in Osun where a guber election is due on July 18?
Osun election will not be violence-free, given our preliminary findings from the field there. There will be high violence in Osun because the stakes are high. The opposition parties have seen that voters go for the highest bidders. APC could have been defeated in Ekiti if PDP and SDP were together. It was a big shame on former Governor Ayo Fayose who unilaterally appropriated the structure for himself. For Osun, it is going to be money-for-money. But this madness has to stop. The office of the National Security Adviser has to ensure movement of large sums of money days before election should be discouraged. APC is most guilty of this and the office should summon the courage to end this. It is a big shame. We know how they moved money to Ekiti. Did a presidential aircraft carrying the money not land in Akure Airport two days to the election? The answer is Yes. We alerted the right people, but no action was taken. The opposition, particularly the PDP, should be vigilant in Osun. It is the same thing the ruling party will attempt to do, but it may boomerang this time. The enemies of democracy are still lurking in the dark. We, therefore, should not play into their hands. Let the people decide who will govern them. The way politicians are going about next year’s elections is even more dangerous. It is not INEC now. It is the politicians that we should caution, particularly the way APC is going about it. What the politicians are doing to our elections is worse than what Boko Haram is doing to the country. We have written to the American government on the areas they should get involved in the elections. It is said that politicians now believe once they are able to get enough money, the voters have a price and they can always buy them.
How do you see INEC’s preparations towards the 2023 general election?
INEC is doing well towards ensuring the elections are held without a hitch. But I think the commission should collaborate with other stakeholders to evolve a strict measure of punishments for those who engage in see and buy at elections. This is coming up as the biggest threat to credible elections in the country. I have been monitoring elections since 2003; there is no election in the northern part of the country where money is not deployed to induce voters. It is a serious. INEC can use the religious organisations to educate the populace about the evil of vote buying. I am not saying only APC bought votes in Ekiti. All the major parties did, but APC gave the highest amount to the voters. If the Federal Government sees this as a dangerous trend, the president can address the country about it.
Under the constitution, there is nothing that says INEC should appoint either a lecturer or a herbalist as returning officer. The practice came during the chairmanship of Attahiru Jega who is a former president of ASUU. He wanted to court the friendship of ASUU by introducing the practice. Are lecturers the only credible people in Nigeria today? Lecturers who are being accused from time to time of engaging in sex-for-mark scandals? Why can’t INEC use retired justices, credible civil activist and others? In 2015, a professor of Mathematics, on a national TV, could not calculate figures at the collation centre in Abuja. It was shameful because he did not know how the figures were arrived at. What I know about election is that once an objection has been raised by a candidate about the credibility of an appointed returning officer, such a person must not be forced to oversee the election. In fact, INEC should unveil state returning officers three months before election for people to scrutinise him. The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) is by law the chief returning officer for state elections. All these people they are bringing is to waste money. I, for instance, have monitored election in the UK, US, Ghana and in Nigeria since 2003, how will a professor know more than me about election conduct? There are thousands of judges, activists that INEC can use. Bringing university lecturers for elections does not add anything to the elections. One of them, you will remember, is now serving jail term in Akwa Ibom for election result matter. This should serve as a lesson to INEC and the lecturers themselves.
-nigeriantribune
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