Umahi’s counsel

• Formal signatures for peace a bit extreme but everyone must commit themselves to sane electoral conduct

Ebonyi State governor, David Umahi, was spot on, when he rightly said politicians alone don’t rig election. They do so, in complicit with comprised security agencies and staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

That was a sound premise that can hardly be faulted. From that, he then moved on to suggest security agencies and INEC officials too must be made to sign “peace pacts”, committing them to free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections. Not so. That would be superfluous, because such conduct is taken as given, as an integral part of their service terms.

But hear the governor’s own words: “It is not the political parties that should sign the pact because we have no guns or powers,” the governor reasoned, while in Abakaliki, the state capital, signing the Ebonyi Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) peace pact, committing all Ebonyi State political parties and partisans to peaceful polls. “I will ask rationally that they (INEC and security agencies) should sign undertakings to conduct free and fair elections, to safeguard the unity of the country.”

On the surface, the governor appears to make eminent sense —  political parties indeed have no guns nor should. Still, rogue partisans, with reported prompting from even governors, do. The other day, news broke that some desperate governors were allegedly arming thugs and allied criminals for electoral purposes. It requires no especial logic to know these are underground enforcers to fiddle the vote, via violence.

To the extent of that grim reality, making political parties and governors commit to peaceful electoral acts is imperative. That way, there is at least some formal protocol to keep them all on leash; and extract decent electoral conduct from them.

But Governor Umahi was also right when he argued politicians couldn’t rig elections, without colluding with security agencies and INEC officials.

Misuse of security agencies, for electoral purposes, has been with Nigeria since independence. In the 1st Republic (1960-1966), the local constabulary was notorious for helping the ruling establishment muscle the vote. That led to the unified police, which the military era fashioned, as the elixir to the problem.

But the police themselves have had quite a chequered record of collusion, particularly with federal ruling parties. For example, the Sunday Adewusi-energised mobile police, popularly dubbed “Kill-and-go” by the helpless populace, played a major role in helping to rig the 1983 election, which eventually rigged out the Second Republic (1979-1983). Even during the 2015 elections, there were reported allegations of security, illicitly weighing in, to help tilt the electoral scale.

Maurice Iwu’s INEC, under President Olusegun Obasanjo, broke all records in electoral infamy, as it waywardly awarded votes to the ruling party, with absolutely no regard for how the electorate voted. Also, cases are still in court over alleged bribery-to-rig-the-poll, by resident electoral commissioners (RECs).

Indeed, in two of such cases, Justice Mohammed Idris, of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, on January 24, convicted Christian Nwosu and Tijani Bashir, two former INEC staff, found guilty of receiving hefty bribes, to compromise the 2015 elections.

Still, it is also fair to note that elections have become gradually and progressively fairer and saner, since the debut of the card reader, a key electoral reform, from corrections suggested by the Muhammadu Lawal Uwais Electoral Reforms Panel (ERP), set up by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

However, this background does not negate Governor Umahi’s suggestion of committing INEC and security agencies to better electoral behaviour. On the contrary, it strengthens it. If elections are violently fiddled, and the people know their choice has been recklessly shunted aside, the possibility of violence is rather high. No one, after all, gains by violence.

But to sign “peace pacts” would be a mockery of the service and engagement terms of these public servants. Security agencies are sworn to keeping the peace by not misusing legal arms.  Whoever does has his or her service breaches to contend with.  INEC officials, as electoral umpires, are sworn to just elections. INEC too has internal disciplinary steps to take against erring staff, even before releasing them for criminal prosecution. That is why signing peace pacts are rather superfluous for these two categories of public servants.

Still, Governor Umahi’s worry should at least achieve one thing: freshly sensitise security agencies and INEC staff to perform their role strictly according to the law and good conscience.  And after this, should anyone default? The government must ensure prompt disciplinary measures and fast prosecution and conviction.