The Nation Newspaper

Author: Gabriel Amalu

  • Electoral offences in Adamawa

    Electoral offences in Adamawa

    The suspended Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa Ari, almost wrecked the reputation of the 2023 general elections, with his reckless announcement of Senator Aisha Dahiru Binani as winner of the state’s supplementary governorship election, while the collation was ongoing.

    The authentic result showed she lost to Governor Ahmadu Fintiri. One wonders what induced Ari, a lawyer, to corral the security chiefs in the state to join him to engage in clear, unambiguous and evidence laden electoral offences as enshrined in the 2022 Electoral Act?

    According to some social media accounts, the disgraced electoral chief was allegedly bribed with N2 billion. But even that handsome sum should not be enough for the electoral heist Ari and his cohorts attempted to foist on our scarred country. As a lawyer, Ari should know the full implications of what he did, and it is hoped he would have the opportunity to justify his conduct, or face the punishment for his intransigence.

    Section 120(4) provides: “Any person who announces or publishes an election result knowing same to be false or which is at variance with the signed certificate of return commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of 36 months.” Section 121(1)(b) further provides: “upon or in consequence of any gift, loan, offer, promise, procurement or agreement corruptly procures, or engages or promises or endeavours to procure, the return of any person as a member of a legislative house or to an elective office or the vote of any voter at an election; commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both.”

    On where an offender of the Electoral Offences can be tried, or which authority has the powers to conduct such a trial, the acts provide direction. Section 145(1) of the act provides: “An offence committed under this Act shall be triable in a Magistrates’ Court or a High Court of a state in which the offence is committed, or the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.” Sub-section 2 further provides: “A prosecution under this Act shall be undertaken by legal officers of the Commission or any legal practitioner appointed by it.”

    From the above reproduced provisions, and perhaps more, it is clear there are provisions in the Act which Ari and his collaborators must answer to remove any vestige of doubt about the neutrality of INEC in the just concluded general elections. If the Adamawa REC had succeeded in wrecking the governorship election, that shenanigan would spread a foul odour across all the other elections. As the Igbo adage says, when one finger touches oil, it spreads across the others.

    So, it is in the interest of the present and incoming government at the centre to ensure that Ari and his cohorts are dealt with in accordance with the law. Already the opposition parties, without specification, are claiming that what happened in Adamawa happened elsewhere, only the former was more brazen. Such brazen abuse of the electoral act, if unpunished, would feed the social media hysteria against the last presidential election, which, no doubt, was one of the most competitive elections in recent history of Nigeria.

    INEC must resist the temptation to treat the issue with contempt. The Electoral Act clearly states that it is the commission or its appointed legal practitioner that can prosecute electoral offences, and what happened in Adamawa breached the clear provisions of the Act. The procedure to bring Ari and his cohorts to court is clearly provided both by the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).

    Section 113 ACJA provides: “A court may issue a summons or warrant as provided in this Act to compel the appearance before it of a suspect accused of having committed an offence in any place, whether within or outside Nigeria, triable in a state or in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.” Also, section 47 of the CPC provides: “summons to appear or attend before a court may be issued by any court competent to inquire into an offence or by Justice of the Peace.”

    INEC must not be seen to delay on this matter, more so as the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), through the national president, Mr Y. C. Maikyau (SAN), had offered to partner with the commission to prosecute electoral offences. Clearly, all other electoral offences committed during the general elections pale into insignificance, compared with the atrocious conduct of Ari and his fellow conspirators. The malfeasance committed in Adamawa is also a pointer to the need to review the nomination and appointment process for INEC officials, as recommended by Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais Electoral Reform panel, set up by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

    As shown by the Adamawa debacle, the mode of appointment and removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner and other top officers of the commission is key to non-partisanship, control and discipline. For many, Ari was more beholden to Senator Benani, than to the oath of office he took. Again, in the face of his infractions, there was confusion as to who holds the ace to call him to order. The president and INEC initially prevaricated on who should immediately sanction him.

    While INEC looked up to the president to act, the latter wanted to wash off his hands like the biblical Pontius Pilate. The president, through the Minister for Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, portrayed the problem as that of INEC. He claimed it was theirs to solve, while INEC reminded the president that he is the appointing authority, and as such, he owned the responsibility to intervene. The Uwais report had recommended that the judiciary, which is non-partisan in elections, should nominate electoral officers for the parliament to screen, and the president to appoint.

    Since President Buhari’s tenure would soon come to an end, it is the incoming administration of the President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that has the responsibility to further amend the electoral laws to ensure a fairer electoral process. Tinubu should dust up the Uwais report, set up a review team made up of distinguished men and women of character, to determine what improvements are required to give Nigeria a better process of appointing electoral officers. As long as it is left in the hands of politicians, allegations of partiality will prevail.

    While we await Tinubu to begin to write his presidential history, the police should hunt down Ari and his confederates, and haul them before a court to answer charges of electoral offences as provided in the act. The hogwash that Ari has disappeared after attempting to set the country on tenterhooks, is like Macbeth’s tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

  • Augury of 2023 election

    Augury of 2023 election

    The Electoral Act 2022 was a promising child who broke the first tooth as he took the first tentative steps. Many Nigerians used to the scorched earth policy of the past elections, especially the do or die variant of 2007, were excited at the prospects of the new Act. Like when the old Green Eagles were still green and every Nigerian was a football expert, nearly every Nigerian became an expert in election matters. The trophy was a technological device known as Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the promise to transmit the result from a polling unit to the secured server of the Independent National Electoral Commission‘s (INEC), Election Result Viewing Platform (IReV).

     With the promises from INEC, Nigerians in their millions trooped to the polling units on February 25 to elect a new president and members of the National Assembly. Amongst the gladiators, three stood out. The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a veteran of many political battles, a former governor of Lagos State, a benefactor of many elected public officers, amongst other pedigree. The next was Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who also had fought many political battles, a former vice president of the Federal Republic, with wide associates across the country. The third candidate Mr. Peter Obi (Okwute) of the Labour Party (LP), who many initially dismissed as a presidential election neophyte, but with immense popularity amongst the youths, and was a former governor of Anambra State.

    The rest of the pack even before the gun at the starting block went off were dismissed as also ran. As predicted, the election ended a three horse race, with the candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared the winner of the election and returned elected as president with a total of 8,794,726 votes against 6,984,520 for Atiku and 6,101,533 for Obi. There were also several upsets in the National Assembly elections, with many state governors, who contested to go to the senate not winning the contest. Also affected were some ranking senators who lost to those that may be referred to as political minions.

    While the winners and their supporters have been jubilant, the losers and their supporters have vowed to challenge the polls in the Election Tribunals and on the streets. As expected, the court process which is time bound is proceeding apace as petitions are being filed by the hundreds of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) recruited to jostle in the court. But contesting the elections in the streets, and the complementary internets, are turning scary, as the gladiators are unknown, and unidentifiable. To make matters worse, the internet with its perceived anonymity provides the bulwark of the warriors without boundary and no rules of engagement. With anonymity as a shield, many of them are hauling intercontinental ballistic missile, some fixed with what amounts to nuclear warheads, without the potential of being brought to account for using banned non-conventional weapons.

     The most dangerous of the weapons is fake news used on multiple warheads, which the social media has become. Resorting to the same technology that came to save the nation’s electoral process, some of the sympathizers of those who lost rely on fake news to threaten mayhem and Armageddon. They forget that with technology what never happened can be created, energized and broadcast as real. Resorting to what is called deep fake, words and actions are implanted on innocent gladiators, and non-gladiators, and with social media as multiple warheads, all heal is let loose, without the consumers asking any questions.

    Many of such news carry the message that such message should be rebroadcast, so that the message can go viral. And acting like persons under a spell, the recipients usually make the message go viral without first confirming that the message is correct. The result is that many otherwise reasonable persons have been inoculated against facts and would not listen or consider any alternative views. As Karl Marx said of religion, the alternate facts have become the opium of many. Those stymied in the toxic social environment can be likened to social zombies, averse to reason and reality.

     In such state of mind, no amount of explanation, reasoning or fact checking would make any dent on what “the victims” consider the fact, which in reality is an alternative fact. Arguing or counselling such persons is like hitting one’s knuckles on a stone. The victims without knowing that they are victims constitute a menace to themselves and the rest of the society. Some of the victims are willing to give their lives and their valuables in support of the cause, which they believe is genuine. Like persons hypnotized, they violently defend their cause of action, should they be challenged.

    Unfortunately while the Electoral Act 2022 made tremendous provision for an orderly election, there is no manual to manage post-election stress and misconception. Those deeply affected by the mismanagement of the electoral process by INEC, wonder what benefit Nigeria derived from the elaborate provision of the Electoral Act? The apparent gains from the Electoral Act has been damaged by the challenge of non-transmission of election result at the polling booths as provided in the election manual and pre-celebrated by INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu with fanfare.

     After the presidential election, many electorate, especially the younger ones destroyed their Permanent Voters Card, and vowed never to participate in any future election.

     While the sad development may amuse contestants with dubious intentions, the society in the long run pays dearly for it. No doubt those who have no faith in the electoral process will be unwilling to contribute their share of citizens’ responsibility to build a modern society. With a divided society, the work of the government becomes more strenuous. So the victors at the polls must start building bridges of reconciliation, even as they device means of providing the dividends of democracy. While there are divisions in some states, the main challenge is at the national level, where the nation’s fault line could torpedo our democracy.

    Hopefully, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu would use his highly regarded political skills, to mend the deep scares and fissures caused by INEC. There is the likelihood that if the election result had been transmitted online from the polling units as promised and provided for in the INEC guideline, the crisis of confidence which has deeply affected the perception of the presidential election as free and fair, would not be there. And the perception which has provided ammunition for those hell-bent on discrediting the results would also not be there.

    It is hoped that the post-election crisis would simmer down in the days ahead. Those who have evidence of malpractice, as envisaged in section 134 of the Electoral Act, 2022, should pursue their legitimate contest in the court of law. Any other method of contesting the result of the elections, whether in the streets, or in the social media, or other forms of protestation not envisaged by the electoral act, may spiral out of control, and cause incalculable damage to our fragile democracy. Those calling for interim government are misguided, and should be treated as enemies of Nigeria.