Category: Editorial

SIR: The laws that created rooms for periodic elections into 1, 695 elective public offices in Nigeria, which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is empowered to conduct, also allow rooms for Elections’ Petition Tribunals (equivalent of high courts) to handle judicial petitions arising from the conduct of such polls. In the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999, as amended in 2011 and the Electoral Act of the Federation of 2010, governorship poll tribunal cases start at the tribunal (high court) and terminate at the Supreme Court (three steps).

The constitution envisages that contestants are likely to be aggrieved. And, in true democracy, such situations are given the best opportunity to be addressed, so that true democracy is not only achieved but also seen, by the majority, to have been achieved. This is where the constitution of Osun State Election Petition Tribunal could be situated.

Despite the open and widespread knowledge in Osun State and beyond that candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Iyiola Omisore was not a match to the incumbent governor Rauf Aregbesola as clearly demonstrated through the ballots on August 9, 2014, the former still went on to challenge what was and is still regarded as a clear victory to the incumbent.

From the beginning of the hearings at the Tribunal at the Osogbo High Court, to the tendering of exhibits through to the presentation of petitioner’s witnesses, it was nothing but a case of the absurd. We had the annoying, the abusive, the funny as well as even the entertainingly ridiculous, which I term the Awada Kerekeri scenarios.

It is rather unimaginable that a petitioner would claim irregularities in 85 polling units of the 105 of a local government area and call only three witnesses whose only evidence is, in most cases, by proxy, or hearsay, which he knows is clearly inadmissible in law. As a petitioner’s witness, by definition, you ought to be the first-hand witness to the event in contention. You are not supposed to present third party information. And even then, calling three witnesses representing only three polling units of the alleged 85 in my native Ikire, Irewole Local government example is nothing but absurdity and a waste of time and deliberate plot to distract the government of Osun. What happens to the remaining 82 polling booths where you claim irregularity that made you lose the election? The picture painted above also represents what the petitioner was claiming in virtually all the other local governments contested.

More bizarre is that the petitioner called a witness in respect of unit 4 ward 6 of Ejigbo Local government area of the state to prove that the election result from this unit was invalid. Ejigbo has 68 polling units, and the petitioners are challenging 49. Interestingly, the result of the Unit 4 had been cancelled during the election by the Presiding Officer for malpractices perpetrated by PDP agent and supporters in the polling unit! Do these petitioners know what they are doing at all trying to invalidate an already invalidated result?

So, why seeking to invalidate an already invalidated result, if not to waste time and distract governance?

The above absurd scenarios played out in all the 17 local governments in contention by the petitioners.

From the above analysis done on a Local Government by Local Government basis, it is crystal clear that out of 965 Polling Units being challenged by the petitioners, they only called evidence in support of their petition in only 239 with the abandonment of 726 Polling Units pleaded in their petition. Assuming, without conceding, that the petitioners have led credible evidence in all the 239 polling units(which is not the case here), is that enough to sway the judgment in their favour?

The entire 239 Polling Units represent 7.94% of the 3,010 polling units in the state. This is definitely too insignificant to affect the result of the gubernatorial election.

To make matters worse, the petitioners tendered Form EC8A in respect of only 230 units which mean that even if their claim succeeds in respect of the 239 Polling Units in which evidence was led, the tribunal can only rule in their favour in respect of the said 230 Polling Units in which Form EC8A was tendered.

• Moshood Ayo Akinola,

dolam2005@yahoo.com

•INEC, EFCC, ICPC should check illegal fund raising by political parties

The call on the anti-corruption agencies, the electoral commission and law enforcement bodies to rise up to their constitutional responsibilities deserve the support of all lovers of democracy. As the Centre for Social Justice (CENSOJ) put it, politicians and political parties have flagrantly violated laws of the land on how funds may be sourced for election purposes, while the institutions of state saddled with the task of ensuring that donations of public and private funds are duly scrutinised are doing little in this regard.

At a time when the source of funding terrorism is receiving international attention, the motive for the laws in Nigeria should be better appreciated and enforced. Section 224 of the 1999 Constitution gives the responsibility for monitoring the parties’ finances to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The commission is expected to demand annually audited reports of the accounts of the parties showing the receipts and expenditure. This provision has been consistently violated and no penalty applied.

This might have informed the impunity that has attended parties’ and candidates’ fund-raising activities in the past few months. State governments have been donating public funds without due regard for ethical consideration and legal provision. At a dinner to raise funds for the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan late last year, the 21 states controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) donated more than one billion Naira.

It is unfortunate too, that private firms were encouraged to flout the laws. Unnamed Oil and Gas sector players were said to have contributed five billion Naira to the campaign, while those in Real Estate and Building donated N4 billion; Transport and Aviation, N1 billion; Food and Agriculture, N500 million; Power, N500 million; Construction, N310 million; Road Construction, N250 million. All were anonymous donations.

Section 93 of the Electoral Act makes it illegal for political parties to accept or keep anonymous donations in cash or kind. Equally, as assigned by the Electoral Act, INEC had, in 2013, issued Guidelines and Regulations guiding the conduct or political parties and candidates in elections. The 2015 general election is the first opportunity to test the will of the commission to apply and enforce the rules. It has also failed in applying S.14 of the guidelines.

Private firms that have donated to political cause are not only in violation of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, but the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA). This is where the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has also failed to apply the hammer. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), another regulatory authority in the financial sector, has chosen to look the other way.

If Nigeria must develop, laws, rules and regulations must be applied scrupulously. The law is put in place to ensure that public fund is judiciously expended and the weak protected. When a political party in power feels it could dip hands in the till at will, others that may not control the public structure would be put at undue advantage.

We join CENSOJ in calling on the EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, the CBN and SEC to swing into action immediately to arrest this ugly trend.

SIR: Nigeria is under a severe internal socio-economic and security threat. As a more general level, the threat has social, economic, political and environmental dimensions. Each of these dimensions has greatly affected the nation‘s stability, and can be traced to ethnic militia armies, ethnic and religious conflicts, poverty, terrorism, armed robbery, corruption, economic sabotage, and environmental degradation.

Boko Haram activities, has destabilized socio-economic activities. In the past, the sight of bombs and their catastrophic impact used to be a movie scene. This is no longer the case. The best selling news in town now is the Boko Haram story. The atmosphere of insecurity currently inflicted on the nation by the Boko Haram points to poor use of pre-emptive intelligence and a coherent strategy in the management of the security issues arising there from. A critical corollary of this violence is dire humanitarian crisis that threatens human security in Nigeria.

In respect of the implications of terrorism for the wider polity of Nigeria, it is to be noted that the Boko Haram insurgency has led to negative perception of Nigeria as an unsafe country by the wider world. This has damaged Nigeria’s profile as a favourable international destination for investment, travel, tourism, scholarship, and migration. The implication of this is that Nigeria is gradually drifting into the status of an ostracized nation. This does not augur well for the sustenance of the country’s national security.

All over the world what makes insurgency distinct is that it is ideology-driven but in Nigeria it has become common knowledge even to the younger generations that the present spate of bombings, mass murder, kidnappings, etc in the northern country are politically motivated with imputed spiritual connotation. Religion is only used as a tool to recruit the hungry youth and children of the poor as vessels of destruction in order to carry out the political goal of a few.

To win this war against Boko Haram, Nigeria needs a military strategy, a political strategy and propaganda strategy that would address the issues that have continuously challenged the present government and may continue to do so post 2015 general elections.

• Farotimi Dolapo,

University Of Ibadan.

Boko Haram and the dangerous dimension of the juvenile suicide bomber

s the insurgency inspired by militant jihadist groups like Boko Haram gathers strength, the increasing incidence of underage girls carrying out suicide bombings has come to be a major source of concern.

Ever since some 276 girls were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State in April last year, there have been widespread fears that young female children could soon become instruments of terror. Such apprehensions were based on experiences elsewhere in the world, successes recorded by Nigerian security agencies in detecting and apprehending adult male bombers, and the usefulness of the burqa as a means of concealing suicide vests.

Events have since confirmed the validity of those fears. This year, there have already been two attacks featuring very young girls. The first took place in a market in Maiduguri, in which a bomb was allegedly detonated by a 10-year old girl. About 16 were killed and 20 injured. Twenty-four hours later, two 10-year old girls blew themselves up in a market in Potiskum, killing three people and injuring 40. Those attacks came after a 13-year old girl, Zahra’u Babangida, was arrested in Kano in December last year with explosives strapped to her body.

There can be no doubt that the use of female children as suicide bombers is a worrying new dimension of the Boko Haram insurgency. It is a pointer to the evolution of new techniques by the militants as they continue with their campaign of terror. It makes the task of the security agencies that much more difficult, as they are now compelled to take a new demographic into consideration. The beleaguered citizens are put under even more pressure, as their precautions expand to accommodate even more potential terror suspects.

Perhaps most worrying is the way in which it demonstrates the effectiveness of Boko Haram’s indoctrination efforts. For a long time, the conventional wisdom was that Nigerians were simply too life-loving to become suicide bombers. That belief has proven to be false in the case of adults, but what is worse is that it has now become untrue of children as well. Unlike those who are older, young children are far more impressionable and therefore more likely to believe what they are told, especially if the ideas being implanted come from authority figures.

What this means is that the anti-terror campaign must strengthen its efforts to enlighten the populace. A viable strategy would be two-pronged, involving religious and community leaders, and increasing access to western education. It is especially important to counter the seductive myth of martyrdom employed by the insurgents: Zahra’u claims she was told that she would go to heaven if she detonated her bomb. The increased availability of western education would offer feasible alternatives to extremist ideology and help to make militant indoctrination more difficult.

The citizenry must also be involved in these enlightenment efforts. Parents should be taught to recognise the tell-tale signs of radicalisation in their children. Anti-indoctrination educational materials explaining the workings of the terrorists could be devised for use in primary and secondary schools to enable children to better understand the tricks of the insurgents aimed at them.

Just as important is the economic empowerment of vulnerable Nigerians, especially those who are resident in the north-east of the country. People whose lives are blighted by generational poverty and despair are more likely to be tempted to offer their children to the militants. Those who sincerely feel that their current existence is simply unbearable are the ones who might seriously consider an explosive transition to the next world.

It is also time for Nigeria’s security agencies to be much more proactive than they have been so far. Given the nature of the insurgency facing the country, more should have been done to anticipate the direction militant tactics would take, and greater effort should have been spent in defending against them.

It is particularly important to halt the mass kidnappings that Boko Haram uses to acquire fighters and suicide bombers. So far this year, the group abducted nearly 100 boys and young men from Malari and Kukawa. Dozens were taken in raids throughout the north-east last year, the most spectacular of which was the Chibok abduction. Tragically, the Federal Government’s lukewarm response to it has apparently emboldened the militants to carry out similar outrages.

Nigeria can no longer afford to be complacent. The insurgency will continue to develop new strategies as it seeks to spread terror. It is for the nation to ensure that their plans do not succeed. Even as the nation contemplates the emergence of girl-bombers, it must also prepare itself for the advent of child-soldiers who will confront Nigerian troops in the field of battle, in addition to carrying out assassinations and espionage. The war against terror will be long and hard; the full commitment of the nation is vital to achieving victory.