Tag: 2015 elections

Recently, Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies brought together stakeholders in the electoral process in the country to take stock of events leading to the 2015 elections. In    this report, Tony Akowe in Abuja reports on the way forward proffered by the stakeholders

For many Nigerians, the 2015 general elections may have come and gone. But for stakeholders in the election, it is time for stock taking and probably pacing the way forward. Finding the way forward may be why the Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies brought together stakeholders in the electoral process in the country to take stock of events leading to the election.  29 political parties were represented at the event which aimed at providing an opportunity for stakeholders involved in the 2015 elections, including representatives of political parties, candidates, CSOs, the media, local election observation groups, as well as security agencies to critically review the elections with the objective of identifying what went wrong, what was done right and how to improve the conduct of elections in Nigeria.

Professor of Political Science with Babcock University, Prof. Adele Jinadu, set the stage for the discussion at the conference, advocating the unbundling of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in keeping with global best practices and in other to make the nation’s electoral system more effective. Director General of The Electoral Institute of INEC, Prof Abubakar Momoh, said the commission as presently constituted lack the capacity in terms of finance and personnel as well as the legal frame work to adequately monitor campaign finances as proscribed by law. Jinadu, who said the nation’s democracy was in perpetual crisis said political leadership in the country lacked the political will to introduce and legislate reforms that will strengthen internal party democracy mechanism in political parties in the country. He said further that one of the ways of moving the nation’s democracy forward was to reform political parties in the country to make them less oligarchic and more democratic since this has been a major challenge in the nation’s democratic struggle. He believed that what is required in moving forward after the 2015 General elections is to create and mobilize networks of countervailing forces in state and society, including members to keep up the pressure on the political leadership to demonstrate the political will to promote internal party democracy in their parties in line with the recommendation of the Electoral Reform Committee. He maintained that there was the need to create a political Parties and Regulation Commission to regulate the registration of political parties and monitor their activities to ensure that they conform with the provisions of the law, while INEC is left with the responsibility of conducting elections, adding that INEC as presently constituted has been saddled with too much responsibility and therefore has not been able to adequately carry out its assignment.

Director General of The Electoral Institute of INEC, Prof. Abubakar Momoh, said the hostility of political parties due to what they considered infraction on the part of INEC has practically made it impossible for the commission to track campaign funds by the parties and their candidate. He believe that the current laws in the country which only mandates INEC to track campaign funds by the political parties and not the individuals has practically encouraged over spending on elections. He stressed pre-election financing and pre-election campaigns are not captured in the funds that should be tracked by INEC. He argued that INEC need prosecutory power for violation of campaign finance regulations and stringent penalty such as vacating the seat if discovered to have made false claims and not swearing in any elected official who has not disclosed his campaign funds.

 Momoh lamented that party executives no longer have control over the parties they were elected to lead; stressing that with the current development where candidates canvass for funds outside the party will make it practically impossible for INEC to track campaign funds adequately. He explained that there should be a law that makes it mandatory for fund used for pre and post election activities to be tracked by INEC, adding that political parties and their candidates have often disregarded the provisions on campaigns by campaigning outside the designated campaign time of 7. 00am to 6.00pm. The two day conference was organised to review activities of the 2015 elections and also to serve as an avenue to review the curriculum of the Centre which is the first of its kind in Africa.

Jide Ojo, Executive Director of OJA Consult linked the inability of state government across the country to pay workers salaries to the huge expenses made by the states during the last election. Ojo argued that as long as state governors spent money belonging to their states for election purposes, adding that the time has come when Nigeria should be able to peg election spending both by the parties and individuals and do away with third party spending in elections. He also suggested that campaign offices of the candidates standing elections should not be separated from that party office since it is the party and not the individual that is expected to make report to INEC on campaign funds. He argued that if the status quo ante is to be maintained INEC should insist that the candidates and not the parties make disclosure of campaign expenditure. Some however argued that the gulf between candidates and party on fundraising and campaign expenditure, as well as the multiple layers and forms of campaigns have made it very difficult for INEC to monitor pre-election financing and campaign. The unwillingness of political parties to fully disclose party and campaign finances make oversight on party funding difficult.

Director General if  the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Prof. Tijjani Muhammad-Barde, said the conference was aimed at understanding what actually transpired during the election with a view to forging the way forward. He said the institute played a critical role in the Abuja peace accord signed by all the political parties that took part in the elections. The NIPSS DG said some of the issues of concern were lack of Internal Party Democracy among the parties, low participation of women and youths in the process and near non participation of people with disability in the entire process. He stressed that even though the card reader worked well during the election, there was the need to refine the system so that it worked perfectly and at the required maximum. He also spoke of the need for more political education for election Observers and the need to continuously engage the people on election matters.

Director of the Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre of NIPSS, Prof. Habu Galadima, expressed confidence that the lessons learnt from the 2015 elections will make the way for strong political parties ahead of the 2019 elections and put them in better competitive position. He also expressed the hope that that a strong opposition that will be policy driven will emerge in the country. He said the country need an opposition that is issues driven and not personalities and contribute to national development as well as deepening the nation’s democracy. He argued that the Abuja Peace Accord signed by all political parties that took part in the Presidential Election set the stage for substantial compliance with democratic principles. According to him, the political leaders felt at that point that they have responsibility to the nation and that they needed to exercise decorum in whatever they had to do. He believed that the Abuja Accord also set the stage for the acceptance of defeat by former President, Gookluck Jonathan. He however believed that since the nation was still in a learning process, there was the need to continuously build the capacity of the political parties so that they will engage in issue driven campaigns rather than focusing on personalities of the individuals. He stressed that while some parties focused on personalities during the campaign, others based their campaign on issues of governance, policies and development.

Project Director of DGD II, Dr. Mourtada Deme, said there was the need to faction out how to support political parties since they are the main actors in any election, pointing out that “like it or not, you don’t organise elections for civil society organisations or for international development partners. You organise elections for political parties. For the next 100 years, my take is that no democracy will operate without political parties and so, political parties will still be the foundation on which democracy will function”. He argued that disagreements are normal in any political environment and contest, pointing out that there are also many areas in which the parties need to agree, such as civilized behaviour, having a code of conduct, accepting the results of a fair poll, rejection of violence which he said are part of basic requirement which is expected from political parties.

The Chairman of Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yunusa Tanko was however more concerned with the issue of cross carpeting by elected representatives of the people from one political party to the other and still retaining their seat. While believing that the 2015 election has substantially restored the credibility of Nigeria in the international community, he argued that the challenges faced by the parties should not be ignored. He said the National Assembly must revisit the law that allow elected officials to dump the party that sponsored them and still retain their seat, pointing out that allow such practices has continued to weaken the strengths of some political parties in the country. He also kicked against the provisions of the Electoral act which allow last minute decamping of aspiring candidate, pointing out that it has allowed for parties to hijack popular candidates from other parties on the eve of election. He maintained that INEC does not have the power to reject such candidates because it is the political parties that present candidates, adding that this has given room for political parties to change candidates at will because they want to win election. He wants a complete overhaul of the Electoral Act so that the parties can come together and agree on a frame work for what the Electoral Act should look like.

Some leaders of the political parties spoke of the need of having a virile opposition. Gani Galadima, National Chairman of Action Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) argued that the context of the word opposition has been misunderstood in the country. He believes that opposition is not about attacking government. He said “you must be objective and not always attack. When there is something good in the government, point it out and when they did not do well, say it. Don’t allow your sense of judgment to becloud your sense of reasoning and don’t play it the destructive way like it is done in Nigeria. We must set agenda for government and contribute meaningfully.

Godson Okoye, the National Chairman of the United Democratic Party (UDP), aligns with his ACPN counterpart. He argued that opposition must be objective and must also have information to work with. He believes that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has shown tenacity of purpose and has been able to build a party and take power from the PDP, while President Buhari has shown a high sense of responsibility. Chairman of APC youth wing, Ismail Ahmed, also agreed to the need for a virile opposition. However, he believe that opposition parties often keep quiet when the governing party does something well because they belief that if they speak out, the ruling party will use it to score cheap political point. Chinwe Nnorom who represented the PDP at the event said while the need for a virile opposition cannot be over ruled, it has often been a gang-up against the government in power than providing an alternative government. He believes that the only thing those in opposition in Nigeria understands is how to occupy the Government House.