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Tag: 2019 ELECTIONS

  • Ripples over EU report on 2019 elections

    The European Union Election Observer Mission that monitored the 2019 general elections has released its final report on the polls. The report has generated mixed reactions from stakeholders, Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI reports.

    MIXED reactions have trailed the European Union Election Observers Mission’s report on the 2019 general elections, which stressed the need for urgent improvements in the electoral process. In the report, the Chief Observer, Maria Arena, highlighted some electoral issues and gave 30 recommendations to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The mission, which released its preliminary report in April, said the election was characterised by violence, underage voting, lesser women participation, biased media reportage, particularly by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and other state-owned media establishments and vote-buying. The report equally questioned INEC’s credibility.

    It also stated that the suspension of former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mr. Walter Onnoghen, prior to the election, was questionable, adding that due process was not followed.

    Arena said: “It was seen by many as undermining security of tenure, damaging judicial independence and compromising the division of powers. The suspension did not follow due process, was divisive, and undermined confidence in the electoral process and opportunity for remedy.

    “The mission observed that questionable procedures were followed by the Code of Conduct Tribunal. The removal of the chief justice of Nigeria during the elections had an inhibiting effect on the judiciary. Very few electoral offences result in arrest or prosecution, and thus there is an enduring culture of impunity.”

    However, it said the election recorded some improvements compared to past ones. “INEC made a number of improvements, including making electoral participation more accessible through simplified voting procedures. INEC made efforts to strengthen electoral integrity by issuing regulations making smart card readers mandatory to accredit voters, but there were insufficient accompanying transparency measures.

    The report reads in part: “The systemic failings evident in the elections and the low levels of voter participation show the need for fundamental reform. Without this, there is a risk of unaccountable leadership and citizen disengagement. Such reform requires principled political leadership committed to the rights of Nigerian citizens and an inclusive process of national dialogue involving state institutions, parties, civil society, the media and other experts. This needs to be urgently undertaken to allow time for debate, legislative changes and implementation well in advance of the next elections.”

    The Chief Observer also urged the authorities to put in place an electoral law that will guarantee direct transmission of results from the polling units to the headquarters of INEC.

    The report suggests that there was a relatively low level of voter participation and that the major political parties were at fault in not preventing acts of violence and intimidation by their supporters. The key recommendations, Arena said, include the call to strengthen INEC procedures for the collation of results to improve integrity and confidence in electoral outcomes and the establishment of requirement in law for full results transparency, with data made easily accessible to the public.

    Arena said: “Such reform needs political leadership that is dedicated to the rights of Nigerian citizens, and an inclusive process of national dialogue involving state institutions, parties, civil society and the media. This needs to be urgently undertaken to allow time for debate, legislative changes and implementation in advance of the next elections.” She, however, noted that the elections were competitive, because parties were able to campaign and that the participation of civil society organisations enhanced accountability.

    Presidency spokesman, Mr. Garba Shehu, welcomed the report, promising that government will analyse it fully and act on its recommendations in the best interest of the country. Shehu, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, noted that the EU observers were invited to the country by INEC and that the move was welcomed by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. He said the attitude of  the commission, as well as that of the Federal Government were a clear indication of the administration’s good intentions, commitment to a purely democratic process and desire to improve on the next elections.

    Shehu said: “The administration of President Buhari will work with all Nigerian citizens, state institutions, parties, civil society, the media and other experts to make sure that the improvements recommended by the EU are implemented, and that these areas of concern are addressed. It is noteworthy that INEC is in receipt of a number of recommendations that form a part of the EU report.

    “The Presidency assures that the commission is in safe hands and happy that they are currently engaged in root and branch reviews of the 2019 general elections and will input lessons learned into its recommendations for electoral and constitutional reforms. We believe that the commission conducted a good election and will continue to improve on its processes and procedures.”

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also commended the EU. A statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, lauded the union for stating the facts on the elections, saying the fresh revelations of manipulation as detailed in the report further vindicates the position of the party and that of millions of Nigerians on the election.

    Ologbondiyan said that the world could now see that the PDP had not been crying wolf in insisting that the election was outrightly rigged with the alleged cancellation of millions of PDP votes. He added: “Nigerians are still in shock over the revelations by EU of how about 2.8 million votes were deliberately ‘cancelled without sufficient accountability’ and how several returning officers gave no reason for the cancellations.”

    He said more shocking was the distortions and “a large discrepancy of 1.66 million more registered voters, as announced by INEC on January 14, compared to those announced by state returning officers during the collation of presidential results.”

    Similarly, the PDP vice presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, said Nigerians should learn some lessons from the report and ensure that future elections were conducted in the standard and international best practices. Obi described the report as a ‘vindication of a section of Nigerians’, who had raised issues on the outcome of the election.

    A statement from his Media Office quoted him as saying that the recommendations contained in the report should be taken very seriously by Nigerians to ensure that necessary steps were taken for their implementation. The statement added: “I have always maintained that the process through which a person gets into an office is far more fundamental than what the person does thereafter in that office, because of the integrity of the office being occupied.”

    One of the fringe political associations, the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) said the EU report is a major indictment on INEC and its officials. In a statement from its Acting National Chairman, Abiodun Bamigboye, and National Secretary, Chinedu Bosah, the SPN said the report suggested that INEC, security agencies and the two major parties manipulated the 2019 general elections.

    The statement states in part: “We insist that INEC or another agency for that matter has no moral authority to seek to deregister any political party under the flimsy excuse of winning no seat at local government, state and Federal Government level. INEC has the responsibility to provide a level-playing field for political parties to vie for peoples votes without vote-buying, intimidation, violence, manipulations, heavy monetization, and other factors that marred the 2019 general elections. As the SPN has said before, the 2019 general elections were an expensively packaged charade and INEC, security agencies and the pro-rich political parties, especially the APC and the PDP, have to be blamed for this.”

    The party said the reactions of the Presidency to the allegations are typical of the Buhari administration. It said: “As far as the SPN is concerned, this kind of superficial and face-saving response to what are weighty allegations that indict INEC, security agencies and ‘leading parties’ already shows that the Buhari government and the ruling elite is not serious about improving the conduct of elections either now or in the foreseeable future. Otherwise, the starting point ought to be to identify officials of INEC, security agencies and ‘leading’ political parties that the report claimed to have compromised the integrity of the 2019 elections through their actions and inactions and seek to investigate and prosecute them with a view to ensure deterrent.

    “INEC itself need to be asked to justify how it utilized the huge billions of naira voted to it over the past four years to prepare for 2019 general elections, if at the end of the day, the exercise is found to suffer ‘severe operational and transparency shortcomings’. At the moment, there are nothing less than 799 cases at the election petition tribunal.

    “As a key participant in the election, we are very sure from our experience that none of the manipulations that occurred in the 2019 general election could have taken place without the connivance of INEC officials and security agencies, especially those at the top echelons. But, so far, no top member of INEC, the police or the army is under investigation or being prosecuted for their roles in manipulating the elections. The EU report also found that at least 150 people were killed during the elections. This in itself shows that what took place across the country on February 23 and March 9, 2019 were brutal struggles between different factions of the capitalist ruling elite for political power and not a democratic exercise.”

    Against this background, the SPN said it is prepared to initiate a mass campaign combining legal challenge and political mobilisations in collaboration with trade unions and civil society should INEC or the National Assembly dare to seek deregistration of any political party. It added: “We insist that without manipulations, monetization, vote-buying and outright rigging committed by the pro-rich parties and their accomplices in INEC and security agencies, a party like the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) stood a chance of performing better than it did.”

    An Onitsha, Anambra State-based human rights watchdog, the International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law (Intersociety), also lauded the EU report, but added that, like every social science research or investigation, it is not expected to be complete or full in its findings, without missing some important points.

    In its statement signed by its Head of Publicity, Chidinma Udegbunam (Esq.), Head of Democracy & Good Governance, Chinwe Umeche (Esq.), and Chairman of the Board, Emeka Umeagbalasi, Intersociety said as thorough and commendable as the report is, some fundamental issues or areas are still left unaddressed. It said the polls were substantially below the international best standards.

    The statement said: “For instance, the EU had in its final report noted that the governorship segment of the Nigeria’s 2019 polls was more hitch-free, open and fair than the presidential poll, yet the report did not answer the question of why the latter was so; which has to do with chronic ethno-religious divisions in the country, promoted by the country’s present political players.

    “As a result, Intersociety has found the following missing points in the EU Report: Underage Voting: the EU report noted the underage voting during the polls, but failed to specifically mention which geopolitical zone or zones involved in the underage voting; how they got to be issued with PVCs, by who and the intent behind their capturing and certification to vote. “For instance, the EU Report was silent on whether it witnessed or not any incidence of underage voting in the Southeast, Southwest and South-south regions of Nigeria as well as non-Muslim areas of the North.

    “Card Reader Failure: the EU Report noted the failure of card readers during the Polls but did not specifically state whether the Card Reader failure was recorded more in the Southern part of the country particularly Southeast and South-south than the Northern part particularly Northwest and Northeast or whether the electronic card readers failed across board throughout Nigeria.

    “Uneven Use of Card Readers: the EU Report did not tell Nigerians and the world whether Card Readers were deployed and used across board in the whole of Nigeria’s 176,000 polling units, irrespective of the ethno-religious composition of each of the polling units and whether all the results arising from the 2019 Polls as announced by INEC emanated from the ‘faultless’ Card Readers only.

    “Possible non-Card Reader generated results: the EU report did not specifically inform whether many, if not most results from the North particularly Northwest and Northeast were generated from Card Reader or non-Card Reader sources or manual/massive thump printing.  For instance, were there massive thump printing and use of other non-Card Reader voting procedures in the Northwest and Northeast parts of the country as well as Muslim held areas of the North-central Nigeria?”

    Intersociety called on international observers to expand their election observation or monitoring from “election observation” to “electoral process monitoring/observation”, because, in its view, the country’s electoral process (i.e. voter registration) is chronically disproportionate, divisive and sectional.

    It added: “As it stands today, independently speaking, it is likely correct to say that 4.5 adult persons out of every five including the physically and visually challenged are captured as registered voters in the Muslim areas of the North, while as much as two adult persons out of every five are captured as registered voters in the Southeast, South-south and non-Muslim areas of the North, as well as the “non-Muslim areas” of the Southwest. That is to say that the number of registered voters in southern Nigeria is far below the number of the number of unregistered ones who are 18 years and above.”

  • 2019 elections: Army blames Wike for death of Lieutenant, others

    The Army has said Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike is to blame for the deaths during the 2019 elections in Rivers State.

    General Officer Commanding, 6 Division Maj.-Gen. Jamil Sarham, who testified before a joint National Assembly Committee on Army, headed by Rimande Shawulu, made the allegation.

    A motion by Kingsley Chinda blamed the police, Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS) and army for the death of two workers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) – Ferry Gberegbe and Mrs Ibisaki Amachree.

    According to Sarham, Wike personally led a convoy of about 40 vehicles, carrying people who were shooting into the crowd with the intent to blame the Army for any casualty.

    The lawmakers told the army representative that the investigation was to determine the causes of the death of victims and ask about the role of the army during the elections in Rivers State.

    Sarham said: “Kurumi was killed on February 23 and the soldiers were killed on March 2. No other person than the Executive Governor of Rivers State led a convoy of more than 40 vehicles to attack a collation centre and shot at Salami, manhandled Corporal Abiodun at Obio Akpor council. We have complained to the police and it is well-documented.

    “The soldiers who were at the outer cordon were supposed to stop anybody coming to either harm the voters or disrupt the polling. Kurumi tried to enforce that but unknown to him, there were other people with different agenda hidden there and they snuffed life out of him.

    “He was quite professional. He restrained himself and restrained his men from taking any untoward action that would affect other people around the general area. When that failed, tension built up.

    “Operation Save Conduct is designed, like the position paper has said, to assist the Police and INEC conduct the 2019 election. It was in support of the Police. Everything, every action taken as far as Army and Save in particular, was aimed at helping the Police.

    “In Rivers State, there were plethora of series of uniforms; in particular, that incident I think the Army intelligence are still investigating to find out if actually they are men of the Nigerian Army who took part in that operation.

    “The police called us and we assisted, saying “if there is an incident in a particular gentleman’s house, of course, we must have gone there together with the police.”

    Sarham insisted that the Army did not arrest or detain anyone.

    “Nobody was kept in the Bori Camp for nine days, apart from the people who were directly responsible for killing Lieutenant Kurumi. There were actually people in Rivers State who were responsible for the killing an officer and three soldiers during that election…”

  • 2019 elections and declining women representation

    SIR: This year, Nigeria will celebrate 20 years of return to democracy. This is a landmark achievement. However, when the 9th assembly is inaugurated on June 12—Nigeria’s newly established Democracy Day—there will be fewer women who will sit in the green and red chambers to make critical decisions about inclusion, budgeting for gender issues and participation.

    The exclusion of women has long been a crux of the Nigerian electoral process. These days it’s getting harder to tell if anything is actually changing. At the recently concluded general elections, only sixty-two of 2970 women who ran for various offices will be sworn into office to legislate for the nationwide population of 190 million people. This number represents only 3.8% of all the positions in the country, from the office of the President to the Vice, the members of the National Assembly and various state Houses of Assembly, 6.5% less than the country had in 2015.

    Younger women under-40s were even more marginalised by the last election. Despite the clamour for younger candidates and fresher political voices at the last election, there are only nine women of the 260 total number of elected candidates under-40, and only two of them are 35 years or younger.

    It is true that the subjugation of women in Nigerian politics by old political warhorses and suffragists is commonplace in our communities. But what is common is not normal; it is high-priority that we aggressively refuse to see it as normal.

    Maryam Laushi, Not Too Young To Run strategy team member and also a passionate women advocate shared the hard truth when she said that women are not valued, and until the majority of people in the society accept it, then we can begin to solve it. In other words, we cannot continue to live in an era of complaints but rather, it is time to take action that would yield tangible results.

    Asides Civil Society Organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations, very few stakeholders in the world of politics have shown active concern about the intellectual or emotional well-being of these female candidates who aspired to run for the elections.

    The complex array of women are stepping out to be known as the winning women—not victims but victors. They have drawn an action plan ahead of 2023, and they demand our attention and support. Out of their rather painful experience, they still bring bright light and coloured dreams, recognizing that though the marginalization of women in the socio-political landscape of Nigeria is no new phenomenon, it is also entirely preventable.

     

    • Fisayo Okare, Abuja.

  • 2019 elections: ‘Women were denied a level playing field’

    A gender equality advocate, Dr. Joe Odumakin-Okei, has said Nigerian women politicians were not allowed enough space to contest the 2019 elections as the men dominated every available space.

    She said that dominance by men had resulted in only 7% of women elected into the National Assembly and none in the governorship elections across the country.

    The poor outing of women in the elections should be blamed on the menfolk for refusing to allow a level-playing ground for equal participation.

    Dr Odumakin-Okei spoke yesterday in Jos during the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) 4th Triennial National Women Delegates Conference held in Jos, Plateau State.

    “Look at the women participation in the 2019 National Assembly elections. It is less than 7 per cent. It shouldn’t be like that. Women should brace up. They should be effective and should make sure that they participate in trade unionism; it is from there that they will snowball into politics.

    “I want to say that some of the barriers are created by men, fixing meetings at night. We want men to work hand in hand with women in order to have a good and healthy nation.”

    The National Woman Leader of the NUEE, Comrade Maria Ekoja, said women were passing through excruciating pains as “they battle to occupy leadership positions in the country”.

    National Secretary of the union, Comrade Jeo Ajoero, advised women to participate in politics even at the union level.

    He noted that no one would beg women to contest leadership positions even at the union level because of their competitive nature.

    Comrade Ajoero urged women to be determined and use their numerical strength to elect credible women into key political offices for the development of the nation.

  • Prosecute electoral offenders before Kogi, Bayelsa polls – CSOs

    Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called for the prosecution of perpetrators of violence during the 2019 general election to serve as deterrent to others wishing to indulge in such act, ahead of Kogi and Bayelsa Nov. 2 governorship elections.

    The CSOs under the auspices of Nigerian Elections Violence Report (NEVR), made the call after evaluating the conduct of elections in the six South–South states of Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa, Edo, Delta and Rivers.

    A statement issued on Monday by leader of the group and Executive Director, Youth Alive Foundation (YAF), Dr Uduak Okon, noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be proactive in dealing with issues of security during elections, if it must conduct credible polls in the future.

    Okon regretted that the heavy presence of armed gangs in the South-South facilitated violence during the recently concluded elections.

    “Perpetrators of violence must be prosecuted thoroughly to deter future perpetrators from carrying out acts of violence during elections.

    “That the law against cultism and other gang related offences should be revitalised and perpetrator made to face the law.

    “Individuals identified as cultists and who support and fund armed gangs should not be given political appointments and other public positions of trust as they utilise them during election season,” Okon said.

    According to her, the behavior of partisan security forces and violence around collation centres must be resolved before the next set of polls to reduce the scope of violence during elections.

    “Military and police personnel working on election security on election day should be properly tagged for easy identification because ‘men in uniform’ use their ‘authority’ to assist different politicians from different political parties to intimidate perceived opponents of their ‘pay masters.

    “All persons engaged as staff or ad-hoc staff of INEC and security operatives must undertake oath of neutrality in line with Section 28 of the Electoral Act and must be seen to be neutral,” she added.

    She said that YAF and its partners, with support from International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) would ensure that persons who are partisan and lie on oath must be charged to court for perjury.

    Okon also urged INEC to resolve the issues surrounding logistics especially the late delivery of election materials to curb incidences of election malpractice.

    She added: “The NEVR project aimed to increase public knowledge and awareness on the dangers of election violence, and increase participation and involvement of election stakeholders in the mitigation and prevention of election violence.”

    Social Development Integrated Centre (Rivers), Edo Civil Society Organisation (Edo), Foundation for Non-Violent Social Change (Delta), Nembe City Development Foundation (Bayelsa) and The Bridge Leadership Foundation (Cross River) are the other groups that participated in the assessment.

    NAN

  • Ondo: Echoes from 2019 elections

    SIR: The 2019 General Elections has come and gone with the attendant precarious rowdiness exacerbated by a blighting harvest of unwieldy litigation, counter court orders, treacherous contestations within parties and death of innocent Nigerians.

    But it is very obvious that we have not learnt any lesson from our past to gain the much needed momentum in deepening our democracy.

    The electoral empire, INEC, the parties and the electorate were all in a state of stasis  and may have lost an opportunity to further entrench electoral values that should have  served as spring board for our rather ‘stalling’ democracy and inspire confidence, and meet expectations.

    While not underplaying the complicity of other stakeholders, unarguably, the mudslinging, the rancid desperation of the APC and the PDP, and the killings recorded in the just concluded election were the mutations from an ill-managed electoral victory of 2015 by the APC in the last four years.

    The inability of the APC to manage its internal contradictions and whims of a subversive clique within its fold gave the PDP the impetus to re-invent and re-position itself for a comeback from the dead without necessarily purging itself of the sins against Nigerians.

    Though it won the presidential election, the party performance in Ondo, Oyo, Adamawa, Bauchi, Imo and others which were its stronghold states speaks to an underlying inconvenient verdict: Governors of these states breached political boundaries in the exercise of power and undermined the brand equity (value) of the party in their respective states by the total lack of commitment to governance after winning elections.

    The poor outing of the party at the presidential and National Assembly elections in Ondo State was an unequivocal reaction to the noticeable and systemic lull in governance by the governor, Aarakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu.

    Those given to tokenism may attempt to rationalize that his administration was not under any electoral test in the last elections, and should, therefore not be held culpable over the fate of the party.

    No! , he should be; if he is made a captain over 100 persons and he loses 50 of them to his opponent, then it tells about his capacity as a leader, taking into cognizance the fact that the party in the 2015 General Elections delivered 54% of the total votes in the state to President Muhammadu Buhari, had in its pouch three senatorial and five House of Representatives electoral victories under the leadership of its pioneer chairman, Hon. D I Kekemeke.

    Surely, the governor, as a “learned” gentleman knows the difference between an open and closed door; but it is doubtful, after being in the saddle for two years, if,  as a politician, he knows the difference between an open mind and closed mind to be able to inspire and forge unity, prioritize the well-being of the people over and above personal idiosyncrasies  and leverage on the diversity of ideas and strength of the people of Ondo State to deliver the dividends of democracy.

    Apparently held hostage by an ego that feeds from a pyrrhic invincibility, the governor made the denigration of the pioneering efforts of party stalwarts his vocation; one of the reasons he de-recognized Senator AjayiBorrofice representing the state at the National Assembly.

    Democracy, as the legitimate means of electing leaders  risks losing its essence and the trust of many citizens in Nigeria if mutual tolerance and what Daniel Ziblatt of Harvard University called “institutional forbearance-the responsible exercise of power by those in office”, is lacking in our polity.

    To continue to restore Nigerians’ faith in our democracy and their ability to serve as its ultimate rulers and shapers, the national leadership of the APC must offer in Ondo State new perspectives from which it would re-invent, re-cast and re-approach the idea and ideal of governance in the state and Nigeria, in general, with an eye on leaders who have capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose for the greater good of all in Ondo State.

     

    • KekemekeGboloibai, Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Are supplementary elections legal?

    In a recent lead judgment, the Osun State Elections Petition Tribunal declared supplementary elections illegal. Justice Peter Obiora, who read the judgment, held that supplementary polls are unknown to law. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN sought the views of lawyers and other stakeholders on whether or not supplementary elections have legal backing.

    SINCE 2011, inconclusive elections have become a major phenomenon in the nation’s electoral process. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) resorted to supplementary elections where results were cancelled as a result of violence, ballot box snatching, rigging, over voting and where election didn’t hold at all.

    The debate over the legality or otherwise of supplementary polls was rekindled by the judgment of the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal recently. The lead judgment read by Justice Peter Obiora held that the supplementary election held in seven polling units is unknown to law, because INEC had no power to conduct it. Lawyers and stakeholders have disagreed over the matter, particularly whether or not INEC has the power to declare elections inconclusive and conduct a supplementary election before announcing a winner.

    The electoral commission says the constitution, the Electoral Act and its Rules and Regulations give it the power to declare elections inconclusive and to conduct supplementary elections, if the need arises.

    Legal luminary Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN) said supplementary elections are legal, because both the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act made provisions for it. He said there should be no controversy or argument over supplementary polls, because there are provisions for them in the statute books and that INEC is empowered to conduct it.

    The INEC National Commissioner, Prince Solomon Soyebi, said the decision to conduct supplementary poll in Osun governorship election was based on extant law and INEC guidelines and regulations. Soyebi said: The Returning Officer, Professor Joseph Fuwape, had communicated to the Commission his inability to make a return in accordance with the legal framework and INEC guidelines.

    “This was as a result of areas where results were cancelled; there was no voting or there were disruptions. In all, 3,498 voters could not vote in seven polling units spread across four local government areas. Based on the results collated by the Returning Officer, the margin between the two leading candidates is 353, which is lower than the number of registered voters in the affected areas.

    “Extant law and INEC guidelines and regulations provide that where such a situation occurs, a declaration may not be made and a supplementary election may hold. In the light of this, the commission met and decided it will remobilise and return to the affected polling units on Thursday, September 27, 2018, to conclude collation and make a return.”

    A law teacher, Wahab Shittu, agreed with Akintola that supplementary polls are provided for in the Constitution and Electoral Act (2010). He said INEC has the power to declare election inconclusive and conduct supplementary election, if the margin of lead is lower than the number of registered voters who were affected by the cancellation of votes.

    He said if INEC is vested with powers to conduct elections, it should retain incidental powers to follow constitutional provisions, the provision of Electoral Act and its own established guidelines.

    He said: “Section 179 (2) (a and b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides that a candidate for an election to the office of governor of a state shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being two or more candidates – (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the local government areas in the state.”

    On the other hand, Section 53 (2) of the Electoral Act 2010 provides: “Where the votes cast at an election in any polling unit exceed the number of registered voters in that polling unit, the result of the election for that polling unit shall be declared void by the commission (INEC) and another election may be conducted at a date to be fixed by the commission where the result of that polling unit may affect the overall result in the constituency.”

    Section 53 (3) provides: “Where an election is nullified in accordance with subsection (2) of this section, there shall be no return for the election until another poll has taken place in the affected area.” However, Section 69 of the Electoral Act provides: “In an election to the office of the president or governor, whether or not contested and in any elective office, the result shall be ascertained by counting the votes cast for each candidate and subject to the provisions of sections 133, 134, and 179 of the constitution, the candidate that receives the highest number of votes shall be declared elected by the appropriate returning officer.”

    There were cases of inconclusive governorship elections in the past where INEC ordered for supplementary polls, based on the extant law stated above. In 2011 and 2015, the governorship elections in Imo State were declared inconclusive and were concluded with supplementary polls. The commission declared the April 26, 2011 governorship election in the state inconclusive, because election did not hold in Ohaji, Egbema, Mbatioli, Ngor-Okpala and Oguta local councils, as well as in Orji Ward in Owerri North Local Government.

    Before the election was declared inconclusive, results for 24 of the state’s 27 local government areas had been announced, with Chief Rochas Okorocha of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) leading in 12 local councils, with a slim margin over the then incumbent Governor Ikedi Ohakim of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who also won in 12 local councils but trailed Okorocha in the total votes garnered. After the supplementary poll, Okorocha scored 336,859 votes to defeat Ohakim who polled 290, 490 votes.

    There was a repeat of performance in 2015. In the first ballot, Okorocha scored 385, 671 while his opponent Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP polled 306,142. Okorocha led with 79,529 votes, while the cancelled votes were 144, 715, hence the need for supplementary election, which Okorocha won.

    The 2013 governorship poll in Anambra State was concluded with supplementary election after the first ballot failed to produce a clear winner. In the first results, the APGA candidate, Mr Willie Obiano garnered 174, 710 votes, while Mr Tony Nwoye of the PDP scored 94, 356 votes and the APC’s Chris Ngige had 92, 356 votes. The margin of lead was below the 113, 113 votes cancelled. As a result, supplementary elections were held.

    In Taraba 2015 governorship election, Mr Darius Ishaku of the PDP in the first ballot scored 326,198 votes, while Hajia Aisha Alhassan of the APC polled 262,381 votes. Elections were cancelled in the Donga Local Government, and in six polling units in Takum, and in five polling units in other local government areas, with total votes exceeding Ishaku’s marginal lead. INEC conducted supplementary poll and Ishaku eventually won.

    During the 2015 governorship election in Abia, 177,000 votes in several polling units were cancelled. Areas affected were some parts of Osisioma, Ugwunagbo, Aba North, Aba South, Isiala-Ngwa South, Isiala-Ngwa North, Umuahia North, Umuahia South, Ohafia, Arochukwu and Umununneochi local councils. INEC ordered supplementary elections in the affected areas. Before the election was declared inconclusive, the PDP candidate, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, had polled 248, 549 votes, while the APGA flag bearer, Chief Alex Oti, scored 165,406 votes, making a difference of 83,053 votes, which was less than the number of cancelled votes.

    In Kogi, after election results from the 21 local councils were collated, the APC candidate, the late Prince Abubakar Audu, scored 240,867 votes, as against Idris Wada of the PDP who polled 199,514 votes. INEC ordered supplementary elections in some units, because the 49,953 votes cancelled were higher than the margin between Audu and Wada.

    The Bayelsa governorship election in 2016 also went through supplementary poll. Governor Seriake Dickson had to wait for the outcome of the repeated election in Southern Ijaw Local Council for him to be declared winner. With results of the seven out of eight local councils collated, Dickson scored 105,748 votes, while his closest rival, Chief Timipre Sylva of the APC, polled 72,594 votes. The margin of lead was 33,154 votes. The Southern Ijaw Local Counci had 120,827 registered voters, which was the reason why INEC declared the election inconclusive and called for a supplementary election.

    On the powers of election petition tribunals to nullify candidate’s victory, Akintola said they have the power to unseat the occupant of a political office, if it was established before the tribunal that the winner declared by INEC did not win majority of lawful votes and did not meet constitutional requirements. He said examples abound of governors who mounted governorship seat through the law courts.

    In August 2005, the Anambra State Election Petition Tribunal had nullified the election of former Governor, Dr Chris Ngige, and declared Mr. Peter Obi of APGA winner. The tribunal ruled that INEC erred in declaring Ngige winner of the 2003 governorship election in Anambra State. It noted that Obi had won a free and fair election, while the result was rigged in favour of the PDP and its candidate.

    Ngige appealed the judgment. He remained in office while the appeal lasted. On March 16, 2006, the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu quashed Ngige’s election. It upheld the ruling of the election tribunal which had earlier confirmed Obi, and not Ngige, as winner of the election. Following the ruling, Obi was sworn in as governor of Anambra State.

    Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2007, was embroiled in a tortuous legal battle that spanned 41 months and seven days to retrieve his mandate. After the April 14, 2007 governorship election, INEC returned his opponent, Mr Segun Oni of the PDP, as the winner. On May 8, 2007, Fayemi, in a 50-page petition, approached the Justice Bukar Bwala-led Election Petition Tribunal in Ekiti for justice and to reclaim his mandate.

    However, the tribunal turned down his petition and affirmed Oni’s victory. Dissatisfied, Fayemi headed for the Court of Appeal in Ilorin and got a judgment. The five- man panel led by Justice Mohammed Dattijo on February 14, 2009 nullified Oni’s election and ordered re-run polls in 63 wards in 10 local councils. The re-run polls held on April 25, 2009 were marked by violence and could not be concluded until May 5, 2009. After a series of dramatic events, including disappearance of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo on the grounds that some people wanted to force her to do things against her will, Oni was returned as winner with 111,140 votes as opposed to Fayemi’s 107,011 votes.

    Fayemi headed to the tribunal again to challenge Oni’s victory. The tribunal had a hectic time handling the matter. But, in the end, with a split judgment, Oni was once again returned as winner by the leader of the panel, Justice Hamma Barka and two others. However, two member of the tribunal, Justices Abiodun Adebara and Obande Ogbuniyan disagreed. In a minority judgment, they nullified Oni’s victory, declared Fayemi as the winner and ordered the INEC to issue Fayemi with the Certificate of Return.

    Again, Fayemi appealed the tribunal’s judgment. In a unanimous decision by the Court of Appeal, the five-man panel led by Justice Ayo Salami declared Fayemi winner. After nullifying elections results in Ido-Osi and Efon Local Councils, the court ruled that Fayemi polled 105,631 lawful votes, as against Oni’s 95,176 votes. The court ordered that ACN candidate be issued the Certificate of Return as the elected governor and ordered Oni to immediately vacate the office for the duly elected candidate.

    Justice Salami declared: “Segun Oni was not validly elected, as he did not get the majority of valid votes cast. Segun Oni’s election is hereby nullified. Dr Fayemi, having won the majority of votes cast and having met the constitutional requirements and 2006 Electoral Act, is hereby declared the winner of the elections.

    In April 2007, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole ran for Edo State governorship election on the platform o Action Congress (AC). INEC declared Professor Oserheimen Osunbor of the PDP as the winner. On March 20, 2008, the Chairman of the Edo State Governorship Petition Tribunal, Justice Peter Umeadi, nullified the election of Osunbor and declared Oshiomhole as the winner of 2007. The tribunal ruled that the former labour leader had proved his allegations of fraud, voter intimidation, multiple voter registration, over voting and election violence. The tribunal held that the results were adversely affected.

    The tribunal invalidated 263,144 from the PDP votes and 30,610 from ACN. It declared Oshiomhole the true winner with 166,577 votes. Dissatisfied with the tribunal judgment, Oserheimen headed for the Court and prayed the appellate court to overturn the tribunal judgment and declare him the winner. But the Appeal court upheld the judgment of the tribunal and affirmed Oshiomhole as duly elected governor.

    On  August 25, 2008, the Ondo State Election Petitions Tribunal nullified the election of Governor Olusegun Agagu of the PDP and declared Dr Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party winner of the April 14, 2007 governorship election.

    The five-man tribunal headed by Justice Garba Nabaruma ruled that Mimiko should be sworn in immediately as the governor of the state because he won the valid votes in 12 out of the 18 local councils in the state. According to the tribunal, Mimiko scored 198,269 votes while the PDP candidate, Agagu got 128,669 votes.

    Agagu contested the tribunal judgement at the Court of Appeal and asked the court to declare him the winner of the election. Instead, the appellate court upheld the earlier ruling of the tribunal, sacked Agagu and declared Mimiko the duly elected governor of the state.

    The court ruled that having satisfied the requirements of Section 179 (2)(a) and (b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and by the virtue of section 147(2) of the Electoral Act Nr. 2 of 2006, “Mimiko be and is hereby declared as the Governor of Ondo State of Nigeria.”

     

  • 2019 elections: Wike asks for forgiveness

    Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has apologised to the people for all they went through during the election.

    Wike specially asked for forgiveness from anyone he might have offended while pursuing his political ambition.

    The governor, who spoke yesterday during a family thanksgiving at the Salvation Ministry Headquarters in Port Harcourt, noted that despite the political turmoil, nobody died.

    He also forgave anyone who offended him, and urged everyone holding anything against him to let go.

    Wike said: “Nobody won and nobody lost the elections; but Rivers State has won. I forgive anyone who wronged me and I also ask for forgiveness from those that I have wronged.”

    The governor reiterated that his victory, which marks a new beginning for the state, is for everybody.

    “We have come here to give God thanks because he is so faithful to us. We have come to thank God for fighting on our behalf. It is only God who can fight for us. We have no power of our own to fight,” he added.

    Wike also thanked the Presiding Pastor of Salvation Ministry, David Ibiyeomie, for his spiritual support during the long drawn political battle, saying he  was strengthened by the cleric and his confidence restored when he faltered in faith.

    Pastor Ibiyeomie asked God to accept the governor’s thanksgiving and bless him.

    He said by the special thanksgiving, God will perfect everything that concerns Wike and his family.

    The cleric decreed God’s wisdom on Wike, asking God to grant him the enablement to lead the State in the right direction.

  • Exclusion from primary: Court strikes out Shittu’s case against APC

    A Federal High Court, Ibadan on Friday struck out a suit filed by the Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, against the All Progressives Congress (APC) over exclusion of his name for his inability to produce evidence of participating in the one-year mandatory National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.

    Justice P.I. Ajoku struck out the suit for Shittu’s failure to file it within the time stipulated by law.

    The APC had excluded his name from among aspirants due to his non-participation in the NYSC scheme after his graduation from the University of Ife. But the minister headed to the court, describing it as a breach of his human rights.

    “I must first consider the provision of Section 285 of the constitution that makes it mandatory for all pre-election matters to be filed within 14 days of occurrence.

    “This particular case was not filed within 14 days, but outside the date.

    “Therefore, I will not bother going into the merit of the case.

    “Having failed to satisfy the dictates of the constitution, the matter is hereby struck out,” the Judge ruled.

    Read Also: ICT mainstay of economy, says Shittu

    In his reaction to the ruling , the defence counsel, Mr Adebayo Ojo, who was the former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Oyo State, said that the law has taken its due course.

    “The judge acted by the 1999 constitution and it is a victory for democracy,” Ojo said.

    Shittu’s counsel, Mr Abdulhakeem Mustafa, (SAN) had tendered a 38-paragraph affidavit and 13 exhibits to support his claims.

    Shittu prayed the court to determine whether the action of his party to omit his name in the list of governorship aspirants was lawful or a contravention of the constitution.

    Joined as respondent in the matter is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

     

     

  • Politics and women in governance

    The 2019 elections have come and almost gone as the battles have shifted to the legal front. But a look at the race has shown that women are significantly few in the number of candidates and winners in the election. Except for a few of them that were elected into legislative houses, there were little gains for the women folks in the Nigerian political system.

    Truth be told, the two major political parties – All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – claim to love the womenfolk dearly. They wax lyrical tunes and political messages to show their interest in advancing the political interest of women in the country, but unfortunately, this is where it ends.

    In the last general election, no woman was nominated governorship candidate of both parties and none was elected. Instead, the best they did was to nominate a few of them as deputy governorship candidates – and like deputy governors all over the country, they do not have any political influence, and their relevance is negligible.

    Statistics put women and youth at almost 80% of eligible voters in the country; yet, they have been ignored politically, except during elections when their votes count.

    In numbers, under the current political system, women’s representation in the House of Representatives is 5.5%; in the Senate, it is 5.8%. Only five out of 73 candidates that ran for president in 2019 are women. In all, 1,668 men and 232 women vied for 109 senatorial seats while 4,139 men and 560 women competed for 360 seats in the House of Representatives.

    Since 2006, Nigeria’s National Gender Policy highlights women’s right to equality in economic, social and political life, with provisions to increase women in elected and appointed positions to 35 per cent—but that hasn’t happened.

    “There have been so many protocols, conventions, amendments of the Nigerian constitution, which support providing a quota system, but in reality, women are excluded in politics,” says Blessing Obidiegwu, Head of the Gender Division for the Independent National Electoral Commission. “Such problems as patriarchy, violence in elections and their economic situation serve as barriers to women’s participation.”

    In 2016, a Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill was tabled, calling for the adoption of temporary special measures to eliminate discrimination in political and public life. UN supported the bill’s passage in five states (Anambra, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi and Plateau) and is currently advocating, alongside partners, for its adoption at the National Assembly.

    Although Mrs. ObyEzekwesili was just one of the six females among the 73 presidential candidates, before she withdrew her candidacy, her role was significant insofar as she was a direct repudiation of the gendered narratives that portray women candidates as incompetent and unable to compete in the world of politics.

    While women make up 47 per cent of registered voters for the 2019 elections, only eight per cent were cleared to vie for electoral positions in presidential elections.

    Furthermore, all six women presidential candidates withdrew their candidacy even though their names remained on the ballot box. Women can expect to remain a significant minority in elected offices under this election cycle.

    Women’s minimal participation in Nigeria has multi-dimensional implications for the democratic project in Nigeria and for the continuing quest for gender equality in Africa’s biggest economy. The 2019 elections is the sixth consecutive general elections since the beginning of the fourth republic in 1999. This marks what is undoubtedly, a measure of democratic progress – if only for conducting periodic elections since the return to civil rule.

    What remains deeply in doubt, however, is how inclusive this progress has been and, in particular, to what extent women have benefited from the democratic dividend of equality and fairness.

    The first of the wife of leaders of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to place a significant role in advancing the course of women was Mrs. Maryam Babangida. With her Better Life for Women programme, she significantly brought to the fore, women’s cause. This was followed by Maryam Abacha, Stella Obasanjo and Patience Jonathan each in their individual ways.

    In the present dispensation, the wife of the president, Aisha Buhari has been very outspoken in her resolve for political inclusiveness for women. A couple of years ago, she openly said to her husband and the political leadership that she would not mobilize the women for him if there are no political changes in the system.

    During the last elections, she and the wife of the vice president, Dolapo Osinbajo introduced and ran the Women and Youth Presidential Campaign for the APC. The success of this was clear through the door-to-door campaign members embarked upon across the country. This is an indelible new introduction into the political lexicon of Nigeria.

    Before the elections, President Buhari repeatedly announced that he will engage more women when he wins his second term. We wait to see whether he will follow his words with action now that he has won his second term.

    Liberia’s former head of state, Ellen Johnson Sir-leaf made history as Africa’s first female president. In the United States, Senator Hillary Clinton has made a positive impact in America’s politics. Also the late Republican Party’s presidential candidate, John McCain picked a woman – Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska as his running mate for the U.S election. This could be seen as the strong factor women constitute in the political parlance of any nation.

    Today, many countries of the world are making efforts to bridge the gap between men and women in politics. But in Nigeria, the representation of women in government even though has improved is still very low compared to what obtains in other nations of the world, particularly in the developed nations. The representation of women in the last republic, 2003 election, was poor – only three women made it to 109-member senate, while 21 were elected in 360-member lower House of Representatives. As it were, the number of serving female ministers is still very few.

    A greater inclusion of women in the political permutations of political parties in order to win future elections is becoming a reality. Whereas the exclusion of womenfolk has been maintained by successive governments without repercussions, just as it happened in the last elections, the implication of neglecting women may prove costly in 2023.

    There is no doubt that women have some potentials and rights to contribute meaningfully to the development of their country. Therefore, the Nigerian government should work towards achieving gender equality in democratic governance, increase women participation and access to politics. It must be realized that the role of women as homemakers cannot be downplayed in that it equally has an extended impact on their responsibility in service; the feminine touch – they say, cannot be wished away.

     

    • Ayomo is Abuja-based Human Rights Advocate and Media Consultant.