A view from the bridge
We are talking Nigerian elections here. Never mind that we
have borrowed the title from a 20th Century classic by ace American
playwright, Arthur Miller, on immigration challenges that could well be the
case in today’s Donald Trump era.
There is a pressing need for massive involvement of credible
and non-partisan volunteers in Nigerian elections to boost the integrity of the
process. So says former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, in his overview of volunteerism in the
conduct of elections in the country.
Jega spoke in a public lecture titled ‘Volunteers in the
Nigerian Electoral Process: Challenges and Prospects,’ delivered at the University
of Lagos under the auspices of that institution’s Muslim Community in
collaboration with Muslim Ummah of South Western Nigeria. The lecture was in honour
of Unilag’s immediate past Vice Chancellor, Professor Rahaman Bello, and former
Bursar, Dr. Lateef Odekunle.
The former electoral chief offered a ‘bridge elevation’
insight from his experience in INEC and what obtains as global best practice to
make submissions for the Nigerian process. Basically, he said, integrity of
elections is a core requirement for good governance, hence “imbuing elections
with integrity should be the preoccupation of all citizens and all stakeholders
in a country, not just the election management body and/or other governmental
institutions and agencies… especially in transitional democracies (like)
Nigeria with a bad history of poorly conducted and fraudulent elections.”
According to him, whereas volunteers typically undertake
crucial roles and add tremendous value to the integrity of polls, especially in
so-called mature democracies, volunteerism in transitional democracies like
Nigeria poses a huge challenge, which if not addressed would end up undermining
rather than enhancing the integrity of elections.
Jega noted that the motivation for volunteerism should be
the late John F. Kennedy’s famous admonition, namely to consider what one can
do for one’s country rather than what the country can do for one. In that
regard, “the case for the involvement of volunteers in the electoral process
globally has been based on the assumption that liberal democracy requires citizens
engagement and involvement – individually and (through) civil society
associations – for its sustenance, deepening and consolidation. Public
institutions, even when strong, need their work to be supplemented and/or
counter-balanced by contributions from citizens, civil society and other forms
of organised interests. When (state) institutions are weak and/or
dysfunctional, as is the case with Nigeria, greater involvement of citizens is
required to defend rights and popular choices, and to advocate for responsible
conduct by governmental organisations.”
No election management body in the world has all the hands
it needs for all aspects of the polling process on its regular workforce and,
invariably, ad hoc workers get enlisted. In Nigeria, citizens engage with the
process as volunteers in areas including political campaigns, community
mobilisation, voter education, conflict resolution and peace-building, as well
as polling day activities – either as observers, political party/candidate poll
agent, or as polling unit ad hoc staff.
In past elections, namely before 2011, teachers and civil
servants joined regular INEC staff for election day duties. But “given the
weakness of public institutions, threats to job security of civil servants,
lack of neutrality by public officials and corruption, the integrity of
elections were systematically undermined at the polling unit level,” Jega said.
He added: “One of the key reforms introduced by INEC
beginning with the 2011 general election, and improved upon subsequently, was
the removal of civil servants and permanent INEC staff from core election day
duties – especially management of the polling stations/units (and) counting and
declaration of results. These were replaced with volunteers drawn from the
National Youth Service Corps as Presiding Officers (POs) and Assistant
Presiding Officers (APOs), students of federal tertiary institutions as supplementary
polling officials, and university academic staff as collation and returning
officers…
“The youth corps members, being young men and women on
one-year national service in states other than of their origin, (and) imbued
with enthusiasm and patriotism, generally conducted themselves creditably. Of
course, the fear of any misbehavior resulting in the withholding of their
(discharge) certificates served as additional motivation… The vetting of
students by registrars of their tertiary institutions similarly motivated them
to act responsibly. As for the academic staff and vice-chancellors who
volunteered for election duties, few would contemplate risking their careers
and hard-earned reputation to perpetrate fraud in elections.”
‘Credible volunteers
(are needed) in Nigerian elections to boost the integrity of the process’
But the involvement of volunteers in Nigerian elections is
not without challenges, which the former INEC chief highlighted to include:
Ø Youth corps members being intimidated, assaulted and even
killed in the course of doing voluntary election duties. “The loss of the lives
of youth corps members due to electoral violence, especially the death of nine
of them in the post-2011 general election violence, not only threatened the
NYSC policy, but also resulted in many parents discouraging their wards from volunteering
for election duties,” he noted.
Ø Corrupt politicians finding creative ways to compromise
election volunteers, and
Ø Discontinuity in ad hoc election service, constituting a
drainpipe on training expenditure. Jega explained: “Because the NYSC scheme is
just for one year, corps members who previously performed (election) duties and
have gained experience, but have now left the scheme, are ‘lost’ to election
duties, resulting in huge expenditures on training new sets.”
He urged that the identified and other emerging challenges
be carefully interrogated and addressed by authorities concerned, so to extend
the gains towards improving our Nigerian elections. Among others, he
specifically proposed that some means be devised to track ex-youth corps
members who were trained and had participated in election duties, to assess
their suitability and harness their experience for subsequent poll.
While applauding the growing civic interest in volunteerism
for elections, Jega admonished that “urgent reforms are needed leading to 2019
general election to reposition the continuous role of (youth corps) members and
academics; open avenues for additional groups of professionals like engineers,
doctors and journalists to join the academics; and steadily set up measures in
the direction of recruiting volunteers using a database of those who have done
election duty before, even when they have finished serving in the NYSC or have
graduated from tertiary institutions.”
The chair of Unilag Muslim Community and a former INEC
National Commissioner, Professor Lai Olurode, in his opening remark said the focus
on volunteerism was to address huge costs associated with the Nigerian
electoral process, because “the more funds are expended on election costs, the
more violence the elections are likely to trigger (and) the less quantum of
funds will be available for social service delivery.”
One of the sidebars to the event was Jega’s response to an
off-context question on what informed his restrained response to former Niger
Delta Minister Godsday Orubebe, who infamously attempted to disrupt the 2015
presidential election results declaration process.
He explained: “My colleagues and I had done our best in very
difficult circumstances… So we were resolved to ensure that the process came to
successful conclusion; and that, by the grace of God, if it was going to be
truncated, we would not be liable. Luckily, we knew that everything was being
televised live. And so, we just sat there biding our time and allowed him to
speak. And when we spoke, it was only to respond to specific allegations.”
The public lecture, without doubt, offered helpful insights
for improving the Nigerian electoral process.
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