THE POWER OF YOUR VOTE, a catalyst for stable and united Nigeria

Professor Akin Oyebode: 

A Professor of Law and a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos. He chairs the International Law and Jurisprudence as well as the University’s International Relations, Partnership and Prospects unit; he was a former Dean and Vice Chancellor at the Ondo State University and University of Ado Ekiti Respectively. He was also a delegate at the just concluded National Conference,

 He was the guest speaker at an event titled THE POWER OF YOUR VOTE (a catalyst for stable and united Nigeria), the program was to commemorate the birthday of one of the more forthright and enduring men of God in the land, the inimitable and highly celebrated Bishop Mike Okonkwo, founder and chief motivator of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission, better known by its acronym, TREM. 

In his address Professor Oyebode x-rayed the democratic praxis in Nigeria as against other democracies around the globe in a way that makes for interesting reading as you will soon find out below.

INTRODUCTION 

It is nearly universally agreed that perhaps the most important determinant of the democratic process lies in the capacity of the electorate to choose in a free, fair and credible manner those who are to exercise political power and authority over them from time to time.  Less enthusiastic or, perhaps, one might say, less charitable doubters of the electoral process in bourgeois societies would argue that “elections merely afford the masses once every four or five years the chance to select their oppressors and executioners”!

Yet, as Winston Churchill once observed, democracy was the worst form of government aside from all the others! So, as bad as things might look under a democratic dispensation, especially, bearing in mind our experience here in Nigeria, it should be admitted that the world has been unable to fashion another system that can better offer dividends to the people at large than what democracy does.  Despite its steep learning curve, especially in our own circumstances, democracy, it would seem, continues to fire the imagination of many and is perceived by them as the silver bullet capable of extinguishing most, if not all of society’s woes.

The allure of elections in the consciousness of Nigerians is proverbial despite their less attractive aspects such as kidnapping of candidates, ballot-box snatching, overnight detention of party apparatchiks, gerrymandering, sundry acts of gangsterism, political intimidation, outright murder of opponents, late arrival or absence of polling officers, deliberate hoarding of voting materials in selected polling units, compromised electoral officials, partisan police and other security personnel, “inconclusive elections” etc. All this would have to be factored into what has since come to be known as “stomach infrastructure” or provision of commodities and other incentives by desperate contestants out to bamboozle and exploit the poverty and hunger of the electorate, for us to be able to come to grips with political behavior in this part of the world.

Accordingly, elections need to be seen more as a process than an event if democratic praxis in Nigeria is to be properly understood.  Rigging which is said to be the bane of elections in Nigeria, more often than not, occurs long before the day of election and has to be contained if elections are to be a true reflection of popular will. Thus, most, if not all the loop-holes identified above would have to be filled if the notion of “One man, one vote” is to have any meaning in our environment.  However, before we interrogate the role and power of the vote, perhaps it is apposite to contemplate the prospects for a united and stable Nigerian polity.

Having just come out of the National Conference, I have become a lot more conscious of Nigeria’s fault lines.  Admittedly, we all make nice noises regarding the non-negotiability of Nigeria’s unity but if the truth is to be told, Nigeria is still very much a nation in the process of becoming.  The cleavages existing among the over 400 ethnic groups and nationalities after over a century of forced cohabitation are an overhang on today’s realities such as to inform us all that we are still far off in the journey of nation-building.

Whereas, the heterogeneity which could very well have been harnessed as a veritable source of strength is today more of an encumbrance than anything else. The governing class having stubbornly refused to take decisive steps aimed at welding our various peoples together in order to “move the nation forward.”  Instead, all we have been treated to was undisguised manipulation of issues dividing the people such as ethnicity, religion, language, place of origin, human and natural resources endowment in a bid to hold on to power or displace those temporarily in power.

Those who had been cast into the political wilderness, having lost out in the power game, are dead set to reverse the situation by making desperate bids to grab power and restore their hegemony in the country while the forces at the helm of affairs at the present point in time would themselves not easily yield to rival contestants but seem quite ready to fight to the hilt to maintain their hold on power.

The political situation in the country at present is that contestants for power are mobilizing massively for an epic battle akin to a struggle by warlords in more unstable climes for control and enjoyment of the nations resources. If the divide had been along ideological lines, the situation would, perhaps, have been more tolerable and, most likely, more exciting than the scenario of different factions and fractions of the governing class, locked in an internecine combat battle for the political soul of the country. The current situation hardly bodes well for political stability and national cohesion and prudent men and women are hedging their bets on what next presidential election holds out for the nation’s destiny. Indeed, it would seem that the jury is still out on whether or not Nigeria would actually survive the fall-out from unfolding events.

THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE AS AN ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT OF DEMOCRACY

Democracy, it is frequently stated, is very much about the right or freedom of choice. So high is this value in the pedestal of democracy that in extolling the democratic spirit of the English, Montesqieu had observed that so free are people in England that every Englishman had the right to go to heaven any way he wants! So, it is quite understandable that the British can very well boast of having the world’s oldest parliament, even if the right to vote had not been readily available and had to be fought for over several centuries.

However, it needs to be stated that while the right to vote is a necessary concomitant of democracy, the trajectory of that right has not always followed that of democracy. From Athenian democracy right up to democratic praxis in the 20th century, there had not always been universal suffrage as the right to vote was made subject to a certain qualifications, most notably, age and property. It is instructive that Ephorus, commenting on the Constitution of Crete had observed that,

“The law-giver takes it for granted that liberty is a state’s highest good and for this reason alone makes property belong specifically to those who acquire it, whereas in condition of slavery everything belongs to the rulers and not to the ruled…”

In some places, there were additional criteria for the voting right, such as gender, race and state of mind. Indeed, qualifications attached to the right to run for office were even more stringent as recruitment into governing class was a matter closely guarded by ruling circles every where. Dominated classes like slave, serfs, indentured servants and oppressed groups such as women, colonized people, aliens and prisoners were denied the franchise. Accordingly, voting rights were deemed as being of international dimensions; yet, they could actually be culture-specific and geography-bound. While democratic pre-requisites such as a free press, rule of law, independent judiciary, freedom of religion and conscience as well as right to privacy ensure the exercise of the right to vote, of even greater import are basic, socio-economic rights like the right not to go to bed hungry, right to employment, right to housing, right to health and right to education. In fact, these are critical determinants of the right to the ballot-box. Lacking these latter rights, the right to vote becomes an empty, shambolic and cosmetic ritual, incapable of making any lasting effect on the existential conditions of the poor, under-privileged and marginalized members of the society.

Their role and disposition are very crucial to the democratic process in that this group of people constitute the majority especially, in a society such as ours which relegates them to an inferior and irrelevant position despite the fact, as chief Awolowo once observed, that God so loved them that he had made more in number than the rich! So, this must always be at the back of our mind whenever we are contemplating the voting power of the population.

DEMOCRACY, NIGERIA STLYE

It is a notorious fact that in the recent past, or at least, under the present dispensation, Nigeria has been trying to practice democracy with hardly any significant collection of convinced democrats. The consequence of this has been the potter’s wheel – all motion, no movement. While the founding fathers can generally be considered as having imbibed the democratic ethos, today’s practitioners of the art continue to advertise their discomfort with the tenets of the ballot-box democracy and, more often than not, evince characteristics of desperados – intolerance of dissent, blackmail and abuse of opponents, naked and crude diktat, a winner-takes-all mentality, obdurate lust for power, jumping the gun, faceless media campaigns, etc. so much so that our political lexicon has since encompassed concepts like “do or die,” “no vacancy,” and “carry go”

While the conflict factions and fractions of the governing class are eternally courting and seeking the approval of so-called development partners and welcome foreign election monitors and observers in a bid to secure the nod of western nations in the conduct of elections in the country, the truth is that the learning curve of our political actors is so steep that it almost amounts to hoping against hope itself that they can ever get it right, be it in relation to formation of political parties, political campaigns, pre-election activities and conduct the actual elections. The immorality of the governing class, evidenced by switching political allegiance at the drop of a hat as well as all manner of chicanery and shenanigans have left the electorate with not more than a choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Not only have we witnessed undue militarization of the electoral process and arbitrary actions of hooded goons in the form of harassment, arrest and detention of politicians and their supporters before, during and after elections, INEC, the election czar would seem itself overwhelmed, incapacitated and helpless in the face of partisan actions by security agents and official radio and electronic media under the guise of ensuring “free, fair and credible” elections. Besides, delay in declaring the results of elections has given cause to worry and speculate on possible underhand efforts by sinister forces to steal the vote and manipulate the results.

Unlike in other climes where all the parties are sworn to accept and play by the rules, the Nigerian political terrain is suffused with all manner of imponderables, giving rise to innumerable doubting Thomases, conspiracy theories and peremptory rejection of declared results of elections conducted manually instead of digitally in accordance with international best practices, giving credibility to the outcome of the poll such that the loser is quick to hearken to the voice of the electorate, throw in the towel and congratulate his victorious opponent. In sum, our archaic antediluvian electoral practices give little to cheer or encourage the electorate that their votes would really count.

MAKING THE POWER OF THE VOTE MEANINGFUL AND RELEVANT

The slogan, “One man, one vote” bandied  around by many of our false democrats would remain empty and hollow except and unless it is firmly grounded on a positive legal frame work which can guarantee our elections free, fair, transparent and credible. To Celebrate the power of the vote without recognizing the imperative of a level playing ground for the contestant amounts to no more than attempting to stage Hamlet without the Prince.

The Electoral Act with its various amendments has been unable hitherto to win requisite confidence and assurance from stakeholders, including even INEC whose Chairman just a couple of weeks ago brought a bag full of recommendations for amendments to the Act to the House of Representatives. Whereas s.99(1) of the Electoral Act frowns against campaigning in public 90 days before polling day and ends 24 hours prior to that day, it is a notorious fact the provision has been flagrantly violated by some political parties and INEC been unable to rein these violators, perhaps on account of lack of an Electoral Offences Commission. Similarly, there are ample provisions in the Act aimed at ensuring fair and equitable media coverage for all political parties but it is an open secret that the contrary seem to be the order of the day. Indeed there is no gainsaying the fact that the Electoral Act has been honoured more in its breach than its observance. The disaster that heralded distribution of the Permanent Voters Card as well the questionable effort by INEC to increase and re-distribute polling units across the country has left a sour taste in the mouth. That both the political actors and the umpire himself betray little confidence in the ground rules of the contestation should convince all and sundry that we are indeed in dire straits.

The poor voters who are compelled to stand for long hours in the line under the sun or rain in order to register, be accredited and finally, cast their ballot are, more often than not, little more than raw material or canon fodder in the realization of the ambitions of the various political office-seekers who, generally, only promise to build bridges where there are no rivers, to recall the cynical observation of Nikita Khrushev, and usually forget the electorate no sooner than elections are over and seldom, if ever, visit them again until the next election.

In such circumstances, can it truly be that consciousness sovereignty belongs to the people or that the electorates are the ultimate repository of power in the polity? Indeed, how correct is the hypothesis that the people exercise the power to stabilize and guarantee the unity of the country through their voting power?

As Roberto Unger, my old jurisprudence teacher at the Harvard Law School opined nearly forty years ago, law is the glue that holds society together. Thus, Nigeria’s survival, stability and progress hinge on the role ascribed to law in the scheme of things. Accordingly, it is crucial to bear in mind the prerequisites for the proper functioning of law in society. Without a proper grasp of the tenets of the rule of law, we would only be chorusing shibboleths on transformation with little or nothing to show for it. The allegory of king Rex enunciated by another teacher if mine, the great Lon Fuller, that is to say, generality of law, certainty, promulgation, non-contradiction, non-impossibility, non-retroactivity, application to both lawmaker and addressees and constancy through time constitute the desiderata of a well-ordered society.

In other words, it is futile to expect the emergence of a stable and durable polity except we are ready and willing to imbibe and give full reign to what Fuller had called “the inner morality of law” or “the morality that makes law possible”. What this means is that all concerned should agree to play by the rules and desist from any act or omission that can render the corporate interest of the country in jeopardy.

Aside from exercising their franchise to elect the most capable among the public office-seekers, the people must be empowered, socially and economically, in order to be able to put their elected representatives on their toes. They should never surrender their oversight function to ensure good governance. Docility, helplessness and resignation in the face misrule and arbitrariness should henceforth give rise to vigilance, mass action and protest for the protection hailed those in power or sought divine liberation from their traducers. Now is the time for the people to stand up and be counted in defense of their role and power as masters and not servants of those that have lording it over them.

CONCLUSION

Nigeria is today very much at a crossroads. Many Nigerians are filed with serious foreboding regarding the 2015 elections. While some Cassandra’s abroad had gone as far as to predict the demise of Nigeria as we know it, the daring escapades and atrocities of the Boko Haram have not given any respite either to dyed-in-the-wool optimists on the Nigerian project. Yet, we keep hope alive and believe that we would somehow pull through.

This why the governing class is charged to do all it can to assure the people that their vote would count, more so, as Joseph de Maistre had opinion that a people get the government they deserve. If we all believe the people can vote wisely and decide those to be in charge of the affairs for the next few years.

Quite frankly, I believe that democracy would not have come of age in this country except and unless and only to the extent that the people are able to vote ruling governments out of the office in a free, fair and peaceful manner just as some of our neighbours have done. We just cannot continue having more of the same and think we are making any progress. For me, change represents the touchstone of democratic praxis and the earlier this is brought to the consciousness of all and sundry, the better our being on the ascendancy of democracy, socio-economic and political development generally.