Are Credible Elections Attainable in Africa? With Samson Itodo, Executive Director, Yiaga Africa Initiative.

The Development Sector Series is a video podcast that highlights what citizens and development leaders are doing in nation-building.?This episode was with Samson Itodo, Executive Director, Yiaga Africa.?Samson was in between meetings in the United Kingdom when he participated in “The Development Sector Series”.?This interview happened before the updated Electoral Act and political party primaries.?To watch the entire video podcast with questions from the audience, please click HERE.

Efua:?I want to start with you in terms of your journey. What led you to international development?

Samson: ?Well, that's an interesting question. Come to think of it, why did I get involved in this journey? First, it's about the passion that I have for community service and development. My family also inspired and inculcated in me, the values of community service.

And the values of excellent community leadership. I grew up appreciating the fact that we exist to serve our community.??When I was much younger, during the holidays, Christmas, New Year, or the Easter celebration, my mom will cook food and, as the first son and the first child I would go around houses, distributing food to people, particularly those who are poor and couldn't afford three square meals in a day.

That became part of my culture, and community service. I've always wanted to be a lawyer, not to make money, but to fight the cause of justice. I also look up to something greater than myself and transform my society.?Our society will not change if we don't take bold and intentional steps to fix it. The challenge I decided to frontally engage is inequality.

Throughout my university years, I could see inequality being institutionalized. Leaders of student union governments are unable to speak out without any form of intimidation when students demand their rights.?We have to change society. Like we normally will live and die here. This country and continent that we inherited, is not the continent of our dream.

For me, I've just been that active citizen, doing the little that I can with the support of my friends and, and partners, building strong alliances with other people, other Africans, and young people who believe that we can change our society.

Efua:?Thank you for all you do, the sacrifices, and, the time that you are using to make an impact and live to live a life beyond yourself. You now decided to focus on elections. What was the drive behind that?

Samson:?I focus on, four things, and elections are just one of them. Our other focus areas are constitution building, social movements, and community organizing.

Subsequently, I also focus on leadership, particularly public leadership. This feeds into, things like legislative leadership or legislative governance and working with the national assembly. But at the end of the day, it's all tied to how we make democracy delivered to the people.

And what inspired me to focus on elections is; democracy isn't just about elections, but the leadership recruitment process. Elections provide you with that variable to select or to hire and fire leaders you voted for with the power and the authority to take decisions on your behalf.

If we have bad leaders like we have in Africa, who don't care about the people, who are corrupt, incompetent, and who do not uphold the values of integrity and accountability in public office, then we are toast. After 22 years of democracy in Nigeria, it's a failure of leadership. The only leadership recruitment process that we have, particularly for democracy, is elections. And if we fix elections, the probability that we would have leaders that will be accountable to the people is very high.

But I also need to underscore that credible elections are not guaranteed that you would have good governance. And that's why in my earlier remark, I did mention that democracy isn’t just about elections. That is why I'm very focused, on elections. The leadership recruitment process is an opportunity for citizens to assess their sovereignty because if democracy is about the government of the people, then the people exercise their views and their franchise in elections.

Efua:?Based on your extensive experience, what are some of the common themes you've observed in election observation, especially in Africa as we know it?

Samson:?I think politicians are not interested in democracy.?Politicians are only interested in capturing power. And they focus more on using power to settle inter-elite war and not necessarily using power to advance the development of the people. And the reason why democracy must deliver power to the people. Cause the whole essence, of elections is, to select leaders that would legislate on our behalf, would advance the common good.?The public good in this case is the pursuit of liberty, the right to life, as well as, the pursuit of happiness. And if people cannot fulfill their potential in a society that is led by people whom they trusted with power and authority, then what you have is an anesthetic society that, does not uphold or believe in democracy.?Politicians are not interested in democracy, and I need to underscore that; they're more interested in elections and in capturing power. And why is that the case? If you look at political parties across Africa, the challenge of candidate selection permeates every aspect of electoral politics. In Africa, it's either you have political parties that do not have respect for the basic tenants of democracy.

The candidate selection process is monetized and highly commercialized. ?And the process is for the highest bidder and the highest spender because they only want to get power, advance their cause, and for their self-serving purposes.?Consequently, competent people with character are not given the space, to lead.

The second point and the great lesson is, if you've got weak accountability institutions, you cannot advance democracy. Weak electoral commissions that are not independent, that are subservient and are vulnerable to intimidation by incumbents, you are not going to have a credible election. In Nigerian elections where the executive didn't release or delayed funding of the electoral commission in the 2019 elections. Now that's one way to rig the elections because elections are capital intensive, but also a human activity that requires a lot of sensitivity and due diligence in the complexity of logistics management.

In a large country like Nigeria, you need a robust logistics management plan, to deliver on elections. And if you don't provide the monies for the electoral commission, for God's sake, where are they going to get the monies to do it? To procure ballot papers and results sheets and pay the personnel that is required for elections.

Next, they use force and power to undermine the electoral commission and make them incapable of conducting credible elections. And tied to that is the question about the assault on the independence of electoral commissions across Africa, where politicians appoint their cronies to electoral commissions because they want them to do their bidding. That places electoral commissions at a very disadvantaged point and weakens their ability to conduct credible elections. The third point is the de-securitization of our elections and the role that armed forces and military men are playing in our elections.

And I dare say that the greatest challenge of elections in Africa is the ruling political class and that zero-sum nature and attitude of do-or-die politics. That seems to be the guiding philosophy of seeking public office.?It is the greatest threat to our collective growth and development.

Until we have politicians who care more about the people who approach politics, not from a do-or-die perspective, they won't, utilize or deploy security agencies to undermine the electoral commission, snatch ballot boxes or intimidate voters from participating in the elections.

The fourth issue is around a decline in the turnouts for votes. A study that Yiaga Africa conducted in the 2019 elections, highlights that one of the main issues why people are not turning out to vote, is the failure of governance.?When people go out to cast their votes, they stand in the sun and rain in a long queue. They defy all odds to vote for leaders that they believe can do the job. ?When elected, will provide water, healthcare, quality education, security, and welfare.

However, what happens when politicians get into office, they become unreachable. They begin to take questionable decisions and so people have been disappointed with the quality of leadership and the failure of governance.?But is low voter turnout the solution? But my point is, no because the more you stay away from voting, the more you're going to have leaders that will continually plan for low voter turnout. Our resources have not provided the leadership that we require. These are the common themes, that I have seen in elections in different parts of the world, and our continent.

I was an international observer in Liberia during the last election.?There was a lot of support and citizens came out to vote for a leader who they thought understood their pain, and came from the grassroots from a very poor, humble background.??Unfortunately, when he came into office, the same person who is a beneficiary of electoral reforms, and human rights, assaulted the rights of citizens to free expression, and access to information. There's, there's no incentive for voters to come out to cast their vote.

The Nigerian story is a very unique one. ?The integrity of the process is improving daily.?We're not where we used to be. I know in 2007, even in 2011, the level of election malfeasance that plagued the electoral process.?Our vigilance and our consistent participation are what will keep these reckless politicians that we have in check.

My hypothesis may be wrong, I have seen public leaders who lose their sense of rationality, who lose their sense of humanity when they get into public office. And it's, the reason is just simple. It's power. Power is powerful and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Efua: The political parties, what is their role in the credibility of elections?

Samson:?In the first of the Republic we had independent candidates. I'm sure with the ongoing reform process, the National Assembly will pass the independent candidacy law. I hope the states would also assent to it because twice have the National Assembly Passed independent candidacy and twice have the State Houses of Assembly reported against it.

Well, until independent candidacy happens, political parties are the only institutions that are legally recognized, to present leaders for voters. Now the choice of voters is compromised ab initio when political parties don’t fill competent candidates. If you look at the process for selecting candidates, one is the party, the delegates, the primaries, and the conventions. ?How are delegates selected? How transparent is that process? Who is in the room?

The parties are complicit in this when they don't define the leadership values that define the candidate selection process. I've not seen any party that has engaged in this serious discussion around leadership. It has been about former military dictators and former dads. The argument is you need people who are experienced. However, my question is, the fact that someone is a former governor does not mean he's got the leadership capital to provide excellent, transformative, innovative, and accountable leadership.?I don't buy the experience argument. I think parties need to look broadly at the ethics and values in their leadership selection process.?It shouldn't be about the amount of money that someone has in their bank account or their loyalty to certain individuals within the parties.

No society makes progress when political parties are not presenting quality candidates to run for office, leaving voters with limited choices in the polls.?This is also one of the reasons why people don't vote because, at the end of the day, they're only voting for people who have recycled themselves in office, people who have been ruling us since the eighties and the nineties.

We need new actors who can take us to the next level. I think this is a bit of a conundrum because, with what happened in the United States in the last election, the democratic party trying to scramble to get a viable candidate against the incumbent.?We have to navigate our way through making sure that there is a holistic value system for people electable to lead our countries in Africa. There have several conversations in Nigeria, about leadership. Does leadership count? Does it matter? ?If you are trusted with power, what will you do with power? ?Will you be willing to constitute a team, that can work with you? Leadership is teamwork.

A good leader knows how to learn, and knows how to identify and harness the potential in people. A leader who recognizes that we are diverse and our strength lies in our diversity. One who is not proud, and also parochial in their approach to leadership and is inclusive.?Our current leaders sit in the federal capital and do not go back to their constituencies to consult with the people, over bills, and motions that they pass. Those are not the kinds of leaders that Nigeria needs. But we need people who have a clear vision and a roadmap on how to achieve that vision.

How do you claim you're providing leadership when poverty is on the rise when you can't just deal with the basics and people can't feed? People want to be happy. That's, they want to be happy and feel safe.?It's not too much to us because the fact that they belong to this state called Nigeria, or belong to any country, they have some rights that they enjoy by identifying as citizens of this country. And so, the leaders have that responsibility to do what? To make that provision.

The Not Too Young To Run Bill was passed and made into law in the constitutional amendment. I feel like a lot of young people are wrestling to take advantage of the independent candidacy so that they can have a shot at taking on that mantle of leadership that we are all looking for.

Efua:?You put out an article on Oxford's blog and, several blogs about Election Management Bodies, EMBs, and their challenges to autonomy. What are some of the challenges to autonomy? How can we navigate this?

Samson:?I feel like we're stuck there in terms of the autonomy of Election Management Bodies, EMBs in Africa. How do we navigate that? Efua, you see, it boils down to individuals. When you have political leaders, who don't have regard for the rule of law, what you have, is chaos and confusion in society. And when you now have weak institutions, that can't hold them accountable, this results in impunity reigning supreme in society.

The constitution is very clear that people who are appointed to electoral commissions, must be non-partisan and must not belong to a political party, and they must be of unquestionable character because you see where the election is a game, right??And in a game, you have an umpire. If an umpire becomes partial, it means justice will not be served. That is why in a football game, the referee is detached, neutral, and impartial. And we have seen cases where once there's a perception of personality and non-neutrality on the part of an umpire, it undermines the outcome or the acceptability of the outcome of a game, you know, becomes under my mind.

And that can lead to political instability because of elections, a driver of conflict anywhere. If people don't accept the outcome if people feel they've been short-changed if people feel a sense of injustice.?We expect them to do what? To respond. ?When governments and political leaders decide to undermine electoral conditions, to appoint partisan people, they just simply want to have an electoral condition that will do their bidding and they're substituting, the public good for their private interest.

Their actions are corrupt, an abuse of the rule of law, and more importantly, it is anti-democratic. And, that's why in the article that you speak about, I reflected on the challenges of financial, autonomy, and operational autonomy. This depends on the constitutional designs because there are three different models of electoral institutions.?They are, the independent model, a semi-independent model, and then you have a mixed model of electoral commissions. In some countries, the elections are conducted by a department, within a government ministry or department. In some cases, you have an independent organization that conducts elections just like we have in Nigeria.

In some countries, you have a mixed model where you have both an independent body as well as a government institution that works together to conduct elections. Now what happens is you have a board and then you have an executive that manages the conduct of elections, the board will be responsible for the policies and providing oversight on the other officer.

Depending on the constitutional design, adopted autonomy is very critical and it comes in operational autonomy, this relates to the guidelines and the operational procedure. Who is determining the operational procedure for the commission? Who is determining, the things like the guidelines that are issued by the commission?

And my conclusion is that we need to safeguard the autonomy of electoral institutions if we want to have credible elections that inspire confidence on the part of the voters, but more importantly, that promote democratic consolidation.

Efua:?Thank you so much, Samson, I think that, that you, you broke it down in a way where the audience will understand that the Election Management Bodies like INEC is an umpire in the game of elections and critical to democracy. ??If the umpire is partial, then it'll undermine the outcome, of the game or the elections.

Here’s a final question, I think you already alluded to the fact that there is a sense of apathy among citizens in Africa concerning election results. As citizens, what is our role in ensuring credibility and transparency?

Samson:?We have a critical role to play. Fred Golas said vigilance is the ultimate price you pay for liberty. Voting at elections is critical, get on the voter’s register.

Nigeria has just started voter registration. You can register online, and vote. Don’t just scream, shout, and criticize. Register and vote, because your vote is your power.?Your vote is your voice. It allows you to recruit the leaders that you want. The second point is, showing up at elections. And when you show up at elections, ensure that you stay there after you cast your votes to keep watch over the process. The best way to stop election rigging is by flooding the polling stations in large numbers.

When citizens are not there, the politicians become emboldened to subvert the process and intimidate the poll officials or even compromise them. But if they see, people watching, they will retrace their steps and discourage and deter them. The second, and third is the role that social media plays. It's good to have this conversation, unfortunately, the Nigerian government puts a ban, on Twitter. We hope that they will lift that ban because it is repressive.

We will use social media to expose any form of electoral corruption and malfeasants and reach outs to several civil society organizations like Yiaga Africa, and other groups who are involved in election observation. We can amplify these reports and stories during elections.?Subsequently, ensure that the relevant institution, takes necessary action.

But I just want to say, and perhaps a fourth point on the role that we can play as citizens beyond observing and monitoring the elections is understanding the electoral law and our constitution. Currently, the National Assembly is attempting to pass legislation that prohibits INEC from deploying technology from the collection of results.

They, want to ban the electoral and electronic transmission of results. They want to rig the 2023 elections. They will write results and force polling officials to declare the results. However, if they transmit the results electronically, it'll serve as a check on the manual process.

We should support electronic voting, speak out, and engage in the electoral reform process. Call your legislators because if they're going to rig these elections, they will start by compromising certain laws into the electoral act. This legitimizes corrupt practices and we must stop them.

That is the role that we as citizens have to play. ?Yiaga Africa and other partners are going to try as much as possible to stop these politicians who don't have our interest at heart and make sure they do not substitute public interest with their private interest.

In any case, in the creation of the constitution of the people, the elected officials got there because the people voted. ?Though some of them stole the votes or a portion to themselves. But at the end of the day, it's about what we, the people want. Our commitment as a people and our responsibility to hold leaders accountable. ?That is how democracy flourishes, thank you.

Efua:?Samson please can you give us your final thoughts? The path to credible elections in Nigeria, is it possible??Are we on the path to Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa? How far do we have to go?

Samson:?We’re very far from the path to credible elections, but what is important is we're on the right track. Democracy is not a destination or an event. It is a journey, and at this juncture of this journey, we've got to review our processes. I am very optimistic Efua, that we're going to get to that destination.

The destination is a peaceful, prosperous society where justice is for all not only for those who can afford it. ?A country and continent where we the masses are indeed determining and influencing how our society should govern without any form of interference or hijacking by this top 1% that seems to have all the economic might to influence the way society is governed.

And that is the kind of society that I hope as we engage in this democratic expedition, we will to that point. Well, thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure. Please keep doing this great work. And those who have joined #devsectorseries, please, continue to support this very impactful work that you do.

Efua:?Thank you so much for, joining us, Samson, we appreciate it.

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