Elections And Political Governance In Nigeria

INTRODUCTION

In 1960, shortly after Nigeria’s independence there was a transition from the colonial rule to the country’s first ever election process.

The problems associated with the first post-independence national election of 1964 and the 1965 Western Region election culminated in the January 15, 1966 coup. The former was characterized by wide spread rigging, intimidation and chaos that some of the major political parties decided to boycott the election, creating in its aftermath serious constitutional dilemma. The latter election of the Western Region was also marred by the problem of massive rigging and other irregularities

According to Dr. Festus Iyayi, in a paper delivered at the Nigerian Bar Association conference held in Abuja in 2004: "The first three Nigerian elections were 'transition' elections, in which the regimes in power and responsible for organizing the elections had to hand over power to a democratic civilian administration. In contrast, the other elections can be viewed as potential 'consolidation' elections, in which an elected civilian government was responsible for organizing elections to hand over power to a successor administration”

Unfortunately, as successful as these elections were, they led the country back from democratic governance to military dictatorship.

One of the freest and fairest election in the history of Nigeria was the June 12, 1993 election that was annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida, erstwhile self-styled military President of Nigeria.

Nigeria recently conducted its presidential and gubernatorial elections in 2015 which ushered in the new political government the country currently has.

This paper attempts to look at the definition of key terms, evolution of electoral bodies in Nigeria, an overview of the 2015 elections and issues arising from the exercise, political governance in Nigeria and the power sharing problem, role of the media and situating it within the gate keeping theory, and finally recommendation for good political governance in Nigeria.

 Definition of Key terms

Elections

To elect means to “choose or make a decision. Elections can be defined as the formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting.

Scruton (1983), defines election as the process whereby an electorate chooses, by voting officers either to act on its behalf or represent it in an assembly with a view to governing or administering.

An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office

Elections serve as a technical transition for democracy to ensure ‘stateness’ (Bollen, 2009). That includes political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, the rule of law, and control of corruption (Bratton, & Chang, 2006). 

Governance

Plato was the first to use the Greek word ‘kubernáo’, meaning to steer a ship, and in this context, it means steering men.

Governance is commonly defined as the exercise of power or authority by political leaders for the well-being of their country’s citizens or subjects. It is the complex process whereby some sectors of the society wield power, enact and promulgate public policies which directly affect human and institutional interactions, as well as economic and social development.

In 1993, the World Bank defined governance as the method through which power is exercised in the management of a country’s political, economic and social resources for development.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in its 1997 policy paper, defined governance as the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country’s affairs at all levels. This definition was endorsed by the Secretary-General’s inter-agency sub-task force to promote integrated responses to United Nations conferences and summits.

 Governance comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences.

Politics

 Politics is often defined as the art of governance. Politics is essentially related to governance, in that politics is often defined as the art of governance. Just as politics talks about governments, institutions, power, order, and the ideals of justice, governance also deals with the public sector, power structures, equity, and ideals of public administration.

Nevertheless, they are distinct from each other in the sense that politics is broader than governance. Traditionally, the study of politics entails the concept of the “good life” and the “ideal society,” which are so broad they include a web of subjects and every possible form of government. The study of governance, on the contrary, is generally attuned to the concept of democracy, and on how the government and the civil society arrive at a decision in meeting their needs.

 Political Party

A Political party can be described as an association of individuals that engage in electoral and other competitions with its counterpart(s) for the control of the personnel and the administration of government.

Fundamentally, political parties are primarily faced with the responsibility of creating competitive ideologies based on the yearnings of the people. This goes beyond the acquisition of power through electoral process, promulgation of interest of a group and control of government.

 Evolution of Electoral bodies in Nigeria

The origin of Electoral bodies in Nigeria can be traced to the period before Independence when the Electoral Commission of Nigeria (ECN) was established to conduct the 1959 elections. The Federal Electoral Commission (FEC), established in 1960 conducted the immediate post-independence federal and regional elections of 1964 and 1965 respectively.

The electoral body was however, dissolved after the military coup of 1966. In 1978, a new Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) was constituted by the regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo. FEDECO organized the elections of 1979, which ushered in the Second Republic under the leadership of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. It also conducted the general elections of 1983.

In December 1995, the military government of General Sani Abacha, which earlier dissolved NEC in 1993, established the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), which also conducted another set of elections; Local Government councils to National Assembly. These elected institutions were however not inaugurated before the sudden death of General Abacha in June 1998, which aborted the process. In 1998 General Abdulsalam Abubakar’s administration dissolved NECON and established the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The body organized all transitional elections that ushered in the 4th republic on May 29 1999. It has today repositioned itself to deliver credible elections that would sustain Nigeria’s nascent democracy.

As a permanent body, INEC’s presence has been established in all the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory as well as in the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria.

INEC is the body that organized the 2015 general elections.

Overview of the 2015 Elections

The Nigerian general elections of 2015 was the 5th quadrennial election to be held since the end of military rule in 1999. Voters elected the President, State governors and members to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The presidential elections were first scheduled to be held on 14 February 2015. However, the electoral commission postponed it by six weeks to 29th of March, mainly due to the poor distribution of Permanent Voter Cards, and also to curb ongoing Boko Haram insurgency in certain north-eastern states. The government closed its land and sea borders from midnight on 25 March until the end of the polling date.

Opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election by more than 2.5 million votes and the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat on 31 March, even before the results from all 36 states had been announced.

The state elections which held on April 11, 2015 did not turn out to be as peaceful as the presidential elections. The All Progressives Congress (APC) won 19 states while the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won seven states. The governorship elections were declared inconclusive in Abia, Imo and Taraba states while elections did not hold in Kogi, Osun, Ekiti, Edo, Anambra, Ondo, and Bayelsa.

While there were lots of agitation that elections which held in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states be cancelled as there were allegations of malpractice concerning the elections in both states. However, the Supreme Court upheld Nyesom Wike’s victory as the governor of Rivers state.

  Issues Arising

A major concern during elections is: Violence and Security during elections

Olurode (2011) says, “Election security remains a major concern for election management bodies in most Africa”.

Electoral violence is largely seen by political scientists as any organized or random act that seeks to determine, delay or otherwise influence an electoral process through threat, verbal intimidation, hate speech, disinformation, physical assault, battery, arson, orchestrated protests/demonstration, blackmail, destruction of electoral materials etc. As such, there are different manifestations of electoral violence. These include the use of thugs to disrupt political gatherings or at polling stations, use of dangerous weapons to intimidate voters, injury to any person connected with electoral process, abduction of political opponents, and politically motivated assassinations.

According to analysts, many electoral stakeholders in Nigeria often see electoral contest as a zero-sum game in which they must neutralize or eliminate their rivals. Essentially, electoral violence is always aimed at fracturing political competitions. The sole objective is usually centered on influencing the voting behavior of the electorate or changing the electoral results in favor of one candidate or political party.

The River’s state election for example was marred by different levels of threats, violence and intimidation of election officials and voters by well-armed thugs and miscreants allegedly acting on behalf of some politicians. There were reports of numerous attacks resulting in fatalities, kidnappings, ballot snatching, diversion of officials and materials, amongst others, which necessitated its suspension in 8 Local Government Areas.

The National (and State) Assembly Rerun elections in Rivers State was not any better as the exercise was soaked in all forms of electoral violence as structural, psychological and naked physical violence was unleashed on the state by those who should know better.

Sadly, a youth corps member Mr Okonta Samuel lost his life. He was reportedly shot dead by unknown gunmen in Ahoada West Local Government Area according to a press statement by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Aside being an orphan, one of the most touching aspect of the deceased corps member was the report that he was redeployed from Yobe State where he was initially posted for the one year mandatory national service apparently to escape the lingering war on Boko Haram insurgency in that part of the country.

Weak Rule of Law

In many countries with weak rule of law, the most common reason why elections do not meet international standards of being "free and fair" is interference from the incumbent government.

Non-governmental entities can also interfere with elections, through physical force, verbal intimidation, or fraud, which can result in improper casting or counting of votes. Monitoring for and minimizing electoral fraud is also an ongoing task in countries with strong traditions of free and fair elections.

Lack of an informed electorate

The electorate may be poorly informed about issues or candidates due to lack of freedom of the press, lack of objectivity in the press due to state or corporate control, and/or lack of access to news and political media. Freedom of speech may be curtailed by the state, favoring certain viewpoints or state propaganda.

Interference with campaigns

Those in power may arrest or assassinate candidates, suppress or even criminalize campaigning, close campaign headquarters, harass or beat campaign workers, or intimidate voters with violence.

Tampering with the Election Mechanism

This can include confusing or misleading voters about how to vote, tampering with voting machines, destruction of legitimately cast ballots, voter suppression, voter registration fraud, fraudulent tabulation of results, and use of physical force or verbal intimation at polling places.

Ethnicity and Communal tensions

Since the colonial era, ethnic, regional and religious divisions constitute the form of expression of social cleavage in Nigeria.

Political Governance in Nigeria and the Power Sharing Problem

In Nigeria and most parts of the world, political parties remain the soul of the electoral and political system. Nigeria has 29 political parties registered with INEC.

In 16 years of the Fourth Republic (1999 to 2015), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that controlled power at the presidency and in many states, both executive and legislature, lost out in almost the same fashion.

While the All Progressive Congress (APC), a coalition that was less than one year and five months before the election, won the presidency seat and majority of the State elections.

A number of conspiracy theories have been spurned around the new ruling party’s victory, in particular the defeat of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan by APC’s candidate and President-Elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

The most debated, it appears, is about the impact of the coalition that brought on board the formation of the APC.

This refers to the Hausa/Fulani North West and North East, usually politically classed together as far North, and the Yoruba South West. Both happen to be the largest geo-political zones of the country, possessing the states with the largest population.

This theory is basically about power-sharing. The far-North and South West, are coming together for the first time at the Centre with some differences.

The one (far-North) is reputed as dominating power at the Centre. The other, South West, the nation’s single most sophisticated political bloc, which six states have the one- language advantage, had, before now, been for localized politics and self-determinism.

In the past, it teamed and backed progressive forces around the country, particularly in the South and North Central (northern minority middle-belt states). Now, it has opted to go with the vastly conservative North.

It is to be noted that PDP had the power sharing problem when President Yar’Adua passed on. Many northerners believed that President Jonathan a Christian and Southerner should have conceded his presidential bid to a Northerner Muslim in honor of the unwritten rotation of power between North and South.

Role of the Media

During elections it is particularly important to assess the role media have of holding government to account on behalf of citizens. While media, in particular commercial media, do not sign a formal contract stating that they endorse and will fulfill this role, this expectation must be recognized and honored in support of the argument for a free and plural media. 

Dukor (1999:283) anchors the assessment of the role of the media in politics on the fundamental right to receive and impart information. Some of the roles the media should play include:

•  Being vigilant watchdogs of public interest. Expected to be keen observers, alert and concerned.
• The media in Nigeria needs to solve its internal problem of cohesion and integration; for there are as many media houses as there are many political interests.
• The media must clarify issues during campaigns, bring aspirants close to the electorate, and teach the differences between party and candidate to enable the electorate make a wise choice.
• The media should assist in voter education such as who can vote or contest an election, date of the election and where to vote.

 Gate Keeping Theory

The role of the media in ensuring credible elections and good political governance can be situated within the gate keeping theory.

The first person to use the term “gatekeeping” was Kurt Lewin and he used it to describe a wife or mother as the person who decides which food ends up on the family’s dinner table. (Lewin, 1947). According to him, the gatekeeper is the person who decides what passes through each gate section. Although Lewis originally applied it to the food chain, he then added that the gating process can include a news item winding through communication channels in a group. This is the premise on which most gatekeeper studies in communication is founded.

 In the 1970s McCombs and Shaw pointed out that the gatekeeping concept is related to the newer concept, agenda-setting. (McCombs et al, 1976).

The gatekeeper decides what amount or level of information to be presented or not. This means that it is the duty of a gatekeeper in a social system to decide which of a certain commodity materials, goods, and information may enter the system. Important to realize is that gatekeepers are able to control the public’s knowledge of the actual events by letting some stories pass through the system but keeping others out.

In a political system there are gatekeepers, individuals or institutions which control access to positions of power and regulate the flow of information and political influence.

Media gatekeeping showed that decision making is based on principles of news values, organizational routines, input structure and common sense.

 Gatekeeping is inevitable and in some circumstances it can be useful. Gatekeeping can also be dangerous, since it can lead to an abuse of power by deciding what information to discard and what to let pass.

 Recommendation for Good Political Governance in Nigeria

Good governance according to Boeninger (1992), has to do with the capacities of a political system to exercise authority, will legitimacy, adjudicate conflicts as well as carry out effective programme implementation.

Jega (1994) has stated that good governance as a desirable social and political process involves the following basic elements:

• Responsibility and responsiveness in leadership and in public service.
• Accountability in the mobilization as well as in the utilization of resources.
• Discipline, effectiveness and efficiency in handling public (as well as personal) affairs. 
• Shunning Selfishness and impartial service to the people.
• Encouraging participation and empowering people in the conduct and management of their own affairs.

 Furthermore, The UNDP Human Development Report, 2002 stated that “For politics and political institutions to promote human development and safeguard the freedom and dignity of all people, democracy must widen and deepen”.

Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, when speaking to Government Gazette stated that "The democratization process is not only about holding elections. What is equally important is to ensure that an entire society has a real say. Without strong representative institutions able to carry the aspirations and expectations of the citizens into state’s policies, democracy will remain weak and incomplete. Institution building remains an essential element in transferring the rhetoric of democracy and human rights into practical reality."

The winds of “change” affecting societies and democracies around the world are varied and great, and the major technological advances being made in the field of electoral affairs are a case in point. Whether it is the use of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to organize, communicate, and raise awareness or whether it is the use of technology to enable E- Voting, it is critical for Governments to recognize the importance which new technology is now playing in the entire process of democratization and democratic legitimacy.

There must be political will on the part of States and the Federal Government to prosecute those who perpetuate and benefit from electoral violence. It should be recalled that the Report of Uwais Committee on Electoral Reform (2008) identified certain key causes responsible for electoral violence in the country and called for the establishment of an electoral offence tribunal to try people alleged to perpetuate any form of electoral malpractices including electoral violence.

To curb electoral violence in future, let the Federal Government immediately commence investigation into the Rivers’ election violence and prosecute those responsible for the dastardly and callous acts.

On a final note, the welfare of Nigerians must be given a boost in order to effectively check the excesses of politicians. Good governance, economic empowerment and accountability must remain the yardstick for measuring the success of governments. When Nigerians are economically empowered, they will be able to defend democracy especially when threatened by blundering politicians.

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