Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet
Attorney Ken Okorie is an Editorial Board member of USAfrica
Of recent there has been so much wrangling over the poor rate at which Nigerian votes are registering or collecting their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC). Some of the blame has been placed on voters for being slow, uninterested or indifferent. Is this blame properly placed? More importantly, what explains the sporadic, seasonal chaos called elections in Nigeria, in the first instance? How can it be overcome? These are questions this opinion will maul over.
Fact is that Nigeria of recent times, especially the past 7 years under Buhari, has perfected the art of punishing, neglecting, and frustrating its citizens. From insecurity to historic unemployment and consequent massive poverty and hunger, Buhari’s government has been abjectly indifferent to the suffering of its citizens. It’s been a ceaseless tale of a government outdoing itself in wickedness, callousness, and indifference.
Preoccupied with the challenges of survival, people have gotten used to doing without the government. Public attitudes and feelings have come to a clear case of what have you done for me lately? This is part of the reason INEC’s message about PVC receive minimal attention and results.
Under prevalent systematic persecution and marginalization, the resulting mistrust is hugely more on the Igbo stock that has borne the brunt of the punishment. It is not that Igbo Nigerians are uninterested or unwilling, but there should be little surprise that Ndigbo are also logging the most on the PVC drag.
Discrimination against candidates of Igbo extraction, like former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, in past elections is a case in point. Although equally or better qualified than many counterparts, Chief Ekwueme was routinely denied a chance to be presidential candidate of a major political party. PDP gave the same treatment to Peter Obi when he initially sought the party ticket in the current contest. This, despite that Peter had the PDP Vice presidential ticket in the last election, and PDP had agreed to zone its presidential ticket in this election to the South. Labor Party was not Peter’s initial choice, but only became his response to another round of anti-Igbo consensus among the major parties.
Having gone through so many such cycles, this pattern of deliberate exclusion has registered on the psyche of the average Igbo voter. No matter how much the Igbo man has tried, he finds himself on the short end of the Nigerian stick. It is an experience that does not encourage or give faith in Nigeria’s electoral processes, or sense of belonging in Nigeria especially to the average voter of Igbo extraction. Subconsciously, he simply has been forced to himself, why bother?
Confidence is not built overnight. One can therefore not be surprised that, even now that the candidacy of Peter Obi has set the political zeal of all Nigerians (particularly the youth) afire, Ndigbo are still the slowest in picking up their PVCs.
The second factor is the overall absence of transparency and integrity in anything government-related in Nigeria. The average government politician, leader, and employee is often preoccupied with how to monetize the services and functions of the position he occupies. He does so at the expense of thinking of ways to simplify life’s obstacles for the citizenry he serves.
Under the circumstances, INEC too has not been without fault. INEC’s registration and pickup schedules for PVC have not favored the mostly trading Igbos. The physical and opportunity costs of taking off to queue in line for hours, first to register and then return to pick up, cannot be minimized. Each is done at significant economic cost, felt lopsidedly by trading Igbos.
The 2023 and other recent election timetables were planned since the inception of the 1999 Constitution. These elections have become a recurring event for the past 23 years. Why then is voter registration still such a special project with very constricted, short-leashed timelines? In this context, INEC itself is a causative factor.
This column recently opined that Nigeria copied an American system it lacks the will, infrastructure or discipline to operate. The ongoing PVC shenanigan is perfect example. If Nigeria must practice American-style democracy, it must equip its systems and imbue its population with the infrastructure (technology and functional governance provisions) that make American democratic system workable.
Election is the heart of a democratic system. Everything about it should be inbuilt and routinely functional same as are health, education, security, and social welfare.
In the United States, from where Nigeria copied its system of governance, voter registration is a routine part of daily government functioning, not a seasonal, sporadic or special engagement. Matter of fact, in every State of the Union, the office of Secretary of State manages elections as part of its dedicated functions. A department routinely designs, implements and updates elections infrastructures, processes and procedures. Because all births in a State are registered, the system routinely captures and knows the number of citizens, and when each attains voting age, he or she is duly notified. Working through schools and other institutions that render public service, eligible students receive notice and instruments to register once they are of age. Registration is also easily done through the post office, the County Clerk, and other government agencies.
This structure eliminates undue importance, attention and sensitivity to an ad hoc or interim INEC with enormous powers to set and implement election policies. By definition the seasonal nature and power of INEC renders it unduly political, vulnerable to manipulable, thus scheming and even circumvention of its processes arepossible and do happen.
By contrast, the American system separates the important and distinct aspects of elections, namely the continual election infrastructure from the cyclical voting. The separation yields the net effect of eliminating the major drawbacks and integrity issues that exist in an INEC-style system. As an example, a postal agent that routinely provides services to the public gets a new voter registered, or existing one renewed, without drag or interference.
The vote is both a right and a duty. One could argue that election–related services are the most foundational because they ensure that citizens are able to freely and fairly exercise their prime obligation to choose and do so freely and fairly. That is the true essence of government being of the people and by the people. America survived recent experiences with Donald Trump and his co-extremists because its election infrastructure and systems are functionally foolproof, even against a ruthlessly corrupt leader. Nigeria must learn this lesson.
To succeed, the Nigerian government must recognize election as a distinct primary function and service to citizens. Adequate provision for the discharge of this election function is easily the most important role of the government, ranking tops with security and defense. This function must be discharged routinely and on ongoing basis, not seasonally or on ad hoc basis. A democracy that does not have viable trusted electoral system is the functional equivalent of a defense department that has guns without bullets. It can be easily overrun.
The bottom line is that without adequate election infrastructure and procedures, citizens’ right, will and ability to choose is defeated. Power ends up in the undeserving hands of the cleverer, the mightier, or most criminal. Thus having inbuilt structures that provide and manage the service of elections is easily the singular most authenticating validator of the democracy Nigeria aspires to practice.
