Federal Lawmakers are Divided Between a Long Knife and a Short Sword

Nseobong Okon-Ekong writes that disagreement on electromic transmission of election results appear to be the only clause that has caused a sharp division among federal lawmakers along partisan lines and increased hostility over the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021

In a clear hint at the direction of the 2023 national elections, different organs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), particularly its legislators in the National Assembly began a serious nationwide campaign to mobilise Nigerians against the attempt by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to have least guiding conduct of elections fashioned to achieve certain predetermined goals.

Legislators from the main opposition PDP leaked what was described as surreptitious moves to include clauses outside what they claimed was discussed and approved by committees. In the Senate, the Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chaired by Senator Kabiru Gayahad a difficult time trying to explain a ‘stranger clause which sought to whittle down the powers of the electoral umpire. Since the matter had not yet been brought to the floor, Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan was quoted as dismissing the stringent calls from civil society groups, the opposition and other influential groups and individuals as rabble rousing.

But he had underestimated the power of the people. The APC legislators lost the case in the court of public opinion and missed the chance to explain and win understanding for its stance. The prevailing public perception which weighed heavily against the APC was captured by THISDAY Newspapers in its lead Front Page story, ‘Afraid of Defeat in 2023, APC Senators Weaken e-Transmission of Election Results’. According to the Newspaper, Senate spokesman, Senator Ajibola Basiru, the lawmakers supported electronic transmission of election results, but provided the network is adequate as adjudged by NCC, subjected to approval of the National Assembly. He added that all over the world, there is no where there is total network coverage

Attacks on electromic transmission of election results appear to be the only clause sharply divided the federal lawmakers along partisan lines and increased hostility among them. The Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021, contains 154 clauses. Only Clause 52(3) of the bill, that provides for electronic transmission of election results appears to be in contention.

But Mr. Solomon Itodo, Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, a leading election monitoring group thinks there are other consequential amendments in the electoral Bill that bother on electronic transmission of election results. He said, “You have some sections that needs to be amended. It is not enough that you amend Section 52 (2,3) without amending those sections because even if you retain this section as proposed by the committee you have got to change some sections that deal with collation of results and things like prescribed forms. Those are issues that will come up. It is clear that the 2023 elections is going to be a war between Nigerians and the political class that want to seize political power at all costs and they don’t care whether the election is a reflection of the will of the people. All they care about is whatever will give them power. And they are willing to lay down their lives to ensure that they get the power.”

A high ranking member of the APC and an aspirant for the party’s governorship ticket in Anambra State who is also the Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Dr. George Moghalu maintained that perception may not always be the reality. He reaffirmed believe in the promise of President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC to refrain from anything that will frustrate the process of a credible election.

Mr. Clement Nwankwo, Executive Director, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) stated that, “there is a lot of disappointment among election stakeholders and Nigerians generally, that the National Assembly failed to use the opportunity of the new Electoral Bill, to give to the country, an improved electoral legal framework. The Senate Bill that subjects the use of electronic transmission of election results to NCC and NASS approval, is not only retrogressive but also unconstitutional and unacceptable. Manual transmission of election results is at the root of electoral fraud and violence in Nigeria and the Senate ought to have risen to the occasion and made an Electoral law that serves the country and elevates our elections to a respectable level.”

Does INEC have the capacity to cope with electronic transmission of election results? Responding to various enquiries from the media, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman (Information and Voter Education Committee), Festus Okoye said, “INEC has the capacity to transmit election results from the polling units to the Registration Area Collation Centres to the Local Government Collation Centres, the various state, federal and senatorial district collation centres, and the state and national collation centres.

“The Joint Technical Committee constituted by the commission and the Nigerian Communications Commission and made of telecommunication operators met on March 9, 2018, and the consensus was that the requirements for the electronic transfer of results proposed by INEC is practicable. The meeting, therefore, agreed that the solution that INEC wants to deploy is possible. Presently, all the registered political parties upload the list and personal particulars of their nominated candidates electronically.”

Making an important observation Moghalu said that while satisfying the requirements of other processes electronically can be continued elsewhere, in the event of network failure, this may not be possible in the case of voting where polling units and wards are clearly delineated. He explained, “I can leave my community in Nnewi, for instance, to continue a failed financial transaction on another electronic platform in another community, but that can’t be done in the case of voting or transmission of election results. Somebody will go to court and upturn the whole thing because elections are supposed to hold and be concluded within a particular geographical location.”

The ambivalence of the Senate leadership regarding the call for the Electoral Act to provide for e-transmission of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC is lampoonable when juxtaposed with the fact that just about every other parastatal of state and agency of government as well as trade unions are able to employ technology in the conduct of their elections and other briefs, from JAMB to NLC, from NECO to NBA, from TUC to NMA, argued Mr. Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr, Convener, CountryFirst Movement, He posited that the call for e-transmission of results is a movement demanding prompt compilation and computation of election results, for more credible elections and ease in the entire electoral process, therefore the seeming objection to it by the leadership of the Senate and indeed the ruling party is worrisome. Nwaokobia concluded, “I humbly implore the prevalence of reason as we seek a new regime of credible and transparent elections through the deployment of technology ditto the e-transmission of election results come the 20202geGeneraelection as such is the way to go.”

However, Mr. Kayode Ajulo, a popular Abuka-based lawyer reasons that the debacle at the National Assembly over electronic transmission of election results is all about barefaced partisanship. “It’s all politics, interest is beclouding our sense of reasoning,” he affirmed. “Maintainimg his stance, Ajulo continued, “It’s now either North Vs South or APC vs PDP. This’s now the national currency. Believe me on this, had it been that APC pressed for e-voting, I’m sure PDP will insist on manual voting; vice versa. There’re some things that should go beyond interest, but based on principle and for the good of the nation. That’s the antecedents since the advent of this administration. Check it out can’t you see one instance where PDP overlooked party line to aligned with APC. None. Even on issues of security that affect us all, both parties love singing discordant tunes. It’s worrisome and tragic.”

The media was awash last week with information on how the senators voted on the Bill. Already, there are many calls shaming the federal lawmakers in the upper legislative chamber who voted against electronic transmission of election results. To some members of the civil society groups, this is one of the ways to hold the lawmakers accountable and impress on them the need to act according to the will of the people.

Itodo agrees that the debacle was unfruitful and retrogressive. He described it as “not just horrifying but disappointing that at a time when we have got an opportunity to deepen the integrity of our elections using technology, some law makers are trying as much as possible to shy away from taking responsibility to pass progressive legislations that will protect our democracy. It is just sad because all that we are observing and witnessing is law makers substituting public interest for their private and self-serving interests and it is unfortunate for our democracy and I hope that as a people we will continue to hold our legislators to account for some of their actions that are at variance with the will of the people . It is clear from this whole debacle that some legislators are not interested in free and credible elections and because electronic transmission of results will deepen the integrity of our elections look at the shameless proposal passed by the Senate which is unconstitutional and to some extent null and void; although the House of Representatives took a different position and retained the proposal by the Committee but this whole controversy is needless. The excuses being made about coverage and vulnerability of these machines or platforms clear shows that to a large extent a cross section of legislators don’t understand how electronic transmission works. In any case, the structure of our result collation process is different. When you hear electronic transmission of results, it’s not like there is a centralised point where all results actually come to. Already, the law creates different stages of collation of results. First, if you look at our elections, for instance, constituency elections results are declared at the constituency level where you have a state constituency comprising, you have local governments that have two state constituencies the results are declared at the aggregate ward level for legislative elections Senate or even House of Representatives results are declared at the constituency level. Some are declared at the local government level. This discentralised process will even make the work very challenging for any fo of manipulation because electronic transmission of results is to complement the manual transmission of results. When I hear people talk about hacking results, the manual process us already hacked because from the polling process politicians compel and compromise the electoral officials to alter figures. But this particular process will help to deepen the integrity of our democracy and I think arguments about coverage isn’t accurate because if you check the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been deploying electronic transmission of results. They did it for Edo and Ondo. From 2011, INEC started exploiting electronic transmission of results. How come they are able to transmit results from over 90 percent of polling stations, whereas the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), I would say, sought to mislead. There is just a concensus on the part of the ruling political class to stop any form of technology that will sanitise and deepen the electoral process. It is just sad that after Nigerians, whom they claim to represent demanded for electronic transmission of results, it ends up with amendments that seem to be at variance with the will of the people. We have a huge challenge before us. Both Chambers of the National Assembly will have to harmonise their position. We urge them to maintain the proposal by the committee which is to the effect voting and transmission of results shall be by a procedure determined by INEC.”

According to Nwankwo, “INEC has gone way ahead of the Electoral Bill that the Senate proposes. At this stage, we are hoping that given the progress that INEC has made with the use of technology in our elections, that the least the Harmonization Committee on the Bill will do will be to accept the House version of the Bill that gives INEC the discretion to determine the method of conducting elections. That way, given that INEC has made so much advancement in its use of technology throughout the country, it can continue in that direction without the draw back that the Senate version of the Bill could portend for our elections.”

The last has certainly not been heard about the controversial Clause 52. The days ahead promises more interesting revelations. When the two Chambers of the National Assembly finally harmonise their position, the ball would have been passed to President Buhari’s court.

QUOTE

It is just sad because all that we are observing and witnessing is law makers substituting public interest for their private and self-serving interests and it is unfortunate for our democracy and I hope that as a people we will continue to hold our legislators to account for some of their actions that are at variance with the will of the people . It is clear from this whole debacle that some legislators are not interested in free and credible elections and because electronic transmission of results will deepen the integrity of our elections look at the shameless proposal passed by the Senate which is unconstitutional and to some extent null and void; although the House of Representatives took a different position and retained the proposal by the Committee but this whole controversy is needless

QUOTE 2

It is not enough that you amend Section 52 (2,3) without amending those sections because even if you retain this section as proposed by the committee you have got to change some sections that deal with collation of results and things like prescribed forms. Those are issues that will come up. It is clear that the 2023 elections is going to be a war between Nigerians and the political class that want to seize political power at all costs and they don’t care whether the election is a reflection of the will of the people. All they care about is whatever will give them power. And they are willing to lay down their lives to ensure that they get the power