POWER GRAB AS ELECTORAL COMMISSION BILLS

IFEANYICHUKWU AFUBA argues against the establishment of local government electoral commission

There is currently a bill in the Senate for establishment of a so – called Local Government Independent Electoral Commission. Sponsored by Senator Sani Musa, an APC Senator from Niger State. The bill seeks to supplant the States Independent Electoral Commission with a federal agency in the conduct of local council elections. On the heels of Senator Musa’s bill, another draft was presented in the House of Representatives on Thursday, September 26, 2024 by Hon Ugochinyere Ikenga. The latter bill seeks legislative empowerment for the INEC to henceforth conduct local government councils polls.

Both bills are strange even as they are touted as necessary follow – up to the Supreme Court judgement of July 11, 2024 which upheld local government autonomy.

In an indirect reference to Musa’s bill which has passed first reading in the Senate, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio recently stated: “I thank President Bola Tinubu for looking for a way to bring the all – needed autonomy to the local governments through the intervention of the Supreme Court.” THISDAY, 19 September, 2024 reports that the Senate President in a statement by his Special Assistant, Media, James Umoh further said: “The Senate, under my leadership, will tinker with the Constitution, to ensure that the judgment is fully implemented without any loopholes for manipulation by the practitioners.”

Notwithstanding the stylish dressings by Musa, Akpabio, Ikenga and their supporters, it would be an understatement to describe the said bill as vexatious. The proposal is divisive and insensitive. Aside  from being a power grab bid, it’s a hollow piece of political engineering capable of worsening Nigeria’s federalist and electoral crises.

The draft bill follows a beaten path; a familiar pattern of the ruling class’s fixation with fringe matters of Nigerian government and politics on the one hand, and a firm refusal to deal with fundamental issues behind the Nigerian crisis, on the other hand. Consider, for instance, that between 2010 and 2018, six amendments were made to the 1999 Constitution, none of which addressed substantial issues such as federation imbalance, enforcement of federal character in appointments by the President; or the unitarist character of the 1999 Constitution.

So, what is the basis for creating a central electoral body to take over the function of local council election from State Independent Electoral Commissions? How does the Supreme Court order for federation account allocations to be paid directly to local governments; and for withholding of allocations of non – elected councils warrant the creation of this proposed electoral commission? Let it be said clearly that the Supreme Court judgment does not need a prop for it’s enforcement. The sanction of withholding federation account allocation for non elected councils ordered by the judgment is already an inbuilt regulator to hold council polls when due.

Admittedly, the conduct of local council polls by SIECs has largely translated to mockery of participatory democracy, with the ruling party in each State winning virtually every chairmanship and councillor seat. But the solution does not lie in appropriating the responsibility to the federal government. The INEC which is established in the Constitution as a federal institution has a notorious record of flawed elections. This is easily seen in the preponderance of election petitions that  INEC – conducted polls have thrown up. Serious allegations of electoral fraud have followed the September 21, 2024, Edo State governorship election conducted by the INEC.

Thus, no meaningful purpose is served by having the elections superintended by a federal agency. And the federal government, has as much partisan interest in local government elections as State governments, both being competitors for power. If the concern behind Senator Musa’s and Hon Ikenga’s bills is timely, free and fair election, the desideratum is already settled. Nigerians have been waiting for implementation of  Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Report, especially on divesting the President of power of appointing members of the electoral commission. The seminal recommendation for officials of the electoral commission to be nominated by the National Judicial Council hugely takes away political influence of the Presidency in the execution of their mandate. But 14 years after this brilliant proposal, the political class will not lift a finger to push for it’s implementation. Rather political actors such as Senator Sani Musa and Hon Ugochinyere Ikenga  want the Presidency to retain power of appointment of electoral commissioners in a supposedly better, democratic deal for local government councils. 

 Divesting the President and Governors the authority of shortlisting candidates for composition of INEC and SIEC respectively, would aid the cause as well as course of free and fair elections. But assigning the federal executive the responsibility of local government election naturally domiciled with the State tantamounts to a power grab by the government. It’s an established principle of democratic federalism that local governments are the business of States. Consequently, the said bills entail stripping the States of their rightful sphere of authority. They simply marginalise and emasculate the States. Considering that decades of military rule has already made the federal government a behemoth, the referenced bills before the Senate and House of Representatives are frightening. And it’s  so sad that their proponents, presumed defenders of freedom and democracy, do not seem to recognise the dangers of an almighty central government in a federalist republic.

And so, rather than embark on the remedial processes to breath life into the States and save them from the dominance of the federal government, many political actors are comfortable busying themselves with matters of cosmetic value. This explains why after 24 years of the Fourth Republic, Nigeria still operates a military – era revenue sharing formula that allocates 52 percent to the federal government. It does not matter if State Governors are crying about the difficulties States face in paying national minimum wage and other mandatory entitlement. Caught up too in this malaise of avoiding curative action, not even the NLC, has taken measures toward a new revenue law in favour of States.

In the past decade,  insecurity has reached alarming levels in the country. Many a community  live in fear of their vulnerability to roaming bandits, kidnappers, killer herdsmen and cultists. Yet, even with this terrible situation, some political actors would not hear of State Police. And you wonder, how do our federal legislators live peaceably with the contradiction of designating Governors as Chief Security Officers without control of State Police Commands? Pitiably, they are content with legislative amendments to secondary, marginal  and administrative matters.

Mercifully, State Independent Electoral Commissions are creation of the Constitution under Section 197 (1). Consequently, any attempt to disqualify them from performing their functions requires constitutional amendment. And an “Act of the National Assembly for the alteration of this Constitution… shall not be passed…unless the proposal is…approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of not less than two – thirds of all the States.” The State Legislatures will do well to roundly reject these supremacist bills which seek to consign the States to political irrelevance.

Afuba is Director, Public Administration Circle, Awka