Nigeria’s post-election procedures deserve urgent attention – Awa Kalu, SAN
Former attorney general and commissioner for justice, Abia State, Awa Kalu, SAN, has said that Nigeria’s post-election procedures deserve immediate attention, as it seemingly favours the victor and not the loser of the election.
Speaking at a workshop recently organised by the Nigerian Bar Association Committee on Voter Education and Mobilisation in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Kalu announced that Nigeria’s electoral laws and processes create the impression that the elections are all about winning. “More in line with what we call ‘carry go’,” he said.
Addressing an audience of legal practitioners, government representatives and stakeholders, Kalu, who was also a former lecturer at the University of Lagos and the Imo State University, Okigwe (now Abia State University, Uturu) announced that it was safe to state that the culture of peaceful, free and fair elections is yet to take root in Nigeria.
He said, “The cacophony of voices lampoons not only the process of election, but also the attendant results and the outcome of judicial resolution of these disputes. The outcome of election petitions in Nigeria continues to generate unabating controversy.”
“Lamentably,” Kalu continued, “Since 1999, each election period has necessitated an Electoral Act. Unknown to many, the Electoral Act, 2001 was so deleterious to democracy that the Supreme Court had no choice than to strike down a majority of its sections, thus making the Act impotent (see Attorney-General of Abia State v Attorney-General of the Federation [2002] 6 NWLR (Pt 763) 264).
“Inevitably, this led to the enactment of the Electoral Act, 2002 which Belgore, JSC (as he then was, later Chief Justice of Nigeria) said was “riddled with absurdities and anomalies and several inconsistencies making it the clumsiest Electoral Act ever in the history of this country.” See Buhari v Obasanjo [2005] 13 NWLR (Pt 941) 1. Next was the Electoral Act, 2006, which was not much better than the 2002 version and, in consequence, yielded to the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended). The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (the “Constitution”) has for purposes of elections, faced surgery on at least three occasions. Each visit of the Constitution to the surgical theatre has brought misery to the electoral process,” The erudite practitioner lamented.
He noted further that in addition to the attempts at updating the laws through the enactment of different Electoral Acts, several epic decisions of courts have dramatically altered the judicial landscape with respect to our judicial effort at settlement of electoral disputes.
“On a happier note, these developments have equally led to the update of the Electoral Act to iron out some of the creases which have been discovered over time, as some of the more notorious question marks in the quest for free and fair elections lie in the laws themselves,” the former AG stated.
He thus canvassed the following:
i. That the Constitution as well as the Electoral Act must be amended in order to accommodate a timescale for the holding of all grades of elections so as to prevent the winner of such elections from entering the office which is contested until the hearing and determination of a petition or appeals arising therefrom. What this means, is that a level playing field will be created enabling an equilibrium to be maintained between all contestants whether petitioner or respondent.
ii. That On account of the variations in the size of electoral constituencies, the Constitution and all other instruments which regulate the conduct of elections must be adjusted to make it reasonable for a petition to be meaningful.
iii. That an election petition arising from the Presidential elections ought to be determined within one calendar year from the date it is filed; a Governorship petition 9 months; and other petitions ought to be resolved within 180 days.
iv. Finally, that resultant appeals from the Presidential petition as well as the Governorship petition should be resolved within 90 days from the date of delivery of judgment; and all other petitions within 60 days.
In closing, the keynote speaker who had in opening announced that a Keynote Address requires nothing more than a ‘key’ and a ‘note’, informed participants that a fair election is determined by the integrity and transparency of the process leading up to the return of a victor or winner. He quoted Abraham Lincoln as saying that “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.”
The gathering was very lively and the discourse greatly expansive, as the debate dwelt on the trappings of electoral integrity in Bayelsa State with specific regard to all the incisive issues that came up for deliberation in the course of this workshop.
Chaired by the former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, J.B. Daudu, SAN the programme is part of the capacity-building scheme of the NBA towards the success of the upcoming gubernatorial elections in Bayelsa State.