By Abubakar Mohammed Sani
Aare Afe Babalola, a well-known philanthropist, legal icon, and founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, suggested that the 2023 general elections be put off in favor of a six-month interim government made up of people from different parts of Nigerian social, economic, and political life. Someone of his size and status wouldn’t just wake up one bad morning and start insulting people. Before 1999, when he was pushing for a Sovereign National Conference, he planted the seeds for his most recent participation in this kind of public discussion. From my humble point of view, I think the legal expert was right about this drop. This is because in March of last year, another well-known lawyer, Mike Ahamba, also said that Nigeria’s constitution needs to be fixed. Ahamba, a senior lawyer in Nigeria, said these things at the launch of his book, Getting It Right for Nigeria. Ahamba thinks that the National Assembly can’t amend the constitution but only make changes to it. He said:
“The National Assembly has no right to amend the constitution they can only alter the Constitution. I have also said that on several occasions, the constitution was not made by people who think it could not be amended at any point. In that same constitution, we have means and ways of amending it.”
“It is just that we are lazy. The National Assembly has the power to make laws for peace, order and good governance. We are leaving in breach. People will seat in their arms chair and say that the powers of the president have too much power. Do we have too much power in the constitution?
“The powers are in the national assembly but because of political and ethnic bias, they don’t want to do their job. The constitution says how a president can be curtailed if he gets too rough but the problem is that, if the matter gets to the National Assembly ethnic or political bias, will come up that is the problem,” Ahamba said.
There is also the problem of a Judiciary that is pushed to the side in an unfair Federal System. In a democratic country, there are three parts of the government. The Legislature, the Executive, and the Judiciary are all thought to be on the same level when it comes to running the government. This is why Sections 4, 5, and 6 of the Constitution explain the idea of separation of powers. Federalism is not just putting all of the power in the hands of the federal government. Instead, it is a constitutional way for the federal government and the state governments, which are called “federating units,” to share power. Even though it’s been a long time, it’s not surprising that Nigeria is still feeling the effects of colonial rule and military rule. After these things happened, the Constitution tried to make a balanced system of government, but it failed. This is why the States aren’t as important as they used to be, but that doesn’t give lawmakers a free pass to be lazy about it.
For example, Section 84 of the Constitution says that all money made by the federation should go into the Consolidated Revenue Funds of the Federation. This also applies to States that have their own Consolidated Revenue Fund of the respective State.
The main purpose of this is to act as a “government purse” from which public officers’ salaries and allowances will be paid. What is surprising is that the High Courts of all the States are not paid directly from their respective Consolidated Revenue Funds. Instead, the money to pay the judges of the States comes from the Federal Government’s budget.
The State Government should pay the State Judges, right? Why does the Federal Government give money to the State Judiciary instead of to the States? This still hasn’t been fully dealt with.
This is why the Judiciary is pushing for financial independence. Not only are they being pushed to the side, but they are also afraid that the other parts of government will control them so much that they will lose their special status (namely Executive and Legislature). A few months ago, JUSUN started a strike to demand that the Judiciary be financially independent and, eventually, that the Judiciary be independent in all ways.
The fact that our local government system has been turned into a cash cow by the state governors is another reason why we should postpone this election and get it fixed once and for all. This is because the local government system is the most viable alternative to extending the dividends of democracy to the masses. The fact that the average poor man on the street doesn’t feel the presence of government is because the third tier of government is rather docile. Local governments don’t have control over their money because most of the money doesn’t get to them and the State Houses of Assembly tell them how to run.
There is also too much power in the center right now, which makes the federal government work too hard. Since 1979, when Nigeria copied the US presidential system, power has been heavily skewed toward the middle. The reason may have to do with the past. The military left Nigeria with a semi-unitary state. They ruled from the center and set up a hierarchy in which the center imposes its authority and will on the parts. The centralist system of power they set up was supposed to keep the country together and make sure that Nigeria could never be split up.
In line with the 2022 Electoral Act and the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Guidelines, the campaigns for the 2023 general election started last Wednesday. There are 18 presidential candidates who want President Muhammadu Buhari’s job. In the next five months, more than 95 million people who are registered to vote will choose who will replace Buhari. There will also be other people filling different positions.
INEC has said that the elections for president and the National Assembly will be on February 25, 2023. The elections for governor and state assembly will be on March 11, 2023.
Despite INEC and security agencies’ claims, the nation remains uneasy, with many stakeholders fearing that holding general elections in a volatile security climate and growing ethnic and religious enmity across multiple zones would be difficult.
The foreign community, which seems interested in the elections, has continued to say that security is their top issue in their engagement and collaboration with Nigeria, adding that it will likely be of “growing importance” ahead of the 2023 polls.
Besides insecurity, President Buhari’s nomination of Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) to the National Assembly for confirmation raises questions about their character and background.
CSOs working to improve Nigeria’s voting process requested Buhari to resign. The coalition claims Buhari’s candidates failed the “constitutional test of non-partisanship and honesty” and should be rejected by the Senate.
CSOs included Yiaga Africa, The Kukah Centre, International Press Centre (IPC), Centre for Media and Society, Albino Foundation, Elect Her, Nigerian Women Trust Fund, Partners for Electoral Reform, and Inclusive Friends Association.
The Senate selected 19 state RECs for Buhari after 19 resigned. 14 new and five reappointed RECs were nominated.
The new nominees were Pauline Onyeka Ugochi (Imo); Muhammad Lawal Bashir (Sokoto); Prof. Ayobami Salami (Oyo); Zango Abdu (Katsina); Queen Elizabeth Agwu (Ebonyi); Agundu Tersoo (Benue); Yomere Oritsemlebi (Delta); Prof. Yahaya Ibrahim (Kaduna); Dr. Nura Ali (Kano); Agu Uchenna Sylvia (Enugu); Ahmed Garki (FCT); Hudu Yunusa (Bauchi); (Yobe).
Ibrahim Abdullahi (Adamawa); Obo Effanga (Cross River); Umar Ibrahim (Taraba); Agboke Olaleke (Ogun); and Prof. Samuel Egwu were reappointed (Kogi).
The CSOs believed that several of Buhari’s appointments violated the constitutional criteria of non-partisanship and unassailable integrity.
Some nominations are partisan, corrupt, or political.
The coalition’s spokesperson, Nwagu, cited Section 156(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which forbade INEC from appointing political party members.
He stated that Section 156(1)(a) and Third Schedule, Part 1, Item F, paragraph 14 (1) exclude these individuals from INEC membership.
The method in which money was utilized to sway and control the results of the primaries is the primary source of my dissatisfaction with the 2023 general elections. In my opinion, neither the All Progressives Congress (APC) nor the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primaries accurately reflect the preferences of Nigerian voters. It was a cash and carry kind of arrangement, and if this kind of thing is allowed to continue, Nigeria’s democracy is doomed because it will no longer be about the will of the people but rather the ability to show one’s financial clout. If this kind of thing is allowed to continue, Nigeria’s democracy is doomed.
There are fundamental flaws in the way that our nation was established. The entirety of the country is being exposed to a security risk. It was just last week that I decided to visit the Area 10 INEC office in Abuja, and I was astonished to see the enormous line of people waiting to receive their permanent voter cards. As a result, I am not certain that INEC is prepared to handle the poll because of what I saw there.
It is possible for the president to fix all these issues before May 29, but I don’t think he has the will or readiness for that.