By Tonnie Iredia
The 2003 All Nigerian Editors’ Conference (ANEC) has ended in Asaba, the Delta State Capital. The Conference which had as its theme “Nigeria Beyond Oil: Role of the Editor”, was relevant and apt for the times and also fell in line with the universal role of the media to set the national agenda of its country. Indeed, the Conference underscored the all-important role of journalists to serve as the mirror and gatekeeper of society to point out danger signals in the horizon to avert a woeful end. From the tone of the welcome address entitled, “Diversify or Die”; the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mr. Femi Adesina left no one in doubt of the grave consequences awaiting the country in the face of dwindling oil revenue.
At the end of the Conference, enlightenment on the subject was virtually overwhelming as ample light was shed on the state of our economy and the evils of over-reliance on a single product. The Conference opined that Nigeria needs to wean itself from dependence on oil and gas as a major revenue earner by embarking on deliberate and sustained diversification of its economy. To drive home the point, the Conference suggested that agriculture, tourism and other non-oil sources should be intensively explored, in order to avert the catastrophic consequences of a future without oil.
The host State-Delta gained immensely. As an oil state, it used the Conference to illuminate and widen its own preoccupation with the subject into a national one. Of course, the opportunity to show-case the state was not lost. From the projects we saw during a tour of the city, the situation in which previous administrations did not quite treat Asaba as the real capital city has changed.
One of our colleagues wondered aloud why Governor Uduaghan was not following the trend of his neighbours whose expenditures on propaganda often outweighed the cost of the projects being publicized. As an aside, the few senior journalists invited by the governor to a private dinner on the eve of the Conference saw a governor’s wife that played the role of a humble cook and steward. Does the lady not know the Nigerian meaning of first lady?
On the main subject of Nigeria beyond oil, I doubt if I was not left confused by the deliberations. The 2 main speakers from the top most hierarchy of the federal government spoke well. Labaran Maku, the Minister of Information was expectedly in his elements. Himself a seasoned journalist, Maku masterfully reeled out the quantum of government efforts so far in handling the economy.
He didn’t forget to ask Nigerians to give the Jonathan administration more time to finish a good job. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Pius Anyim was probably more concise when he stated that “whether we like it or not, we are transiting from an oil Nigeria to non oil Nigeria and if we fail in this duty, the society will pay for it.
Unlike most speakers who dwelt on the exhaustible nature of oil, Anyim revealed that even if oil does not finish, we are about to lose our major buyer- the United States. From the articulate contributions of these 2 high ranking government officials I became a bit unsure of who actually needed to be sensitized.
It was not surprising that the presentations were near perfect because Nigerian plans, speeches and even budgets are always well organized. They are however also always poorly implemented. Therefore, the impression that our problem is due to our reliance on oil may not after all be our real problem. This is because if we diversify our economy and earn higher and more sustainable revenues, our stunted growth will not vanish if we mismanage the proceeds as has been done to oil.
For instance, if we garner great resources from diversified sources and a huge chunk of it is misapplied, we shall still have problems like ASUU’s incessant strikes and the closure of schools. If our political leaders continue to go abroad for medical treatment thereby ignoring the development of a good health care delivery system, our hospitals will remain comatose whether or not our economy is diversified.
The key note address presented by Dangote- a manager of non-oil products was no doubt instructive. But the address would be of no use if in our handling of public policies, we do not borrow a leaf from Dangote. For example, the latter does operate with an unwieldy workforce like our governments such as that of Bauchi State with hundreds of idle hands as special advisers and assistants. It is therefore not enough to seek to diversify our economy which ordinarily is the right thing to do, when we know that sustainable revenue that will accrue from the effort will be wasted on issues like having 3 ministers in one ministry as is the case today in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The media did well to seek to determine the national agenda by focusing on what can sustain the nation. But unfortunately, in spite of the power of the media, the subject did not become the topical issue in the land. Instead, we were inundated by stories of a supposedly hale and hearty Governor Danbaba Suntai who could not on his own, disembark from an aircraft. How the electoral commission warned in vain that it would not relate with unknown faction of a party for the coming Anambra election and how the party concerned carried on as usual with impunity, suggesting that we may not get men of vision out of the elections were the issues of the moment.
Other issues that took prominence in national discourse included the failure of the aviation sector which often purports to be security conscious to stop a stowaway young chap who took advantage of the lack of perimeter fencing at the Benin airport to gain entry into the tyre of an aircraft and fly in it to Lagos. These topical issues which have nothing to do with oil suggest that, oil or no oil, Nigeria needs to first solve its basic problem of national indiscipline.
Showing posts with label Nigeria Today. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nigeria Today. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Sunday, 7 July 2013
2015 elections in Nigeria may fail
By Tonnie Iredia
On Saturday June 29, 2013, an election was held in Oguta constituency of Imo State. The umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says it could not declare a winner because the contest was inconclusive. This time around, those who are usually fast at commending the Jega led INEC have been a bit cautious. The truth however is that INEC has never performed above average.
As one newspaper aptly opined the other day, those who praise our elections are “those who lower standards to accommodate mediocrity”. It was thus a relief to hear that President Goodluck Jonathan has himself showed disgust over the outcome of the Oguta election - an event which in reality was not in any way different from our other elections. Against this backdrop, we agree with the President that those who made the rerun election in Oguta to be inconclusive must be brought to book.
History tells us that we have never been able to bring our political thugs and their sponsors to book. Therefore, is it not time to go beyond the usual focus on the ignoble roles of our politicians during elections? While not condoning such unwholesome posture, the rationale for the conduct of our political class which is to win an election at all cost is easy to identify. But how do we place the other actors in the game who are supposed to be neutral? Do they too have an election to win? Relevant here are (a) Security operatives, (b) the Judiciary and (c) the electoral body.
Ensuring that malpractices do not mar an election is no doubt rational. It is ostensibly for this reason that an election venue in Nigeria often takes the pattern of a battle field with far too many armed personnel hovering around. Unfortunately, the so called security operatives often become the problem as many voters for fear of being molested or indeed of becoming victims of ‘stray bullets’ keep away from the sacred civic duty of voting.
In Oguta, security operatives armed to the teeth were everywhere. They reportedly rounded off a batch of thugs numbering about 20 at Agwa community, disarmed and arrested them, yet; there was still ample snatching of ballot boxes. Considering the numerous stories of how security personnel act scripts of the highest bidders by intimidating likely opponents, what would be the fate of the 2015 elections?
As for the Judiciary, the handling of election controversies has become the weakest point in its constitutional mandate which is the settlement of disputes. There are by far too many examples of how politicians often used the judiciary to win elections in Nigeria. For the 2015 elections, will our judges refrain from the trend of using technicalities to supplant substantive justice? In earnest, it is often quite difficult to comprehend the type of joy and peace which society can enjoy from certain judicial pronouncements.
For example, the Ondo State election tribunal had declined jurisdiction to look into the petitioner’s complaint that several unlawful names were injected into the voters’ register which was used to conduct the election. To the tribunal, the ‘frivolous’ complaint was only a pre-election matter.
How does a candidate get to know that fake names had been surreptitiously injected into the voter’s register until their votes have been counted when in Nigeria even INEC does not know the authentic voters’ list? Put differently, do the defects in a voters’ register become good because attention was drawn to them after the casting of ballots?
Luckily, the Court of Appeal overruled the tribunal. It would not have been strange if it did not. After all, the same Court of Appeal which also ruled that it was a breach of the electoral law for INEC to have failed to display the voters’ register for the public to scrutinize properly before the election could not be persuaded that the issues were strong enough to have adversely affected the conduct of the election.
Why should INEC not follow the law? Meanwhile, the most fundamental element of an election is the voters’ register because the number of polling stations, ballot boxes, ballot papers and other materials are usually determined by the numerical strength of the register.
When it is over listed, the extra ballot papers arising from the supposed figure in the register can be used to rig elections through multiple voting. When the register is under-listed, those excluded can cause chaos and general disruption of the voting day process. Thus, if our subsisting inaccurate voters’ register and INEC’s temporary voters’ cards would be in use in 2015, should we expect success?
The injection of fake names into the Ondo voters’ register could only have been done by INEC - our electoral umpire that is permanently overwhelmed by any type of election. Did the returning officer actually endorse the Oguta election result as alleged? No one knows.
Whereas the Imo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Celina Okoh, eloquently described how the election was violently disrupted in certain polling centres which made INEC to declare the event as inconclusive, she made no mention of how election materials were as usual late to the centres. When it is a general election, people tend to sympathize with INEC for having to withstand some daunting logistics of elections associated with Nigeria’s difficult geographical terrains.
When it is an election in only one State, the story is the same. In Oguta - just one local government area, the election was in only 4 out of 11 wards for only one seat in the Imo State House of Assembly, yet media reports revealed that many voters became restive after waiting in vain for several hours for the election process to commence. When will INEC conduct an election where materials do not arrive late to an election centre?
Even smaller issues call for concern. As of today, the commission as a referee uses only the green card. It does not appear to have a red card. The last time it summoned courage to wave a yellow card at the ruling party about defects in its National Convention, it did so one year after the event! What a referee for the all important 2015 elections!!
On Saturday June 29, 2013, an election was held in Oguta constituency of Imo State. The umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says it could not declare a winner because the contest was inconclusive. This time around, those who are usually fast at commending the Jega led INEC have been a bit cautious. The truth however is that INEC has never performed above average.
As one newspaper aptly opined the other day, those who praise our elections are “those who lower standards to accommodate mediocrity”. It was thus a relief to hear that President Goodluck Jonathan has himself showed disgust over the outcome of the Oguta election - an event which in reality was not in any way different from our other elections. Against this backdrop, we agree with the President that those who made the rerun election in Oguta to be inconclusive must be brought to book.
History tells us that we have never been able to bring our political thugs and their sponsors to book. Therefore, is it not time to go beyond the usual focus on the ignoble roles of our politicians during elections? While not condoning such unwholesome posture, the rationale for the conduct of our political class which is to win an election at all cost is easy to identify. But how do we place the other actors in the game who are supposed to be neutral? Do they too have an election to win? Relevant here are (a) Security operatives, (b) the Judiciary and (c) the electoral body.
Ensuring that malpractices do not mar an election is no doubt rational. It is ostensibly for this reason that an election venue in Nigeria often takes the pattern of a battle field with far too many armed personnel hovering around. Unfortunately, the so called security operatives often become the problem as many voters for fear of being molested or indeed of becoming victims of ‘stray bullets’ keep away from the sacred civic duty of voting.
In Oguta, security operatives armed to the teeth were everywhere. They reportedly rounded off a batch of thugs numbering about 20 at Agwa community, disarmed and arrested them, yet; there was still ample snatching of ballot boxes. Considering the numerous stories of how security personnel act scripts of the highest bidders by intimidating likely opponents, what would be the fate of the 2015 elections?
As for the Judiciary, the handling of election controversies has become the weakest point in its constitutional mandate which is the settlement of disputes. There are by far too many examples of how politicians often used the judiciary to win elections in Nigeria. For the 2015 elections, will our judges refrain from the trend of using technicalities to supplant substantive justice? In earnest, it is often quite difficult to comprehend the type of joy and peace which society can enjoy from certain judicial pronouncements.
For example, the Ondo State election tribunal had declined jurisdiction to look into the petitioner’s complaint that several unlawful names were injected into the voters’ register which was used to conduct the election. To the tribunal, the ‘frivolous’ complaint was only a pre-election matter.
How does a candidate get to know that fake names had been surreptitiously injected into the voter’s register until their votes have been counted when in Nigeria even INEC does not know the authentic voters’ list? Put differently, do the defects in a voters’ register become good because attention was drawn to them after the casting of ballots?
Luckily, the Court of Appeal overruled the tribunal. It would not have been strange if it did not. After all, the same Court of Appeal which also ruled that it was a breach of the electoral law for INEC to have failed to display the voters’ register for the public to scrutinize properly before the election could not be persuaded that the issues were strong enough to have adversely affected the conduct of the election.
Why should INEC not follow the law? Meanwhile, the most fundamental element of an election is the voters’ register because the number of polling stations, ballot boxes, ballot papers and other materials are usually determined by the numerical strength of the register.
When it is over listed, the extra ballot papers arising from the supposed figure in the register can be used to rig elections through multiple voting. When the register is under-listed, those excluded can cause chaos and general disruption of the voting day process. Thus, if our subsisting inaccurate voters’ register and INEC’s temporary voters’ cards would be in use in 2015, should we expect success?
The injection of fake names into the Ondo voters’ register could only have been done by INEC - our electoral umpire that is permanently overwhelmed by any type of election. Did the returning officer actually endorse the Oguta election result as alleged? No one knows.
Whereas the Imo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Celina Okoh, eloquently described how the election was violently disrupted in certain polling centres which made INEC to declare the event as inconclusive, she made no mention of how election materials were as usual late to the centres. When it is a general election, people tend to sympathize with INEC for having to withstand some daunting logistics of elections associated with Nigeria’s difficult geographical terrains.
When it is an election in only one State, the story is the same. In Oguta - just one local government area, the election was in only 4 out of 11 wards for only one seat in the Imo State House of Assembly, yet media reports revealed that many voters became restive after waiting in vain for several hours for the election process to commence. When will INEC conduct an election where materials do not arrive late to an election centre?
Even smaller issues call for concern. As of today, the commission as a referee uses only the green card. It does not appear to have a red card. The last time it summoned courage to wave a yellow card at the ruling party about defects in its National Convention, it did so one year after the event! What a referee for the all important 2015 elections!!
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