Asaba Conference on NBA Criminal Justice Reforms: Electoral Offences Blamed on Illiteracy, Poverty, Ideological Bankruptcy & Lack of Sanctions
Delegates rose from the final session of the NBA’s 5th Criminal Justice Reforms Conference in Asaba, the Delta State capital, in unanimous agreement that electoral offences, along with post-election violence, were a by-product of negative socio-political and economic factors that tend to nurture them and reward – rather than punish – their perpetrators.
Chaired by the Hon. Justice Peter Umeadi, the Chief Judge of Anambra State, the session, which was titled, ‘Prosecution & Punishment of Electoral Offences in Nigeria,’ had as its lead speaker, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu – who was however represented at the occasion by Mrs. May Agbamuche-Mbu, a commissioner with the electoral body.
NEWSWIRE’s correspondent in Asaba reports that after dissecting the various challenges faced by the electoral umpire as regards offences designed to thwart the true wishes of the people as expressed in regular polls, Agbamuche-Mbu made it clear that prosecuting electoral offences was an uphill task for INEC – in spite of the presence of laws and sanctions against the practice in the statute-books of many states in the country, as well as in federal laws. She attributed this state of affairs to a number of factors such as INEC’s lack of independence in all respects; the poverty, illiteracy and lack of political education suffered by the majority of the electorate; as well as the lack of ideological underpinnings of any kind (except the self-serving variety) behind the activities of political parties and players; the abject inefficiency of the investigation mechanism in Nigeria; and the lack of adequate funding and qualified manpower for INEC.
She also attributed INEC’s impotence in this regard to the fact that the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, to whom cases of electoral fraud are usually referred, is himself an appointee of the same ruling party which had probably benefited from the fraud that is being challenged. Stating that INEC is already over-burdened with its election-planning duties, even without the obligation to deter fraud of punish offenders or stem the incidence of post-election violence, Agbamuche-Mbu called for revisiting of the Uwais Commission’s report on electoral reforms, whose provisions have more recently been reaffirmed by the Ken Nnamani Committee on electoral reforms.
INEC, she said, is eagerly awaiting the much-expected passage into law of the Electoral Offences Commission Bill – even as it subscribes fully to the relevant provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.
In his contribution, a panelist, Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN, maintained that it was not the lack of discipline among the political class, as is often believed, but the lack of sanctions aimed at deterrence and non-recurrence.
He also debunked the notion that politicians were the only culprits of electoral fraud, even though they are the principal beneficiaries. Decrying the lack of institutional memory among the generality of Nigerians – which is why politicians could make inflammatory comments that incite their supporters to deadly violence – and still be able to contest in future elections, Chief Akintola, SAN, called for the strengthening of all institutions that govern political behaviour in Nigeria, and more importantly, the far-reaching restructuring of the entire system upon which the Nigerian republic and its constituent parts are built.
Akintola ended by calling those he called ‘the timorous souls on the Bench’ to stand up and be counted on the side of legality – no matter whose ox is gored.
NEWSWIRE’s correspondent reports that another panelist, Ferdinand Orbih, SAN, recalled with pain events in the aftermath of the 2011 general elections, in which an estimated 800 Nigerians – including about a dozen young NYSC corps members lost their lives in a bloodbath allegedly instigated by the inflammatory comments of a losing candidate. Till date, he lamented, not a single perpetrator of those heinous crimes has been arrested or prosecuted, let alone convicted.
Like the INEC commissioner, Orbih called for the Uwais Commission’s report to be revisited, as it contains many measures designed to, in his words, ‘hit illegitimate political office-holders and crooked politicians where it hurts the most’ by the application of tough sanctions against their person, property and reputation.
In his summation, the session chair, Hon. Justice Umeadi added his voice to the widespread clamour for the separation of the office of the attorney-general (a government appointee torn between his loyalties to the ruling-class and his obligation to society as a whole) and a minister of justice whose loyalties are more widely spread.
The session ended with a lively question-and-answer session.
See photos below:
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