THE FAULT IS IN US NOT IN OUR STARS ~Dada Ajibola
it
is disheartening that government care not about these which has affect
majorly all sector of the economy. But by far, what happens to be the
greatest challenge in this country is the issue of conducting free and
fair election that is acceptable locally and internationally..
With all these manifestations, Nigerians often appreciated the essence of good governance, transparency and accountability. Despite all these blessings, corruption has pervaded all spheres of public. And private life with serious implications for service delivery without concrete efforts from government to fight this menace.
Political office holders do seldom want to leave office, they manipulate the electoral process and compromise the electoral process and electoral laws.
The electoral reform being articulated by well-meaning Nigerians centers on the following issues: Independent candidacy, membership of political party to contest election, restriction on political party formation, campaign finance, election funding, the immunity and overpowers of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and issue of gender.
On 29th may 2007 at the eagle square in Abuja, immediately after former president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua took oath of office he admitted that Nigeria elections must especially the one that brought him in was flawed.
The electoral reform is very necessary in Nigeria, if Nigeria wants to continue to enjoy the dividends of democracy and achieve tremendously in her quest for development.
There has been struggle over the years to find ways to endanger confidence in the conduct of free and fair elections in Nigeria.
This struggle can be said to be two sided; first is how to design and ensure an efficient, effective, and politically non-partisan election management body; and second is on how to re-orient the country's political culture so that the political culture so that the political elite and general public (Nigerians) will show a genuine commitment to rules and regulations governing the electoral process in Nigeria in order to ensure free, fair, credible and competitive elections in Nigeria.
We need at this point to draw attention to some of the deficits in the country's electoral process that necessitated the need to reform Nigerian electoral process.
Among these deficits are; The abuse of power of incumbency which has become the major problem of electoral reform; severe financial and logistical constraint on the work of electoral management bodies thereby making these bodies to depend on state and local government for field offices of electoral bodies; ballot boxes stuffing or ballot paper manipulation; electoral violence before, during and after elections; the unwholesome role of security agencies to favor the ruling party.
What is to be done and what is at the bottom of electoral heist in Nigeria? Why is it almost impossible to hold elections that losers can accept without resort to the courts or the streets of protest.
In the last fifty four years we have not had any election that was not a subject of disputation and challenge and rather for the situation to improve, it is getting worse. One of the reasons is the structural imbalance in the country in which political power for long was located in one part of the country to the detriment of free access to power by others no matter how qualified or talented they may be.
Elections since 1951 to the present have not been able to foster a feeling of common destiny and if we are to remain together we must find ways and means to harmonize individual and group rights within an overarching federal architecture.
But the key to the removal of this curse of election lies in education, adoption of full-proof technological electoral machinery to minimize tampering with the electoral process.
We must also build a Nigeria economy in which people who wish to work would have work to do and in which politics will be a vocation rather than a profession. This was what it was in the past and we must go back to the past in order to guarantee our future. Dissolution of the federation will no guarantee fair election in the successor States..
I want my Children to inherit from my generation a country better than I met it. What presently exists is a travesty of governance and I am ashamed that this is all that resourceful and cerebrally endowed country has.
The fault is in us not in our stars. It will not matter where the President of the Country comes from if he performs well.
Our problem is that the routine performance of government duties (Such as road construction and potable water supply) by those in authority is celebrated as "achievements". Victory at a recent football competition has been made the opium of the people and money left from the denuded coffers of government is being frittered away as gifts to footballers without budgetary provision.
Governance has been shoved aside in parliament and in the executive to celebrate a mere football victory. This sterility of idea about what governance is the more reason why there must be a credible force and opposition to a long ruling party that has taken the electorate for granted.
It is however heartening that even members of the ruling party have welcomed the formation of a virile opposition party strong enough to be a government-in-waiting. It is in the interest of all politicians to make sure that peaceful change through electoral politics is possible. The alternative is so ghastly that it is unmentionable.
We cannot continue like this, we must change course lest the American prediction that Nigeria will disintegrate in 2015 become a self-fulling prophesy.
I thank you.
Dada Ajibola is a graduate of Bio-chemistry, he writes from Lagos State. Follow him on twitter @i_otunbaola
With all these manifestations, Nigerians often appreciated the essence of good governance, transparency and accountability. Despite all these blessings, corruption has pervaded all spheres of public. And private life with serious implications for service delivery without concrete efforts from government to fight this menace.
Political office holders do seldom want to leave office, they manipulate the electoral process and compromise the electoral process and electoral laws.
The electoral reform being articulated by well-meaning Nigerians centers on the following issues: Independent candidacy, membership of political party to contest election, restriction on political party formation, campaign finance, election funding, the immunity and overpowers of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and issue of gender.
On 29th may 2007 at the eagle square in Abuja, immediately after former president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua took oath of office he admitted that Nigeria elections must especially the one that brought him in was flawed.
The electoral reform is very necessary in Nigeria, if Nigeria wants to continue to enjoy the dividends of democracy and achieve tremendously in her quest for development.
There has been struggle over the years to find ways to endanger confidence in the conduct of free and fair elections in Nigeria.
This struggle can be said to be two sided; first is how to design and ensure an efficient, effective, and politically non-partisan election management body; and second is on how to re-orient the country's political culture so that the political culture so that the political elite and general public (Nigerians) will show a genuine commitment to rules and regulations governing the electoral process in Nigeria in order to ensure free, fair, credible and competitive elections in Nigeria.
We need at this point to draw attention to some of the deficits in the country's electoral process that necessitated the need to reform Nigerian electoral process.
Among these deficits are; The abuse of power of incumbency which has become the major problem of electoral reform; severe financial and logistical constraint on the work of electoral management bodies thereby making these bodies to depend on state and local government for field offices of electoral bodies; ballot boxes stuffing or ballot paper manipulation; electoral violence before, during and after elections; the unwholesome role of security agencies to favor the ruling party.
What is to be done and what is at the bottom of electoral heist in Nigeria? Why is it almost impossible to hold elections that losers can accept without resort to the courts or the streets of protest.
In the last fifty four years we have not had any election that was not a subject of disputation and challenge and rather for the situation to improve, it is getting worse. One of the reasons is the structural imbalance in the country in which political power for long was located in one part of the country to the detriment of free access to power by others no matter how qualified or talented they may be.
Elections since 1951 to the present have not been able to foster a feeling of common destiny and if we are to remain together we must find ways and means to harmonize individual and group rights within an overarching federal architecture.
But the key to the removal of this curse of election lies in education, adoption of full-proof technological electoral machinery to minimize tampering with the electoral process.
We must also build a Nigeria economy in which people who wish to work would have work to do and in which politics will be a vocation rather than a profession. This was what it was in the past and we must go back to the past in order to guarantee our future. Dissolution of the federation will no guarantee fair election in the successor States..
I want my Children to inherit from my generation a country better than I met it. What presently exists is a travesty of governance and I am ashamed that this is all that resourceful and cerebrally endowed country has.
The fault is in us not in our stars. It will not matter where the President of the Country comes from if he performs well.
Our problem is that the routine performance of government duties (Such as road construction and potable water supply) by those in authority is celebrated as "achievements". Victory at a recent football competition has been made the opium of the people and money left from the denuded coffers of government is being frittered away as gifts to footballers without budgetary provision.
Governance has been shoved aside in parliament and in the executive to celebrate a mere football victory. This sterility of idea about what governance is the more reason why there must be a credible force and opposition to a long ruling party that has taken the electorate for granted.
It is however heartening that even members of the ruling party have welcomed the formation of a virile opposition party strong enough to be a government-in-waiting. It is in the interest of all politicians to make sure that peaceful change through electoral politics is possible. The alternative is so ghastly that it is unmentionable.
We cannot continue like this, we must change course lest the American prediction that Nigeria will disintegrate in 2015 become a self-fulling prophesy.
I thank you.
Dada Ajibola is a graduate of Bio-chemistry, he writes from Lagos State. Follow him on twitter @i_otunbaola
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