Posted by From BASHIR UMAR, Abuja on
Ahead of tomorrow's presidential election, the Senate President, Ken Nnamani has cried foul against the conduct of primaries and last week's legislative and governorship elections and appealed to international observers to ensure that they give not only close marking but also report any fraudulent acts in the imminent elections.
…Suggests two-party system for Nigeria
Ahead of tomorrow's presidential election, the Senate President, Ken Nnamani has cried foul against the conduct of primaries and last week's legislative and governorship elections and appealed to international observers to ensure that they give not only close marking but also report any fraudulent acts in the imminent elections.
Receiving a delegation of the U.S-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), an International Observer Mission, led by the former American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, Senator Nnamani complained that since 1999, conducts of elections have been going from bad to worse. He told the delegation: "It may interest those of you who have come to observe what is going on in Nigeria to know that every successive election is worse than the previous one."
"In other words", he went on, "the election of 1999 was better than that of 2003 and that of 2003, if care is not taken, would be better than that of this one (2007); and that does not show growth. It does not show that our democracy is being deepened, not to talk of thriving, most especially when we continue to see soldiers carrying guns and chasing people about on an election day."
Describing Nigeria's democracy as "hybrid democracy" because of the involvement of uniform and armed personnel, the Senate President also observed that "there is still elements of intimidation, manipulation and high-brow rigging going on, even though somebody may say the election of last week was free and fair, but I don't see how free and fair it was."
Tracing the genesis of the electoral woes, Senator Nnamani said: "I think most of that (fraud) is as a result of faults from the manipulated primaries, because when primaries are flawed or manipulated, it manifests clearly in the general elections, and that is why when I was in Washington, I alerted you (US) of the necessity to come and witness the conduct of primaries in Nigeria as well as watch how candidates emerged in primaries."
He posited that once there was no transparency in the general conduct of elections, there would be problem of legitimacy, "because you don't carry people along since you force them to do things they detest, using mobile police and soldiers to flog them some times, and that can never be called democracy."
Another problem in the Nigerian democracy, the Senate President said, is the proliferation of parties in the country where, he said, everybody wanted to be a chairman of one party or another, most of which existed only in one state or local government yet claiming to national status, "which is dangerous in that they dissipate energy without making impact in checkmating the party in power and allowing it to continue enjoying monopoly".
According to him, Nigeria should not have more than two strong parties so that one can always "checkmate the other to avoid the situation where one party wins every place because of the power and resources at its disposal which it usually used to oftentimes allocate votes and results to its candidates".
Senator Nnamani also suggested that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should have 12-year tenure in order to be made to outlive incumbent governments and bring in new ones to power.
Nnamani made a passionate appeal to the international observers to ensure keen and close watch of tomorrow's election in order to tell the world about the usual fraud associated with elections in Nigeria, saying: "It is necessary for organizations like the NDI to help us out because what we are facing here affects many African countries, as we are supposed to have the taproot of African democracy rooted in Nigeria".
While revealing that about 80 per cent of senators, including himself, are not returning to the hallowed chamber by June 2007, Nnamani also pointed out that he was conscious of the fact that "unless and until we are ready to take our destiny in our hands, no amount of foreign intervention can help us".
In her short speech, leader of the team which included former Canadian Prime Minister, Liberian President, Nigerien Prime Minister, ECOWAS Parliament Speaker and the NDI President as well as several American bureaucrats, Albright said that they were in Nigeria to observe tomorrow's election because of the interest and importance the international community have for the democratic dispensation in Nigeria.
The Nigerian senators present at the occasion, were Daniel Saror, Rufa'I Hanga, Titus Olupitan, Felix Ibru, Victor Oyofo and Mamman Ali (Yobe governor-elect).