PROFESSOR Amupitan’s first major assignment as the nation’s chief electoral officer throws a little light on the tragedy of African democracy, making politically-exposed Nigerians to lose sleep on the increasing hollowness of Nigeria’s democracy.
The tragedy is that many an African president would relish a spineless press, an infantile legislature whose leadership dutifully serves the executive wielders of power rather than the people, a captive judiciary, a servile chief electoral officer turning the Electoral Commission into a department of the ruling party, and a conquered civil society space, so that the ruling party could unrestrainedly, year in year out, reproduce itself in power. Most African presidents would prefer democracy without checks and balances, and ever fearful of opposition parties, would go the extra mile to crush them from the political space.
It beggars belief that the most politically-exposed association, the ADA, led by a former PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, and Dr Umar Ardo as National Secretary, underscored by an impressive national outlook in its NEC composition, drawn from all the 36 states and Abuja, over 95% of them physically-verified, wasn’t registered.
From Cameroun where 91 year old President Paul Biya welded power since 1982; Equatorial Guinea where President Obiano Nguema has called the shots since 1979; Uganda where the presidential throne has been monopolised by President Yoweri Museveni as far back as 1986, to the Republic of Congo where President Sassou Nguesso has stayed put in the throne since 1997; and Benin Republic where President Talon recently saved from coupists by Nigeria, has dominated political power from 2016 to date among others – reveal a pattern of democratic recession transforming Africa’s democratisation into a perpetually unfinished confrontation, which has to be fought again many times over.
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Nigeria is not immune from the African pattern of hollowing democracy through personalised presidencies, national assemblies and electoral commissions. Since the APC couldn’t allow the 10th National Assembly to freely elect its leaderships; since engineering defections from the major opposition parties is second nature to the APC-led regime, many Nigerians are justifiably convinced that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) would only allow a trusted minion to supervise the 2027 elections, since credible elections could send the APC out of Aso Rock.
Despite some misgivings, many Nigerians hoped that Prof. Amupitan wouldn’t be anybody’s electoral hitman, wouldn’t refuse to tread the electoral path of Prof. Attahiru Jega who conducted the 2011 and 2015 elections as transparently as possible, not minding whose ox was gored and authored INEC’s Guidelines on the Registration of Political Parties.
Prof. Amupitan’s mishandling of political party registration is increasingly eroding the political goodwill expressed by Nigerians on his appointment as the nation’s Chief Electoral Officer, dashing the hope that he would only impartially apply the electoral and party registration rules, reinforcing the scepticism that his appointment as INEC Chairman isn’t without hidden strings attached.
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Since registering more political parties widens the political space, increases the political menu for Nigerians, conflicts with the ruling party’s drive for an opposition free political landscape in 2027, Amupitan is constrained to independently register political parties that could threaten the ruling party.
Across many democracies, old and young political party registration is a seamless affair, giving room for all sorts of parties – local and national – to flourish. In South Africa, besides the minimum 500 party membership stipulation; in Germany, it is only 5 members, a prospective political party mustn’t be sectarian, clannish or exclusive of other ethnicities and faith groups in its membership, and its constitution must align itself with the South African constitution. If ADA had been a South African political association, it would have been duly registered by South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission as a political party.
In neighbouring Niger Republic, once a political association satisfies the conditions in the political parties charter – a founding members assembly, a declaration to that effect accompanied with necessary documentations and a party constitution filed with the Ministry of Interior, defined by gender and youth inclusiveness, participation in elections, transparent financial sources, regular meetings of organs – it is registered as a political party. If ADA had been a Nigerien political association, the Ministry of Interior would have registered it as a political party.
Out of the over 80 political associations which commenced the processes of party registration with INEC, only eight made it to the final stage of National Executive Committees verifications. And according to one source, none of the eight parties was registered, whilst another source posits that only two parties have been registered.
If a basic responsibility couldn’t be independently performed by Prof. Amupitan, without dancing to an external music, what guarantees have Nigerians that the mother of all elections, would be conducted and a winner returned without his amateurish electoral dance to the ruling party’s music in INEC’s National Collation Centre?
It beggars belief that the most politically-exposed association, the ADA, led by a former PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, and Dr Umar Ardo as National Secretary, underscored by an impressive national outlook in its NEC composition, drawn from all the 36 states and Abuja, over 95% of them physically-verified, wasn’t registered.
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After engineering political instability in the biggest opposition parties, the regime is apprehensive of the emergence of a genuinely oppositionally-disposed political party, which could be the game changer in Nigeria’s politics.
ADA’s faults are legion: it’s oppositional coalition origin and empathy for other non-ruling parties; national appeal and formidable political resources; the eagerness of members in disoriented parties to defect to it, and the eagle-eyed countenance to ward off potential fifth columnists and destabilisers from its ranks and leadership – sealed its fate with the Electoral Commission.
Since INEC is known to have bent some of its rules in the past, it could have gone the extra mile to register all the eight parties, with a proviso that those which haven’t satisfied the minimum conditions should make good their deficiencies within a stipulated time. It is in the enlightened interest of the APC-led regime to have all the eight parties registered, since it has been accused of destabilising the major opposition parties, because it is incapable of participating in a fair electoral contest.
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Unprepared for public condemnations, and the reinforcement of the belief that it isn’t independent, INEC is yet to communicate its registration fiasco to the public, preferring to send text messages to party national secretaries that their respective parties haven’t been registered.
If a basic responsibility couldn’t be independently performed by Prof. Amupitan, without dancing to an external music, what guarantees have Nigerians that the mother of all elections, would be conducted and a winner returned without his amateurish electoral dance to the ruling party’s music in INEC’s National Collation Centre?
