By Peter N. Peters
For parents, labour pain is always a bitter-sweet experience. Bitter because it is an agonisingly painful time for the pregnant mother who is about to be delivered of a baby and also for the father who is the ‘general overseer’. It is also at the same time sweet because if successful, the little tender human being which she has brought forth into the world is a ‘bundle of joy’ that more than compensates for the labour pain.
Such is the state of Nigeria at the moment. Our country is passing through an agonising labour pain preparatory to the birthing of a New Nigeria. Oh, how I desire to live to see that day come! As it is within the period of labour, strange things, unprecedented in the history of this country are happening. It is a delicate time that could make or break Nigeria. The time we are in requires that Nigeria is attended to by experienced, tried and tested midwives to ensure a safe-delivery of the ‘new baby.’ But where are the ‘midwives’ and how well equipped are they in all respects to take delivery of the new baby so as to avert any incidence of miscarriage or even a still birth?
These pains have been long with us for the greater part of the history of this nation. But the recent ones we can easily trace became more pronounced at the outset of this administration. No sooner the administration of Major General Muhammadu Buhari was sworn into office in May 29, 2015, than his ‘body language’ began to suggest that he had scores to settle with some parts of the country. And the President confirmed this with his affirmed 97%/5% unusual mathematical formula, which obviously appears to be his guarding principle over this seven years in the distribution of political offices and patronage to regions that voted and didn’t vote for him.
From this point agitation for self-determination from regions that feel cheated or maginalised which had already been brewing long before now gained momentum. Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu became more vociferous in the South East and parts of South South in her agitation for a separate Biafran nation. It was not long before a hitherto unknown Sunday Adeyemo (aka Sunday Igboho) joined the fray and mobilized the Yoruba youths to agitate for an independent “Oduduwa Republic.” And the armed forces of Nigeria, already stretched with their battle against insurgency, banditry and kidnap in the Northern part of Nigeria, became all the more over-stretched in trying to contain the threats posed by these ‘freedom fighters’ to national unity.
Then came the #EndSARS, a well-organized and properly coordinated peaceful protest by the youths across the country in October 2021. It was a protest against long years of police brutality against innocent citizens. But it was also a metaphor for long years of bottled-up anger against the ruling class for their perennial misrule, impunity and neglect of the masses of this country.
Suddenly this peaceful and well-coordinated protest was hijacked by sponsored thugs and hoodlums, then heavens broke loose. There was massive looting and destruction of both public and private properties across the nation. Even the police that were invited to quell the riots seized the opportunity of the mayhem and joined the looting spree. Why not! They are not insulated from the pain their country men and women are passing through after all. Some lives were reportedly lost in its wake. The Armed Forces and Police were completely overwhelmed resulting in their application of maximum force that resulted in the now famous Lekki Toll Gate shootings in October 20, 2021 in Lagos that is still a subject of investigation by a Special Panel to date.
Most recently, it became the turn of the women to occupy the National Assembly gate for days starting from Monday March 7, 2022, in protest of perceived injustice done to them by the national legislators. Some of the women were in uniforms representing the various interest groups and CSOs campaigning against perceived injustices against women. And they vowed to remain there until their grievances were addressed by the NASS. What were the issues? The 9th National Assembly law makers of both chambers, in the course of the ongoing constitutional amendment, unanimously rejected all the gender based bills sponsored by the women to create some level playing field for women to have more representation and to participate more actively in the political processes of their country. There were quite a number of these agenda based bill that were out rightly thrown out by the law makers. They included:
1. Bill to provide special seats for women at National Assembly.
2. Bill for Affirmative Action for women in political party administration.
3. Bill to grant citizenship to foreign-born husbands of Nigerian women. Already, a Nigerian man’s foreign-born wife is automatically a Nigerian citizen.
4. Bill to allocate 35% of political positions based on appointments to women and creation of additional 111 seats in National Assembly and the states assemblies.
5. Bill for inclusion of at least ten percent affirmative action in favour of women in ministerial appointments.
What was not factored in all this is that the stage for this frosty relationship between the government and Nigerian women was set in faraway Germany by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, (rtd) himself, at the outset of this administration, when in answer to a question by a foreign journalist regarding the place of his wife in his government, he answered rather sarcastically and said that her place was “in the other room.” While the President’s apologists in APC hailed and clapped, the rest of us Nigerians made jokes out of it to the extent that it has become a buzz word till date. What we did not realize was that the President, perhaps without meaning it, had defined for the ‘governing party’ the place of the women in his government. It wasn’t surprising therefore that the issues about women would be so shabbily treated at the NASS.
As if all of these were enough headaches for the nation, the union of university teachers codenamed ‘ASUU’ called out her members on a nationwide warning strike, thereby shutting down academic activities in the government owned universities. They were protesting the long years of government’s refusal to implement agreements reached at previous negotiations. This was happening at the same time that the nation’s activities were virtually grounded by another round of fuel scarcity resulting in long queues of vehicles at the fuel stations across the nation. Initially the authorities of NNPC informed a bewildered nation of ‘their discovery’ that the batch of fuel recently imported and distributed across the nation were overloaded with methanol, which had already damaged the engines of some vehicles of those who had fed this fuel into their tanks. And on account of this the entire supply was withdrawn from the market and returned to the suppliers resulting in the fuel scarcity that the nation was experiencing. However, about seven weeks after, the scarcity has persisted given rise to speculations that the government was not telling the citizens all the truth. The aviation sector is also badly hit by the scarcity of aviation fuel resulting in about 100% hike in airfares. There is the palpable fear in the aviation industry that in a couple of days, the airlines may be grounded due to the shortage of aviation fuel.
The power sector is also suffering from system collapse, which had resulted in a nationwide blackout. The operators have been offering all kinds of explanations ranging from low water level in the dams for the hydro power stations to vandalisation and/or breakdown of equipment as well as shortage of gas to power the thermal stations. Bottom-line is that power generation across the country had fallen to as low as 1,000 megawatts from the national grid. Wait for this one! The Nigerian Police has also served a warning of their plan to embark on a nationwide strike. Yes, you heard me right! Police of all sectors are gearing up to protest long years of neglect and very poor condition of service.
According to Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, a presidential aspirant under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria is presently at her very worst state of national development since independence in 1960. Her challenges are multi-faceted ranging from high level of insecurity, highest rate of inflation at 15% resulting in high cost of living, to collapse in education, power, health, transport and aviation sectors. In fact no sector of the economy is spared. Amidst all these the President stayed away in United Kingdom on medical tourism for weeks without a care. Those left behind to run the nation are bugged down with power tussle for the soul of the ‘governing’ party, (All Progressive Congress) as they prepare to hold a national convention that had suffered many postponements in recent years. So there is little or no governance in place and therefore no hope of any respite from the myriad of issues troubling the nation.
However, something that looked like a ray of hope happened on Friday February 25, 2022. The President eventually signed into law the Electoral Act Amendment Bill after several delays and rejections by him. The signing of this electoral amendment bill into law, in spite of all the delays, might count for the President, as one of his strongest legacies bequeathed to Nigeria’s democratic journey.
Side by side, with the Electoral Act 2022, were some new bills passed by the National Assembly (NASS) in their effort to tinker with some aspects of the 1999 Nigeria Constitution as amended, to address some of the grievances of the agitators.
Not all sections of the Nigerian nation are however impressed with the bills passed by the NASS. Prominent among them is the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum (SMBLF). This is a forum holding together some of the major ethnic nationalities which include: Afanifere in the South West, Oha-na-Eze Ndi Igbo in the South East, Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) for the South South states of the Niger Delta and Middle Belt Forum for some of the North Central states.
In a communiqué that was released to the press after one of their most recent meetings held in Abuja on Thursday, March 10, 2022, they demanded “the harmonisation and immediate implementation of the reports of the 2014 National Conference and the 2018 APC Committee on true federalism rather than the current cosmetic constitutional amendment, which serves as a drain on the resources of the country and do not address fundamental issues including fiscal federalism.”
“The group noted that the existing constitution and structure of Nigeria are grossly flawed and therefore, insisted on the fundamental restructuring of the country, to reflect true federalism, and enthrone equity, fairness and justice, before the 2023 general elections. It argued in particular that local government affairs are state matters and that the listing of local governments in the constitution is inconsistent with the principle of federalism. It tagged the legislations of the National Assembly granting local government “autonomy” superfluous and exercise in futility.”
This was against the backdrop of some of the bills which the federal legislators passed that did not address the core issues of resource control, true and/or fiscal federalism that are at the core of the raging agitations. Some of these bills passed which, according to this forum, merely scratched the issues of true federalism and devolution of powers from the centre to the states among others include:
1. Financial autonomy for local governments
2. Administrative autonomy for local governments
3. Financial Independence for State Houses of Assembly and State Judiciary
4. Bill to compel persons to obey or comply with legislative summons
5. Devolution of Power: to move airports from Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List
6. Devolution of Power: to delete prisons in the Exclusive Legislative List and re-designate it as Correctional Services in the Concurrent Legislative List
7. Devolution of Power: to move Railway from the Exclusive Legislative List to Concurrent Legislative List.
8. Devolution of Power: to allow states to generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid.
It is instructive that in the thinking of this forum, the 2018 APC Committee on True Federalism chaired by Mallam Ahmed El-rufai, the Kaduna State Governor, captured to a very large extent, the yearnings of this forum. It was therefore expected that the ongoing constitutional amendment should reflect the recommendations of this historic committee. And the ‘governing party’ (APC), which also enjoys a comfortable majority in both arms of the National Assembly should have no problems being guided largely by the recommendations of this committee, in their constitution amendment efforts. However, that was not the case. Rather they tended to have dissipated energy legislating on mundane issues that did little or nothing in addressing the core issues that should give rise to the birthing of a New Nigeria.
To every discerning and knowledgeable citizen, the reason for this prevarication on the part of the federal legislators is not far-fetched. The constitution, which has been variously, criticized as not truly a product of ‘we the people of Nigeria’ as was reflected in the preamble, is grossly skewed to the advantage of a section of the country who are holding so tenaciously to the levers of power that they are not a hurry to relinquish their hold. They constitute the bulk of the ‘midwives’ that are meant to superintend over the birthing of the much expected new Nigeria. And as long as they are in charge, ‘miscarriage’ or even ‘still birth’ of this much expected new Nigeria is imminent.
This is where the recently signed Electoral Act 2022 becomes a game changer. Some of the provisions of this new electoral law, if properly implemented by the electoral umpires – the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC), shall return power back to the electorates. Some of the provisions of the new electoral laws include:
a. Section 47 of the Act legalises the use of a smart card reader and other technological devices that are deployed by the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC).
b. Section 50 of the Act allows INEC to determine the procedure for voting at an election as well as the transmission of results; either electronically or manually.
c. Section 51(2) of the Act empowers the Presiding Officer at a polling unit to cancel the results of the election in the polling unit where the number of vote casts surpasses the number of accredited voters in the polling units.
d. Section 64(9) of the Act criminalises any act of false collation and announcement of results by a returning or collation officer. If a returning or collation officer intentionally collates and announces a false result, such a person commits an offence which is liable on conviction to a fine of N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of at least 3 years or both.
e. In instances where INEC determines that such act (declaration of result) was not done voluntarily (i.e. under duress) or made contrary to the provisions of the law, regulations, guidelines, and manuals for the election, Section 65 gives INEC the power to review such results.
The much expected birthing of a new Nigeria may not happen with the forthcoming general elections in 2023, but the stage will most likely be set if INEC is diligent and conscientious in the implementation of the new electoral laws in conducting this very historic elections in 2023. Some of the things that may happen which shall constitute the building blocks for a new Nigeria may include:
a. Section 47 of the Act shall ensure that only the electronic card readers or the BVAS are used for the accreditation of voters. That way, incidences of manual accreditation of voters which gives room for the inflation of the number of accredited voters shall be checked and curtailed.
b. Section 50 of the Act shall empower INEC to transmit the votes cast electronically to the collation centres, thereby eliminating the possibility of changing the figures while writing manually the number of votes cast. The incidences of ghost or multiple voting shall also be reduced to the barest minimum.
c. Section 51(2) of the Act empowers the Presiding Officer at a polling unit to cancel the results of the election in the polling unit where the number of vote casts surpasses the number of accredited voters in the polling units.
d. With all of these in place there is a strong chance that the election results as shall be computed and announced by the electoral officers shall to a great extent reflect the wishes of the electorates.
e. It shall also assist to give a fairer and more transparent picture of the voting strength of the various regions of the country, and expose the lies that some sections of the country have heavier voting strength than the others.
f. The elections shall become more credible, more transparent and will restore the faith of the electorates in the use of the ballot boxes to punish those who will occupy elective office but not for the good of the electorates. This way only the right caliber of leaders will be allowed to stay in office and serve the people. That way also the huge resources both human and material that our nation is endowed with, shall now be adequately harnessed for the greatest good of the greatest number. That way Nigeria shall be rebuilt; she shall rise again and be counted among the greatest nations of the world. And that is exactly how a new Nigeria shall be born. So help us God!
*Peters is Abuja based Media Practitioner and the Executive Secretary of CoEViN (Concern for Ethics & Values in Nigeria). Feedbacks can be sent to: pnpeters22@gmail.com or SMS only to 0905 435 5959
