Carrington who is married to a Nigerian lady, has not relented in his war against the Nigerian state even now that the country has embraced democracy. Politically inept, but emboldened by the arrogance of an archetypical imperialist agent, the former American envoy recently descended heavily on INEC and its leadership while sermonizing on a number of weighty issues the nature of which he least understood. His attitude largely confirmed what the late Bob Marley once said philosophically about the psychology of the imperialists. According to this reggae legend, the imperialists believe that the third world does not have the capacity for anything. “What we know is what they teach us” hence the crude political strategy which Carrington tried to force down our throats when he presented a paper recently at Akure, Ondo State, to mark the first anniversary of Governor Olusegun Mimiko in office.
Entitled “Electoral Reform, Good Governance and Democracy”, the paper focused on the conduct of the 2007 general elections, re-organization of INEC to make it less powerful, and also the expressed fear that the 2011 general elections might plunge Nigeria into chaos judging from its antecedents.
Carrington was corroborated all the way by no less a person than Chief Ken Nnamani who is well known for his anti-INEC stance. It is not the intention of this writer to take issues with these critics but to expose the vacuity of their recipes, as well as spotlight their arrogance, nay profound want of understanding of the issues that attended the 2007 General Elections which Carrington has characterized as the worst ever in our annals.
As had been explained at various fora by well-meaning Nigerians, the 2007 general elections constituted a watershed in our political history. The elections were organized to save the Nigerian nation notwithstanding the tempestuous environment in which they took place. Were the elections to be suspended as canvassed by highly placed but mischievous persons, the fate of our young democracy would have been perilous and the consequences unimaginably disastrous. This explained why the daunting logistics nightmares which the last minute Supreme Court judgment occasioned could not deter INEC from conducting the elections and credit must be given to the electoral body for its decisiveness and boldness.
What’s more, these historic elections made possible a feat never before achieved in the history of our experimentation with electoral democracy. It brought about the first transition from a government which had served two terms to another. And if these elections which brought about this feat are adjudged a disaster, what would Carrington say about the 1964 elections which presaged the Nigerian civil war?
Nigeria’s democracy is fully on course and INEC, very conscious of its responsibilities, is poised to further deepen and consolidate our democratic culture in spite of the apocalyptic projections of Carrington and his Nigerian collaborators.
Apart from the reforms canvassed by the Justice Mohammed Uwais-led Electoral Reform Committee (ERC), the Commission, I have it on good authority, has embarked on a number of reforms on its own to under-gird the process. In concert with international best practices, it has automated it operations. It has put together a database of voters by capturing their biometrics and photographs. To perfect this database, the Commission, according to its leadership, is set to review the process beginning from April this year. Before now, Nigerian Election Management Bodies had used manual registers which were susceptible to inflation and manipulation.
The Commission is no longer engaging ad hoc staff to conduct elections. It discovered that these ad hoc staff paid no allegiance to it and could easily be bought by desperate politicians. This time, it is using members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), young idealistic Nigerians whose discharge depends on good conduct and INEC staff whose careers are at stake should they indulge in any untoward conduct during elections. Thus far, the Commission has used Corps members and its staff only to conduct the governorship re-runs in Kogi, Adamawa, Sokoto, Cross River states and the recent Anambra governorship election. Even its most vociferous critics would agree that there has been a marked improvement.
The Commission has also made the election process more transparent than hitherto. From the distribution of ballot papers to the collation and declaration of results, everything is now done in the full glare of party agents, security agents, the media, observers and civil society organisations. This openness has brought acceptance and credibility to the process such that for the first time in our annals, defeated candidates are graciously conceding defeat and congratulating winners.
To further strengthen the process, the Commission has embraced the adaptive management style to conduct its affairs. It has learnt from its mistakes and has resolved to strain itself to improve based on these lapses. Following the recent Anambra state Governorship Election, for instance, INEC realized it still had challenges with the Voters’ Register hence, its resolve to review the Register comprehensively across the country.
I congratulate Mimiko on his one year anniversary as the governor of Ondo State but wonder how he felt in the face of the unguarded remarks and predictions made about his country by his guest speaker who is obviously unmindful of the revolutionary changes which have taken place in our electoral system since his disengagement as United States Ambassador to Nigeria.
In other countries, people would have sought to know both the connotative and denotative interpretation of Walter Carrington’s predictions. Rather, he was hailed and eulogized as a Messiah. It is only time that would unveil the hypocrisy in Walter Carrington’ unnecessary sermon.
Bimbo Adekunle, Oke Ado, Ibadan, Oyo State.
