Ene Obi is a human rights activist and former Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria. In this interview, she speaks on the amendment of the Electoral Act and groundswell of public outcry by various interests, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports
Some people have complained about the speed with which President Bola Tinubu signed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law. What’s your reaction?
It’s been a long walk and like you already noted, this is one of the fastest bills ever signed into law. If you remember, from 2015 down to 2022, it took seven times for it to go to President Muhammadu Buhari of blessed memory now to sign the bill into law.
And even when he was signing it, there were so many contradictions. Some of those contradictions came in from the National Assembly, and I remember a friend called me from the National Assembly to tell me that you guys are on the street. This was 2021, 2022, we were on the street, but the president was not going to sign that law because we gave him what he wanted, but we put a clause there. So, he said he was not going to sign it, but we said, Mr. President, you promised Nigerians that you are going to sign this into law, sign it and take it back.
He signed it. They felt he was stubborn for signing it, and eventually when he took it back, they of course, they did not do the amendment that he took it back for. When we are talking about the stage of things now, when I look at the copy that I have gotten, I hope the gazette is so that it can be available to everybody. You see the Amendment Act is talking in the first place.
It talks about the conduct of federal, state, and area councils in the Federal Capital Territory. What was the speed? The speed, what was it about? Is it about the FCT elections? Election has been on the ground, and the elections have been announced using the law that was on ground at the time. So, are you going to ignore all of that because when you bring in a law, you have to also allow time to pass and let people be trained to know what the law really is. But in terms of the mention, they said area councils. I didn’t see local government there.
And I’m looking at it, I said, OK, they went down to go and mention, I think section 60 brought us back to the real issue that we’re talking about. And in section 60, of course, they did all the analysis. Section 60 (subsection 1) provides that the presiding officer shall after counting the votes at the polling unit, enter the votes scored by each of the candidates in a form prescribed by INEC.
They know what they’re talking about already, but you look at subsection 3, the presiding officer shall electronically transmit the result from each polling unit to the IREV portal, and such transmissions shall be done after the prescribed EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer. So, we are now going to be looking at INEC. You are now saying it has to be signed and stamped. We know that they have gone to elections before, and then you don’t have either the ink pad and so on. The preparation of INEC is very, very essential, despite the fact that they are reducing the time.
When you say people are looking up to INEC; how confident are you in the commission?
From what the Senate President said, every vote will be counted. In India, we have 980 million registered voters. About 640 million voted in the last election. That very day everything came out. And from the long history, Nigerians have advocated even electronic voting, which you can see live, in terms of the progression of the elections. Yes, you can accuse us and say: Why are we out, why are you talking? They are the true representatives, but what I can tell you is that certain things played out in this particular incident. In the House of Representatives, there was no problem.
Nigerians are the employers of these people, so they should be answerable to the people
It was massive support for the electronic transmission, and then we come to the Senate. But at least, you could see that when they now adopted the Senate version, whatever the Senate did, at least some sanity came up there that there are still some Nigerians that are standing upright for Nigeria. The love of country should be what should control our hearts. What is your love of country? What is the level of your patriotism?
I pledge to Nigeria, my country, to be faithful, loyal and honest. What have you really done? Can you go to bed with it after we have long progressed because going into 2023 general elections, when we went for off-cycle elections, because I was the convener of the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room at the time and so, we are moving from one point to the other? But at least some people stood up and said no. And then, another dimension that I see in it was when Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe got up and said people have to be counted. And Senator Bamidele Opeyemi came out to protect him for that.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, says you don’t speak for the Nigerian people. How did the civil society and the minority in the National Assembly arrive at the assumption that they are expressing the wishes of the Nigerian people?
It’s unfortunate that someone like Keyamo can say that. He was on this side before. The belief of some people is that because Bola Tinubu is in power, we cannot protest. Tinubu was on this side before and he used to be part of protests.
We fought for democracy. So, let’s examine our conscience because power is also very temporal. What happened with Electoral Act Amendment Bill shows that it the President that initiated the bill. All along, it was his bill, and he was watching it every minute, so he didn’t need to take it back to the Attorney General. He didn’t need to take it for any interpretation. It was his bill, and he has passed what he wanted.
Based on statements released by CSOs since the assent to that law, there have been conversations around a missed opportunity for truly transformative electoral reform in Nigeria. What are the next steps and how can we, despite the imperfections of this law as viewed by the CSOs, still be used for promoting credible, free, credible elections in Nigeria?
It’s very unfortunate that Minister Keyamo pointed out the issues about what the civil society is doing. We are overwhelmed. Civil society organizations are overwhelmed. We need citizens to rise and be counted. There are some positive things. Even in the 2023 general election, much as there were negative things because of the so-called glitches that happened, that did not happen to National Assembly transmission, you find out that some people won their elections because their votes counted.
At least, the download of the voter’s card, which is being talked about now will help many citizens to be able to print their voter’s card. The issue of disability inclusion also is another area that one is happy about and then the issue of the penalties in terms of falsification. But how many people have been sent to jail? The issue of sanctions, we need to come back to it.
But the issue of electronic transmission of results that we’re talking about, the networks that they are talking about, they’re just holding water in their mouth when they are talking, as if they are talking to illiterate Nigerians. There are so many Nigerians that are educated and you are talking to them as if they are children.
The former INEC chairman said we have no issue with electronic transmission. Nigerian people are the employers of these people and vacancies have been declared now, so people are going to contest for the presidency again and the other the levels. It is Nigerian money that they are using to pay them, so they need to be answerable to the people.
Nigeria is gradually drifting; weakening the system that we thought had been strengthened. As a ruling party, you have about 30 governors, why are you afraid of electronic transmission? As members of the civil society; we are not politicians, we want a transparent environment where we can choose our leaders freely. People are dying silently because of government inaction and impoverishment of Nigerians.
When someone says, are we representing Nigerians? Were you representing Nigerians before?
You were talking so much, and then you are now a minister and now you are looking down at us. When people saw Peter Obi at the barricade during the protest in front of the National Assembly, they say, why is he here? Why was Tinubu there against Jonathan before? Maybe, the opposition is so weak that they are not mobilizing but we are still mobilizing. We are going to air our views.
Some of the things they have done; they may be satisfied with them, but why are we running away from ourselves? Conscience is an open wound, so I want all of them, whatever they have done, they need to look at themselves.
