A CONVERSATION WITH PROF. ATTAHIRU JEGA, PART 5
Professor Attahiru Jega and Kadaria Ahmed on Nigerian Politics
This is the concluding report on the interview with Professor Attahiru Jega on December 12, 2021. The extensive interview, which has received millions of views across different platforms, exposes Nigeria in all of its ugliness while also offering a path out of the present predicament. This report covers the segment between Professor Jega and Kadaria Ahmed. For the transcripts, see:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlwZfh5Ynh8
Facebook: https://fb.watch/9S6PBuNg0l/.
In keeping with the tradition of the Toyin Falola Interviews, Sunday, December 12, 2021, was another opportunity for stakeholders in the Africa development project to come together—in a virtual conference—to discuss the challenges impeding positive development on the continent as a prerequisite to finding lasting solutions that will set Africa on the right course to peace and socio-economic prosperity. This edition of the interviews featured the former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, as the guest of honour, accompanied by a panel that had among its rank of reputable scholars and opinion builders, Ms Kadaria Ahmed, a leading media personality. The discussion of the day was centred on the content of Nigerian politics and its impact on the social and economic wellbeing of the country.
In her exchange with the former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Nigerian/British journalist and media entrepreneur focused her enquiries on politics, with emphasis on INEC, given Professor Jega's brief history with the commission, as well as his recent decision to join a political party and seek political office. After that, she expanded, with a pan-African approach, on the examination of the "existential crises that are facing us," suggesting that these issues manifesting in Nigeria are actually global in scope and that, as Africans, we stand to benefit more from a collective approach to finding solutions to them.
An atmosphere of free, fair, and credible elections is central to the success of the political organisation and governance processes of any democracy. As the constitutional medium of choosing political representation, it not only offers an opportunity for the masses to contribute to nation-building by holding uninspiring political representatives accountable, but it also provides an avenue for them to be replaced with those who can deliver that elusive and dearly sought-after political leadership touted as the bane of Nigeria's progressive national development. Every four years, Nigerians get the opportunity to choose, via ballot, the next crop of political representatives that will pilot the affairs of the nation until the next election circle. And the fact that such a time is just by the corner (in 2023) has occasioned perceptible political stirrings, with questions about the performance of the current administration, as well as those about the capacity of the electoral umpire to deliver free and credible elections.
Concerns about electoral integrity have also resulted in the much-debated Electoral Act Amendment Bill, which (depending on who you ask) is predicted to have both positive or negative ramifications for the country's political process and, in effect, its fledgling democracy. For the masses and their intending political representatives, elections have come to mean more than the simple act of performing one's civic duty. In the face of collapsing institutions, grossly inadequate infrastructure, economic hardship, deepening poverty, endemic insecurity and, the enormous wealth-amassing potential attached to political office, this civic exercise has come to assume greater import. Hence, its position is a critical subject during any discourse on politics, nation-building, and national development.
Photo: Professor Attahiru Jega
Reacting to Ms Kadaria's first query on whether he shares the view that the two leading political parties—the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP)—are irredeemable, the People's Redemption Party (PRP) presidential hopeful, Professor Jega, was of the opinion that they almost are. He elucidated that these political parties are products of marriages of convenience, driven by the actualization of self-serving interests. And to further buttress this position, he pointed out that the ruling APC was, after all, a creation of active players within the PDP.
According to Jega, it is the practice for politicians in these parties to perceive their participation in elections as an investment, going so far as selling properties and procuring bank loans that will be recouped from state coffers when they assume office. He further added that the political framework of these parties was largely responsible for the deepening crisis in Nigeria in the last twenty years. Although he conceded that not everyone in these parties is bad, he identified the dominant role of godfatherism and bankrollers as factors that hijack the process. He further argued that the best prospect for positive transformation of politics in Nigeria is developing an independent alternative political platform to these two dominant parties. In his view, "that is what we should pay attention to" – an alliance of people who want to bring positive transformational development based on electoral integrity and integrity in governance or, at least, provide a competitive alternative to the dominant parties.
In response to Ms Kadaria's next query on whether Nigerians should give up hope of finding a better alternative to the two dominant parties, especially given the limited time there is to put together a third force—owing to the nearness of the next elections—the former Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, stated that he believes there is still time. According to him, an idea should not be abandoned because it is difficult. A lot can still be accomplished if the people band together. To bring about the desired transformation, a broad alliance of progressive forces is required. We cannot afford a "sit-down look" approach or give in to the bad tendencies represented by the two dominant parties.
Coming around to the issue of his membership in a party that plans to present itself as an alternative to the discredited dominant duo of APC and PDP, Ms Kadaria asked the former INEC chairman how his party, the PRP, plans to address the multiple evils of Boko Haram in the North East, terrorist kidnappers in the North West, and the approximately 13 million out-of-school children, all of which epitomise a broken northern Nigeria society. Professor Jega proceeded by first extolling the many virtues of his party, explaining that the PRP aims to ensure that all the people it brings into governance at all levels are selfless, have integrity, and are competent to perform in the offices into which they have been elected. He also pointed out that, unlike the two dominant parties, the PRP is not home to godfatherism, neither are there singular or groups of dominant sponsors who can select people into office.
Professor Jega emphasised that getting the right kind of people into the right kind of positions is one way to address several of the challenges articulated. According to him, "We have many of such people who are competent and who are not parochial. But such people are put-off by the idea of corruption and godfatherism, so they sit on the fence and hope for some divine intervention. Better organization is key to increasing the number of worthy characters into the political arena, which, in turn, increases the chances of improvement in governance; in terms of integrity in governance and addressing the fundamental needs and aspirations of the people. Organising a party on the right kind of principles, and also on the basis of inclusiveness and broad participation, with a focus on recruiting people who are appropriate for the kind of positions they are fielded for during elections, is the way to go." He went further to add that he does not see either the APC or the PDP developing such a system; they never had and never will. A look into the internal dynamics of these parties, he said, would reveal an entrenchment of the old order, which is a few people, particularly governors with their own clients and patrons, working together to control the party, subvert the democratic process, and install the kind of people who can either protect their interest when they leave office or who would be so subservient that they can effect very little change in the lives of the people.
Interjecting to take up the issue of internal party democracy, Ms Kadaria drew Professor Jega's attention to the fact that, what the two dominant parties lacked in the area of internal democracy, they make up for with their deep pockets. Also, in respect to INEC's known inability to control party spending, she queried whether the commission is able to play any role in improving internal party democracy and if the pending electoral law was valuable enough to improve on previous experiences.
Photo: Ms Kadaria Ahmed
The professor of political science, in his response, explained that INEC's limitations are dependent on the legal framework under which it operates. He explains that the experience is that the dominant parties, particularly the one in power, are trying to introduce provisions in the legislature that would make it impossible for the commission to moderate the role of money in politics. He also pointed out that while much focus has been placed on issues of electronic transmission of election results and those of direct primaries, we have neglected to see that the threshold of how much a candidate can spend to become president, governor, or senator has been raised significantly. This, he said, is targeted at putting people without money or access to state resources at a disadvantage.
Regarding INEC's role in ensuring internal party democracy, Professor Jega expressed some reservations. He stated that internal party democracy is an affair of the party, dependent on the decisions of its leadership and membership. Therefore, it is not the place of an independent electoral management body to impose sanctions on matters of internal party democracy. He believes such matters are best handled through legislation if properly structured and devoid of abuse. However, he cautioned that "you cannot build democracy without democrats. Parties without democrats would always pose challenges, as they would always seek for ways to manipulate the process."
Notwithstanding his reservations on the proposed extension of the INEC's electoral jurisdictions, Professor Jega expressed optimism on the new electoral bill, especially its provision for the electronic transmission of election results. The INEC, he said, has consistently introduced the use of technology to upscale the integrity of elections and that electronic transmissions would eliminate some of the traditional ways politicians have used to perpetrate fraudulent activities during compilation. He admitted this is the right way to go, stating that if the said bill was passed, it would substantially improve the electoral legal framework than what is currently obtainable.
Responding to a question on the issue of gender representation in Nigerian politics, the dwindling role of women, and the place of affirmative action in creating more seats for women, Professor Jega professed strong support for such an action. He expressed his belief that the country's governance and electoral process need to be broadly inclusive to include women and young people. He also conceded that the idea of using a form of proportional representation or affirmative action would go a long way in achieving this objective.
On the matter of insecurity, Ms Kadaria raised the point that even in the face of the rampant insecurity around Africa—evidence that the continent is under attack—there appears, on the surface, to be no serious attempt at developing a continental response to the crisis. Professor Jega attributed these attacks to the rising wave of global terrorism. According to him, there are global issues of growing extremism, Islamic irredentism, and climatic influences affecting peace and stability and generating a lot of conflicts both globally and in Africa, an outcome that has begun to impact us in the Sahel. He went further to add that because it is a global crisis, global alliances are necessary to check it. However, each country must develop an in-house capacity and competence to defend its own territorial integrity as a nation-state.
In Nigeria, the state is losing its capacity to address the source of this problem. More so, it is incredible that the fight against Boko Haram has taken this long. And it is becoming clear that the government is not doing what is required to resolve this problem. The bottom line is that the security architecture is understaffed, underequipped, and not properly repositioned. For instance, the police tasked with internal security have been undermined and politicised. In the case of the military, it is also understaffed and underequipped to protect Nigeria's territorial integrity, and it is increasingly drawn into domestic security challenges.
For the former Vice-Chancellor, to effectively deal with these issues, Nigeria must be part of continental, sub-regional, and global alliances to deal with terrorism, Islamic irredentism, and the effects of climatic changes. Additionally, it needs to build internal domestic capacity to withstand these challenges. To achieve this, the country must ensure improvements in recruitment, training, equipment, and incentives to motivate personnel to discharge their duties. She must also develop an intelligence-gathering, analyses, and utilization framework because lack of coordination is one of the challenges undermining its efforts to combat the menace of insecurity. Also to be addressed are the misappropriation of funds for defence purposes and the strategy of constant use of force without diversifying the approach. To wrap it up, he tied all of these challenges to bad governance because if there is incompetence in leadership, narrowmindedness, and self-serving objectives infused, then addressing these systemic challenges becomes very difficult.
To the last point, which is the predicament of the northern region of the country, Ms Kadaria described the situation in the north as sometimes "self-inflicted," citing, for example, the reluctance to send children to school and the tendency of hiding under the general situation of insecurity around the country to mask the severity of the situation in the north. She also raised the issue of resource control, querying when, if at all, the north can be economically self-reliant.
In his response, the professor of political science identified the failure of the "northern elites," whom he said have misplaced their priorities. According to him, the elites are focused on capturing power at the national level but for self-serving objectives. They have abandoned governance at the local level to focus on the centre where national revenues are disbursed so that they can easily access and self-appropriate them. Consequently, the northern states have become a drag because of this humongous diversion of resources and lack of attention to putting good/effective structures in place that can address the needs of the people. On the issue of resource generation and distribution and the dependency of the north, Professor Jega faulted the nature of the country's federal structure and its dependence on a single source of revenue generation. This defective federal system that concentrates power at the centre, he alludes, not only encourages negative competition but also puts a strain on the unity of a diverse nation like Nigeria. Hence, he advocates a restructuring that deconcentrates power from the centre. This way, state and local governments get the attention they require, and governance in Nigeria is the better for it.
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