2019 elections: No funding, no electoral reform

It’s 163 days to February 16 commencement date for the two legged 2019 general election. With barely five months to the sixth general election in this Fourth Republic, the funding for the election is yet to be approved by the National Assembly while the long awaited presidential assent to the proposed Electoral Amendment Bill 2018 has for the second time this year been withheld by President Muhammadu Buhari over what he called clerical and drafting errors.

I am very unhappy with the aforementioned development as they threatened the success and credibility of the planned 2019 elections. As things stand now, it is becoming very likely that next year elections may be postponed. Even then, all elections have to be concluded at least 30 days to the expiration of the term of the current holders of office according to 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, as amended in 2018.

How did we get to this sorry pass? How come the election budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission was not included in the 2018 national budget? Why did the president choose to fund next year’s election through virement from the approved constituency project fund of the National Assembly members? Why did the president delay the request for legislative approval for INEC funding till July 17 when he should have known or ought to have been informed that National Assembly usually goes on its annual recess from July to September every year?  Could it be that the president, in spite of assurances and reassurances to foreign heads of state and Nigerians in Diaspora, to ensure a credible 2019 elections was just being cynical or paying lip service? In an unprecedented manner, the president has within a year twice withheld assent on the Electoral Reform Bill 2018. Is the president trying to frustrate 2019 elections from holding as scheduled?

It would be recalled that after two weeks consideration of the INEC 2019 election budget last week, at its final meeting on Thursday, August 30, 2018 Senator Suleiman Nazif disclosed that the committee has reduced the N143bn approved for the commission by N200,272,500m. The lawmakers also recommended that the funds be sourced from the other service-wide votes under the Special Intervention Programme, to avoid inflating the 2018 budget. This is the recommendation that have been forwarded to the National Assembly leadership and the Committee on Appropriation for consideration and final approval. All these are happening barely five months to the general election.

On the legal framework, the bill was initially passed by the National Assembly and sent to President Muhammadu Buhari in February 2018. The President on March 3, 2018 vetoed the bill citing three grounds: The first being that the amendment to the sequence of the elections in Section 25 of the Principal Act may infringe on the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of INEC to organise, undertake and supervise all elections in Section 15 (a) of the Third Schedule of the Constitution; second, that the amendment to Section 138 of the Principal Act to delete two crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates unduly limits the rights of candidates in elections to a free and fair electoral review process; third, that the amendment to section 152 (3)- (5) of the Principal Act may raise constitutional issues over the competence of the National Assembly to legislate over Local Government elections.

After initially threatening to override the president’s veto, the National Assembly passed the bill for the second time in July and sent it to the president for assent on August 3, 2018. Quite unfortunately, this time around, according to Senator Ita Enang who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), President Muhammadu Buhari has again  declined assent to Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2018 due to “some drafting issues” that remain unaddressed following the prior revisions to the Bill. Enang listed the outstanding issues resolved to include a cross-referencing error in the proposed amendment to Section 18 of the Bill. Is this bill jinxed!

My heart sank when I heard this latest development on the news on Monday night. This should never happen. Why should there be inelegant drafting of this all important bill? Is this an error of omission or commission? Is this part of the plot to allow the old order to remain? Can we have   better elections in 2019 without this electoral reform? Before you answer that, let me highlight some of the key provisions of this proposed amendment for your information as I have done at several workshops and media platforms between July and now.

There were 41 amendments in all. Highpoints of the revised version are as follows: Section 8 attempts to make INEC staff non-partisan; In s. 36(3)(a) and s. 112 (4)(b) political parties now have a right to conduct fresh primaries within 14 days  to replace any of their candidates who dies midway into election as was the case during the last governorship election in Kogi State. Presentation of false affidavit by candidate or political party to lead to disqualification by the court (Section 31 sub. 6). Permanent Voters Card got a mention in Section 18 (Replacement of PVC); Smart Card Reader too was legalised by the amendment to s. 49.

Ban on electronic voting lifted (S. 52); National Electronic Register of Election Results  to be created by Section 65 (a); Section 87 of the amendment put ceiling on the amount to be charged as Nomination Fees by political parties. Councillor - N150,000; Chairman Area Council – N250,000; House of Assembly – N500,000; House of Reps. – N1m; Senate – N2m; Governor – N5m and  President N10m. If this bill has been signed, All Progressives Congress will not have been toying with the idea of charging N55m, for presidential nomination forms and N22m for governorship Expression of Interest and nomination forms. 

S. 78 (4) of the bill gives INEC 60 days instead of 30 days  to respond to applications of political associations seeking to register as political parties.  INEC Monitors now to endorse or certify results of party primaries (S. 87). The bill also orders the sequence of party primaries with that of the NASS coming first (S. 87 sub 13). Section 91 sub. 2 – 7 has increased expenditure ceiling for candidates. President – N5bn from N1bn; Gov. N1bn from N200m; Senate – N100m from N40m; House of Reps. N70m from N20m; SHA – N30m from N10m; Chairman Area Council – N30m from N10m and Councillorship N5m from N1m.

S. 91 (9) increased individual donations from N1m to N10m while fine is now 1% of the ceiling or 12 months imprisonment (subsection 10). S. 99 increased the campaign period from 90 days to 150 days. Penalties for noncompliance with section 100 sub. 3 and 4 which has to do with media coverage has been increased from N500,000 to N2m and N1m to N5m for subsequent contraventions. There are also stricter penalties for omission of party logos and name (s. 140) N2m fine or 2yrs imprisonment   Stricter penalty for noncompliance with court order to produce, inspect or take copies of election materials  by the commission now attracts two years imprisonment (s. 151). In this bill, candidates have opportunity  to vet the sample ballot up to 20 days to election date as prescribed in s. 44 (3). If this law had been signed by President Buhari, will it have enriched and enhanced betterment of our future elections?  You bet!

Is all hope lost about any further electoral reform before 2019? No! The situation can still be salvaged even though time is running out fast.  The National Assembly can override the president’s veto but this is unlikely and is not recommended. I won’t support that if indeed there are clerical and drafting errors which need to be dealt with. According to Senator Ita Enang, “neither the Constitution nor any written law allows a President or a Governor to whom a bill is forwarded by the legislature to edit, correct, amend or in any manner alter the provisions of any such bill to reflect appropriate intent before assenting to same.” It is the National Assembly’s work and my appeal to distinguished Senators and Honourable members of the Assembly is to cut short their annual recess to clean up this Electoral Amendment Bill 2018 as well as finalised the approval of the INEC election budget.