A Senior Lecturer at the University of Nigeria (Enugu Campus), Prof. Joy Ezeilo, has described inconclusive election as “threat to Nigeria’s nascent democracy.”
Ezeilo made the observation on Tuesday in Abuja in a paper titled “Paralysis of Inconclusive Elections: Legal and Political Subterfuge’’ she delivered at a round table on the trend of inconclusive elections in Nigeria.
The round table, with the theme `Trends of Inconclusive Elections and the Challenges of Strengthening the Electoral Process’’ was organised by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in collaboration with the Electoral institute of INEC.
Ezeilo warned that if not addressed, inconclusive polls might erode the relative confidence the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had built, especially during the tenure of Prof. Attahiru Jega.
She added that inconclusive elections had also become a political ploy to take away the power of vote of electorate and handover it to the courts by those who have access to resources and connection to influence the justice system.
According to Ezeilo, some of the causes of inconclusive elections include political gangsterism, margin of lead in an election, violence and security threat.
“INEC, political parties, aspirants, candidates and other stakeholders, especially the judiciary may knowingly and unknowingly be contributing and exacerbating the problem of inconclusive polls.
“Inconclusive elections undoubtedly are chiefly fueled by the desperado attitude of Nigerian politicians who ferment electoral violence and fraud,’’ she said.
Ezeilo stated that it was time to reform the nation’s our electoral laws and set clear standards to the courts as to the nature or kinds of acts of non-compliance that should warrant nullification of election results.
“It is time for comprehensive review of Nigeria’s Electoral Act to bring it up to date and make it responsive to emerging issues and jurisprudence.
“It is time indeed to deal with politicians do or die attitude to elections that engender electoral violence and fraud,’’ she said.
In his remarks, another speaker at the round table, Prof. William Fawole, called for comprehensive attitudinal overhaul of the way Nigerians view politics, elections and the other ancillary processes.
Fawole is a lecturer in the Department of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
In his paper entitled, “Politics as War, Elections as Combat: Interrogating the Fundamentals of inconclusive Elections in Nigeria” the don said that such attitudinal overhaul was urgently needed.
He said that political parties and politicians were the main culprits that perpetrate most of the known electoral malfeasances, and thus must be put under some restraint.
“This is necessary to checkmate their predilection to foment crises through their pre-election public utterances and campaign slogans that often create tensions and insecurity,” Fawole said.
Prof. Habu Mohammed, of the Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano, described inconclusive election as one of the many cases of the weak institutional base of political parties in Nigeria.
He said that too many inconclusive elections were undermining the institutional capacity of the electoral management body, adding that was sending bad signal to stakeholders locally and internationally.
Hajia Amina Zakari, INEC National Commissioner, who chaired the occasion, said that the increasing rate of inconclusive elections in the country was as a result of strengthened electoral process.
She said although this could be viewed positively that Nigeria’s democracy was growing, on the negative side, politicians and their followers were changing tactics.
She said that inconclusive elections were not desirable by any election management body, as it posed danger to the survival of democracy.
She added that INEC was already putting in place measures to address the trend.
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