By Okanlawon Ayoola
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There is nothing out of the ordinary per se with the proposal for alteration of the electoral law or any other law of the land, if necessary. Even if the 2018 amendments to the Electoral Act stand, nothing says a fresh amendment scheme cannot commence a year after. It is exactly for such purpose that the legislature exists. Sooner or later, the 2018 amendment of the Electoral Act will pass the full hurdle and become law. That is the hope. For now, that proposed body of amendments to the Electoral Act as passed by the National Assembly remains in limbo, caught up in the web of executive-legislature supremacy tango.

A revisit of the electoral laws by the National Assembly immediately after the 2019 elections may not be out of place if there is true and selfless commitment by lawmaker’s by instituting a stable political system for the country. Unfortunately, the period immediately after general elections is not known for having legislators in the proper mood for serious business. With some licking their wounds and others still floating on the air, it is not always easy to get lawmakers to focus on such serious selfless engagement as the amendment of critical portions of the electoral law.

Alas three years fly by so fast and the uncertain prospects of primaries and elections have a way of suddenly looming before folks. Before the 2019 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) does not have the luxury of waiting for whatever becomes of the proposed new electoral law. It has therefore moved on with preparations for the polls ahead, standing on existing protocols, to use that phrase ‘Nigerians love’. Interestingly, even before the 2018 proposed amendments to the Electoral Act materialise as law, certain situations have developed in the political system which make further review and amendment of the yet to be signed amended electoral law a legislative imperative. The situation equally amplifies the call INEC usually makes for reviews and amendment of the electoral law to be carried out long before election fever sets in. Why this hardly happens is a matter for another day.

It is doubtful at the moment if that common ground of fairness and justice to majority of party faithful obtains.  From all indications, that provision does not seem enough now. Watching the leadership of the major political parties locked in battle with behemoths within their fold who insist on having it their way or nothing, it is obvious that the law needs to go further and be definite on a better accommodating way to go on this matter. The provisions of our laws cannot pretend to be oblivious of who we are and where we are. Party leaders are substantially helpless at the moment when confronted by the behemoths within their fold. Of course, the ways of these party behemoths and those of the majority others can never converge. As it were, the relationship between the two sides can only be that of Jonah and the fish. One party is destined to be in the belly of the other, willy-nilly.

The significant role that free, fair and credible elections play as the firm foundation on which to build a solid and stable democracy anywhere in the world remains sacrosanct. Any form of political antics, gimmicks and acts antithetical to achieving that is anti-people and must not be allowed to hold sway. In spite of several misgivings against our brand of democracy here in Nigeria, with the rich and powerful hijacking the political space, its benefits skewed in favour of the political class, policies and programmes not emanating from the collective wishes of the vast majority of the largely illiterate electorate, it still remains the hope of the people, Nigerians inclusive.

What will happen to the gains made with the card reader  in 2015, the vulnerability of incidence form and the transfer of election results electronically? Should the issue of having the presidential election first, with its bandwagon effect, override the national interest? It will be recalled that the federal lawmakers amended the Electoral Act months ago, reversing the order of the general elections as released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The amendments proposed by the National Assembly sought to make some changes in the Electoral Act, including changing the sequence of the 2019 elections. The lawmakers want their election to come up first, followed by that of state lawmakers and governors, and lastly the presidential election. I am wondering why there should be controversy over the issue because the president is well aware that the duty of the National Assembly is to make laws and amend laws they made if the need arises. He is also aware that his refusal to assent to any bill does not render such bill invalid once the National is able to muster the required members to pass it into law.

Merit should take precedence over a political interest foisting itself on the people using the instruments of incumbency rather than the capacity to perform to the expectations of the people. Nonetheless, one sees these developments as a clear test of powers between the executive and the legislature but they could be resolved without animosity, at least in the national interest. The truth is that by the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, the National Assembly has the power to override the president’s veto by mustering two-thirds majority in both chambers of the National Assembly. But can that happen in the current circumstances, with the lawmakers in recess and the polity heated up by the vaulting ambitions of several of members on both sides of the political divide towards 2019 general elections?

With the country’s unemployment ratio worsening from 14.8 per cent in 2017 to 18.8 per cent in 2018, the number of school-aged children still out of school increasing from 10 million to 12 million, the debt profile escalating to N22.7 trillion in over three years and Nigeria overtaking India as home to the world’s poorest people more has to be done than said on righting the wrongs of the past. The onus therefore, now rests squarely on Nigerians, especially the enlightened electorate to decide where the pendulum of their political loyalty would swing to, come 2019. This is portends danger for democracy.