He was not exactly famous for quotable quotes during his five years as President of the Federal Republic, except perhaps for “ordinary stealing, you call it corruption.” Last week however, former President Goodluck Jonathan enriched Nigeria’s national vocabulary with what he said is a quote from India. Indian sages say that it is easier to wake up a person who is sleeping than it is to wake up a person who is pretending to be sleeping.
It was Fela who said trouble dey sleep, yanga dey wakeam. Last week, the House of Representatives defied both Fela and Indian sages by trying to wake up many troubles that were pretending to be asleep. In two days, under the dubious routine of “constitutional amendment,” the House passed for second reading a whopping 81 bills seeking to amend the 1999 Constitution.
The most instantly controversial case of waking up trouble was the bill that sought to remove the immunity conferred on the Vice President, governors and their deputies. The bill’s sponsors said it is in order to curb corruption, eradicate impunity and enhance accountability in public office. Ok, but why did the bill omit the President, the most potent force on the political horizon who is in the best position to perpetrate corruption, impunity and who could potentially exhibit the highest lack of accountability? Pray, what corruption and impunity can deputy governors do with the little constitutional power in their kitty?
It has even been difficult to determine the territorial expanse of immunity. In 2006, when security agencies were trying to help Plateau State House of Assembly to impeach Governor Joshua Dariye, they stormed a guest house in Jos belonging to the governor, but his aides argued that a governor’s guest house is immune from search. Similarly, in 2013, when nPDP Governors were holding a meeting at the Kano State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, hosted by then Governor Rabi’u Kwankwaso, the police DPO of Asokoro barged in and said he had orders from above to stop the meeting. The governors protested that both the Lodge and themselves were immune from arrest and prosecution.
From day one, immunity for executive chiefs was an unpopular prospect in Nigeria because it was feared that top officials will use it to perpetrate all kinds of corrupt acts and cannot be brought to book during their tenure in office. On the other hand, the main justification for it was that top officers should not be distracted from their duties by political opponents filing frivolous court cases. Anti-corruption agencies try to get around the problem of governors’ immunity by seeking to bring to book people around them, lower officials, kinsmen or businessmen [more recently, businesswomen] that are believed to have abetted the crimes.
State governors promptly criticized this bill and within 24 hours the House of Representatives reversed itself. Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, who presided over Thursday’s session, said the volte face was to enable MPs to conduct a more robust debate. In reality, that bill had zero chance of becoming law. Why because, every state governor in Nigeria, except Simi Fubara of Rivers, is in full control of his State Assembly. Even when a constitutional amendment bill garners two-thirds majority support in both chambers of the National Assembly, it must still be passed by simple majority votes of at least 24 state assemblies. This will never happen when it offends governors. In years past, state assemblies rejected bills to amend the constitution and grant themselves financial autonomy because governors opposed it. How about this one, which is a direct shot at governors?
Hot on the heels of that failed trouble awakening attempt, the House of Representatives on Wednesday tried to arouse another trouble that has been pretending to sleep. It passed for second reading a bill seeking to stop anyone above 60 years of age from vying for election for President, Vice President, Governor or Deputy Governor. In one fell swoop, if this bill makes it into the Constitution, it will sweep away all the major contenders to the Nigerian presidency in the foreseeable future, notably incumbent President Bola Tinubu, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former [and possibly future] Labour Party presidential candidate Mr. Peter Obi, former [and possibly future] NNPP presidential candidate Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, as well as many current state governors and future aspirants.
Sponsored by Imo lawmaker Ikenga Ugochinyere, this bill is a stunning case of youth fighting back. Back in 2018, after a frenetic campaign by the Not Too Young To Run movement, the Constitution was amended to reduce to 35 the age at which one could vie for the presidency and to 30 for governorship. This time, we will have a Not Too Old To Run Campaign! The main argument for holding youngsters back from top leadership positions is that they haven’t finished their schooling and NYSC, are inexperienced, lack maturity, are often overzealous, tend to overdo things, and they make up in zeal what they lack in wisdom.
Here comes the counter argument. Trying to keep people over 60 away from leadership positions is because they lack energy and dynamism, are beset by health challenges, underwent outdated education with chalk and blackboards instead of computers, they most often lack IT skills, are absent from social media, are married to the past, they nurse too many grudges from past quarrels, are often steeped in regional and sectional politics, are often weighed down by the size of their families, and they do not know the problems of the youths, who are the overwhelming majority in the population. Between a 35-year old President and an 85-year old one, which one will you pick?
Not done with waking up trouble that is only pretending to be asleep, House of Representatives on Thursday passed for second reading a bill seeking to return Nigeria to a parliamentary system of government. This bill, which seeks to create a Prime Minister as Head of Government and a President as Head of State, seeks to throw overboard all the constitutional gains of the last 45 years and take Nigeria straight back to January 1966, constitutionally speaking.
It was General Murtala Mohammed, while inaugurating the Constitution Drafting Committee [CDC] headed by Chief F.R.A. Williams in 1975, who put forward a suggestion by the Supreme Military Council that we could try the American-style presidential system since our experiment with the British-style parliamentary system in the First Republic came to grief. CDC and later, the Constituent Assembly apparently took Murtala’s suggestion as an order and enshrined it wholesale into the Constitution. Since 1979, the main criticisms against presidential system are that it is very expensive and that it is winner takes all. More recently, added criticisms are that its enshrined check-and-balance system has collapsed, democratic rule is absent at the local government level, state assemblies and National Assembly have become lapdogs of the Executive, with the Judiciary increasingly trending in the same direction, and with “Fourth Estate of the Realm” pretending to sleep.
How will parliamentary system improve things? Maybe the MPs will serve part-time, ministers will be appointed from among MPs and Presiding Officers wouldn’t be this overwhelming [and may not be accused of sexual harassment]. Otherwise, if budget padding, constituency projects, N150 million official jeep per MP and shakedown of agency heads in the name of “oversight” are carried into parliamentary system, there won’t be noticeable change. Soon afterwards we may proceed to try the Swiss system of Federal Council, Iranian theocratic system, Burmese system of Senior General, Chinese one-party system, until we will finally arrive at the Saudi monarchical system.
While the House was busy last week trying to awaken many troubles that pretend to be sleeping, the Senate, not to be outdone, attempted one of its own by seeking to amend the Electoral Act to empower Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] to hold all elections on the same day. The bill’s sponsor, Saliu Mustapha of Kwara, said staggered elections are expensive, inefficient and contribute to voter fatigue and that the bill aims to curb rising election costs and shorten campaign periods. He said “the unsustainable cost of elections has ballooned from ₦1.5 billion in 1999 to ₦350 billion in 2023.”
This trouble has been pretending to sleep historically, politically, logistically and financially. Logistically because, it is not certain that INEC can hold all the elections on the same day. While it may reduce the cost of having to pay election officials, security agents and party agents, it could easily lead to logistical chaos, given the volume of materials that will be needed.
Historically because, to usher in the Second Republic in 1979, we held elections on five different dates, in that order for Senate, House of Representatives, state assemblies, governors and then President. To usher in the Fourth Republic in 1999 we held three elections, in that order for Governors and state assemblies, for President and then National Assembly. Since 2011 we have been having two elections, for President/National Assembly and then for Governors/state assemblies.
Politically because, incumbent presidents want their election to come first. In my opinion, it is the order of elections that needs to change. Why not settle issues in our states first, before moving on to national issues? In 1979 the presidential election was held last, but in 1983, NPN prevailed on FEDECO to make it first. The worry for an incumbent president is that if the party’s governors secure their own election, they may not worry so much about the presidential election, or at least, the president will be beholden to them.
Collapsing the elections into one day may not really address the central reason for costly elections in Nigeria. Just before the 2003 elections when we interviewed then INEC chairman Dr. Abel Guobadia, he said, memorably, that 90% of the cost of Nigerian elections is because “we are paying for our indiscipline as a society.” Having to mint instead of print ballot papers, for that matter abroad, flying them in by Airforce planes under heavy guard, storing them in Central Bank vaults, Resident Electoral Commissioners coming to Abuja with two truckloads of Mobile Policemen each to collect election materials, not distributing so-called “sensitive election materials” until the last minute in order to avoid their hijack by politicians, posting policemen to each polling station and deploying military strike squads in each LGA are all unnecessary in most countries. Senate, don’t bother to try to wake up this trouble that pretends to be sleeping.
