Professor of Political Science at the Lagos State University (LASU), Sylvester Akhaine, in this interview with MUYIWA ADEYEMI, spoke on high expectations on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the conducts of the forthcoming Edo and Ondo governorship elections, and ideals of democracy in the flawed Nigerian State, among sundry issues.The essence of any electoral process is consent. For consent to be achieved, there must be fairness. The recent primaries of APC were anything but free and fair. The exercises underscore a major deficit of the democratic process, that is the absence of internal democracy. The INEC process in retrospect appears to be more open than primaries that are conducted by parties.Yes, where the elite are disciplined and ready to respect the rules of the game. In Nigeria, there is no elite consensus, and the only game in town is politics. In a non-productive society, politics is the passport to the primitive accumulation of public resources, and in our instance, it is done with impunity.It will feature both acrimony and issues. Acrimonious issues are already on between the supporters of APC and PDP, as well Labour Party (LP). The same predictably will happen in Ondo. For the electorate, it will be a choiceless process.We scholars of democracy use the marker, ‘choiceless democracy’ because of the great deficit of the liberal democratic process. Actually, they are neither liberal nor democratic. Liberal principles include a free press, political liberty, the rule of law, free and fair periodic elections. It also translates to consent, the rule of the thumbs. The political parties are parties in name, lack longevity being ad-hoc formations, lack ideology, no membership financing etc.Partly, the issue of equality and justice in terms of zoning of the candidates to the central district appears somewhat resolved. Both APC and PDP have zoned their flagbearers to Edo central senatorial district.The general perception of INEC in the last election is that it failed the Nigerian voters by the non-application of IREV, which would mean transmission of election results in real-time. So, both local and international observers faulted the commission for this.Given the argument I have made about federalism, you don’t really need INEC to conduct local council elections. From the point of view of intergovernmental and interagency cooperation, there is nothing wrong with asking for logistics support such as BVAS. The obvious indication from the request is that the state genuinely wanted to improve its electoral process in relation to the state electoral commission. The state should be encouraged. It does not in any way undermine the point about state structure reform. All that is currently being done is offering prophylactics for a cancerous tumour. The 10th Assembly should do the needful so that the Constitution can accommodate obvious necessities.If the intelligentsia refuses to participate in the democratic process, the current debauchery would continue. I enjoyed my participation. Coming in with intimidating credentials rattled them. Without the participation of intellectuals, we cannot move forward, our democracy will be reduced to incestuous leadership. We need men of ideas to edify the democratic process. I will encourage more academics not to be intimidated, but to join the movement to rescue Nigeria from the grip of a very backward and superstitious elite.The chairman of APC ascended leadership of the party without due process. Salihu Lukman pointed out the irregularity. He was ignored, and he resigned from his position in the leadership of the party. It is not surprising that the matter is coming up. I think the party has the mechanisms to resolve the crisis.Nigeria’s democracy frankly speaking is illiberal, and largely choiceless. With the right attitude and internal reform, the ‘ill’ can be removed from the illiberal. Then, our democracy will move forward towards consolidation. Nigerians are not seeing the dividends of democracy. They are being daily impoverished by Bretton Woods-inspired policies and elite malfeasance. For Nigerians democracy is only meaningful, if it provides dividends of democracy. Its absence makes possible vote-buying and other subversion of the electoral process.India is the biggest democracy in the world today. For it to conduct elections in weeks, not a day or two, and without manipulation, which such a lengthy period allows, it deserves to be praised. The fundamental point about India is that there is a degree of elite consensus on the status of India in global affairs and with two rivals, namely, Pakistan and China, it can’t afford to mess around, and incur instability despite the perpetual tension fuelled by the castle and religion matters.
Source: