To date, there is no report that President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan has visited Chibok, Borno State, home of the little girls abducted by the Boko Haram insurgents. Please, perish the thought that the President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces is scared of going to that territory. As soon as he declares intention to run for reelection as President, he will certainly go mount the soap box in Chibok, to the delight and appreciation of the unfortunate parents of the abducted girls. It is only fair to return the visit that the girls’ parents paid him at the safe, and non- Boko Haram-infested, Aso Rock in Abuja. Not so? But what if the President chooses not to physically go to Borno State, as he had gone to other places, like Kano, Ekiti and Osun states, to convince the voters what a dancing President he was? He could run his campaign on radio, TV, billboards, newspapers, magazines, online and below-the-line platforms. It looks like the electoral laws do not compel him to physically campaign anywhere. The only deficit he might have on this account is that Borno, or at least of Chibok, people may not vote for him. They could argue, for instance, that they couldn’t vote for an invisible candidate, the same way the President declined to negotiate, or grant amnesty, to invisible Boko Haram insurgents. The Northern Elders Forum says he should forget 2015 if the insurgency remains extant. But seriously, if the electorate of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano and Yobe states –some of whom are under a state of emergency, and won’t get the customary polling officer-corps members – are unable to vote, wouldn’t there be a constitutional lock jam? Sections 133(2)(b), 134(1) (a)(b), 134(2)(a)(b), (3) (a)(b), (4)(a)(b) and 135(5), indicate that a candidate that satisfies Sections 131 and 132 of the Constitution, shall be deemed elected President of Nigeria if “he has majority of votes cast at the (presidential) election, and “has not less than one- quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of two-thirds of all the states in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.” Would constitutional expert, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, interpret these provisions to mean that voting could be held in only two-thirds of the states of the Federation and the Federal Territory, Abuja? And that if a candidate won a majority of votes cast, plus at least one-quarter of votes in the states where voting held, the remaining one-third states where voting wasn’t held could be discountenanced? Someone might argue that when political instability prevented voting in some constituencies in Libya, the parliament was still inaugurated even though 12 legislators’ seats were vacant. A constitution that allows such subverts citizens’ fundamental rights to self-determination, to hold opinions and to freedom of expression. But nowhere in the Constitution was is expressly stated that presidential candidates must physically campaign in any of the states, though Section 132(4) and (5) respectively states that “for the purpose of an election to the office of President, the whole of the Federation shall be regarded as one constituency,” and “every person who is registered to vote at an election of a member of a legislative house (Federal and states presumably) shall be entitled to vote at an election to the office of the President.” Registered voters in areas under insurgency must vote somewhere – to carry out their civil responsibilities, and exercise their rights as citizens of Nigeria. Maybe, they would have to be physically transported to coterminous states to exercise their voting rights, then return home to face the danger, and nurse the sorrows, of their lives, alone. Though it should be expected that polling booths should be within the states, the Constitution is silent about the physical location of the voters. But if Section 72 says “no Senatorial district or Federal constituency shall fall within more than one state, and the boundaries of each district or constituency shall be as contiguous as possible, and be such as that the number of inhabitants thereof is as nearly equal to the population quota as is reasonably practicable,” it does appear that voters must vote where they were physically registered. Sections 71, 73, 74 and 75 seem to accentuate Section 72. The Acting Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, unwittingly endorsed this position recently. In response to the massing of the All Progressives Congress chiefs in Osun State, ahead of the recent governorship election, he said: “If you don’t have any business (could that mean voting?) to do with the election, just don’t go (to Osun State).” A simple definition of election is: Choosing a person for office by the voters of a constituency. A constituency is the whole body (human population) of valid and accredited voters in a district (a geographical space). Voting must certainly be in a physical location (even if some countries allow their citizens to vote abroad under certain conditions), and involves qualified people. Again, Section 132(5) says, “every person who is registered to vote at an election of a member of a legislative house (Federal and states presumably) shall be entitled to vote at an election to the office of the President.” If this Section provides that anyone who can vote for a legislator, who represents a designated, delineated and delimited physical constituency, then voters may have to vote (for presidential candidates) where they were registered. So, it looks like the presidential bid is going to end at a red light if the voters of the troubled states are not going to be sharing (em,… casting) their votes within their constituencies. Is the Independent National Electoral Commission allowed to display voters’ list outside the ward where it was compiled? But those presidential legal egg-heads, residues of 1979 twelve two-thirds formula, may yet point Presidential Candidate Jonathan to the constitutional deus ex machina, or way out, in Section 135(3) of the Constitution. It says: “If the Federation is at war, and the President considers that it is not practicable to hold elections, the National Assembly may, by resolution, extend the period of years mentioned in Section 135(2)(a)(b) from time to time; but no such extension shall exceed a period of six months at any one time.” There you go! President Jonathan may remain in office, without a single election, by the grace of those who want him out of that office the most– the Boko Haram insurgents. He would just declare war against Bok Haram. And a pliant National Assembly would simply grant him serial six-month extensions as long as the declaration stands. But a sensitive President should quickly resolve the insurgency quickly – to shame those bad people who are bandying around the conspiracy theory that the insurgents (Including the sometimes pretend militants in the Niger Delta creeks) are a ploy to sneak Section 135(3) on unwary Nigerians. Daft, but plausible. Mr. President needs to reconvene that botched All- Political Party Security Summit, so all shades of opinion in Nigeria can form a common front to deal with the insecurity crisis. Like the combat against Ebola Virus, all hands must be on deck– to reawaken flagging foreign support to combat the insurgency. This Fourth Republic must endure. Everything must be done to stay the relatively smooth transition from civilian to civilian administration Nigeria has experienced from 2003. Copyright PUNCH.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 07:51:03 +0000
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