Nigeria is wasting time asking states to organize elections. I have never supported that thesis because in the next 30 years, Nigeria will likely not mature to the level where governors could be trusted to organize free and fair elections for local government chairmanships. That is also the reason why I am not in support of state police since if you do that, the state police will become an extension of the governor’s political infrastructure.
I had written: “I am not in full support of State Police as our democracy is still immature to allow some governors to have full control of the Police. If that should happen, forget any opposition at the state level. Rather, I support Regional Police, like Southeast Police Force, under the control of the 5 governors with quarterly rotating chairmanship.”
Extending that thesis, I call the National Assembly to update the constitution so that we can have a Southeast Independent Electoral Commission (SEIEC), Southwest Independent Electoral Commission (SWIEC), etc if we do think INEC cannot handle these state-level elections. For each of these state-level commissions, no governor will have the exclusive control and apparatus to run the show. But if we ignore this position, we will be wasting time thinking that state capitals can be different from local government headquarters!
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Anambra State just returned APGA to all local governments in the state. In Imo State, APC cleared the chairmanship positions in all local governments. Across the nation, the governor’s party runs the tables. You may say it does not matter but remember: the absence of evidence is not an evidence of absence. Simply, these results are not typical when you remember that every state has opposition strongholds, so when one party wins 100%, you will understand that a special apparatus is at work.
But putting these systems at geopolitical level, you dilute the influence of state governors. Of course, you may ask: why not ask the INEC to run this show? A better question except that INEC seems to bill like expatriates, and most regions will like local rates!
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We are not mature yet to practise democratic governance, if we really care about the truth. There’s something fundamentally wrong with the thought process of an average person here. To believe that you could somewhat grow above it is in itself delusional. How exactly do we think that the way elections are conducted today will be different from what you will see by 2050? We may think we are learning and improving, but it’s actually backwards.
The people that capture power or are handed power don’t know how to use it positively, and with oppression a default state, you are not going to get out of the quagmire in decades.
The structure was designed to fail, so any chance of getting it right will start with fundamental redesign. There’s no way you can make Nigeria great by conducting elections cycle after cycle, because the quality of people that run political parties is anything but sterling.
The institutions are too weak or nonexistent, the ‘strongman’ tactics won’t work either, because of the dizzying level of distrust and divergence across tribes and faiths. The only small chance is assembling properly educated people with high dose of virtues and strength of character, for honest conversation on the way forward. Until then.