Adeniran: Credible Elections Unlikely Until Nigeria Gets a New Constitution

• Recommends adoption of e-voting, diaspora participation • Supports relocation of AFRICOM to Nigeria

Amid controversies trailing the review of the 1999 Constitution and amendment to the 2010 Electoral Act, a former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran has said Nigeria will need a new constitution to guarantee credible elections in 2023. Adeniran, Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Germany, has equally justified the request of President Muhammadu Buhari that the United States should consider relocating the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) from Stuttgart, Germany to Africa. He made these remarks during an exclusive interview with THISDAY on Friday, pointing out diverse reasons Nigeria should produce a new constitution before the conduct of the 2023 general election. On December 7, 2018, Buhari rejected the Electoral Amendment Bill that could have transformed the country’s electoral system positively on the ground that it could affect the 2019 elections contrary to his campaign promises. Buhari, in a letter to the National Assembly, had justified his decision to decline assent on the ground that signing the bill into law could create uncertainty and confusion during the forthcoming elections. Almost three years after the president rejected the Electoral Amendment Bill, the National Assembly has not reviewed and sent it back to him for his assent to avoid the scenario that spurred Buhari to reject the bill in 2018. Despite the failure of the National Assembly to complete the process of passing the Electoral Amendment Bill, Adeniran said Nigeria could still have credible elections in 2023 if the political leaders were committed to it as a national objective. Adeniran said: “It is possible to have credible elections in 2023. But we only need to be serious about it and be committed to it as a national objective and goal.” Beyond the electoral law and amendment issue yet to be resolved, Adeniran suggested that the entire Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would need “a rebirth to make any elections meaningful in 2023.” He also suggested that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Nigeria’s security machinery would need to creatively address the challenges posed by the prevailing atmosphere in the country. He explained that there “is no way present processes and procedures would yield an electoral outcome that could be considered credible. The areas of concern are many but I wish to restrict myself to three.

“One is the need to get Nigerians in the diaspora to vote. The second is how to give adequate opportunity for people with disabilities to vote. The third, of course, has been the most contentious and at the centre of contentious electronic voting.

“How this is handled will substantially determine the credibility of future elections. What we need is a new constitution for the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“In a political system in which people are not self-seeking and self-serving, it should be possible to have a National Assembly that would facilitate a new constitution.

“Those who see the on-going exercise as an effort in futility know so well that the orientation, disposition and aspirations of the majority of those in the National Assembly are such that cannot promote a new constitution for the Nigerian people.

“Rather, they would consolidate the legal framework and absurd constitutional loopholes whose benefits they presently enjoy while Nigeria wallows in national disorientation and dysfunction.

The committed reformers and progressives among them are in the minority,” the professor observed with grave concern.

Adeniran, the immediate past National Chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), justified Buhari’s request that AFRICOM should be relocated from Stuttgart in Germany to Africa, saying the president was certainly being strategic in his move to have Nigeria serve as the base of AFRICOM.