Of illegal campaigns and silence of INEC

Apart from elections conduct, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also has as responsibility to regulate the affairs of political parties which details supervision of internal party activities and party account audit. In a manner of writing, it is also the responsibility  of  INEC to manage the nation`s entire political space in such a manner as to ensure equal playing ground for every politician and indeed all political parties.

It was to achieve this that the INEC through its constitutional powers provides regulations for political campaigns. Indeed much as it is in other democracies, our election umpire limits the finances to be spent for campaigns as regards respective elective seats and defines time in which campaigns are allowed.

By this, INEC simply meant that to ensure a level playing ground for politicians and political parties in the race to respective elective seats, the same amount of money for campaigns should be spent by respective contestants. Much the same, equal time should be spent in the campaigns.

Campaigns thus, must only begin when INEC lifts the ban on it. Ditto, it must stop when the ban is imposed. Campaigns must not be all year round as politicians in authority will not have ample time to concentrate on the business of government. The wisdom here is at every instance, the judicious administration of public trust gets the priority.

Politics must not be allowed to gain priority over good governance. Good governance is a bastion of democracy. If a system of government fails to ensure judicious administration of public trust, it becomes a farce and thus nowhere anywhere where democracy is.

Unfortunately, looking at what is happening in our political space, it frightens that though no ban has been lifted on campaigns, politicians have since commit themselves to it. All over the streets of our cities and towns are posters, banners and billboards of interested politicians marketing themselves in preparation for 2015 elections?

It is indeed funny that this is happening without any  prior primary elections. But even a student of Political-Science 101 knows that campaigns don't begin without prior primary elections. It is thus ridiculous that rather than commit themselves to internal party politics and wide consultations ahead of primary elections, our politicians have begun campaigns in earnest. This is simply disappointing!

You are disappointed that no political party has distanced itself from such undemocratic tendency; you are disappointed the more that the ruling Peoples` Democratic Party is on the lead in this regard. You will be the more disappointed when a photojournalist portrays you a portrait of President Jonathan dancing in one of such illegal rallies organized by the PDP.

It thus heartbreaks that INEC watches whilst it`s rules are only observed in the breach. It had remain silent thereby reduced itself to a mere spectator in the face of all this barbarism. The conduct of election does not begin and end on the Election Day. It commences the day democracy surfaces on a land and because it is a continuous process, it has no terminal date.

This idea is however contrary to the thoughts at INEC it seems. INEC sleeps between one election and another and that was why it only conducts shams and then names them elections. It is time for the all important election umpire to wake up to its responsibilities and enforce all its regulations in the name of a better and prosperous democratic Nigeria.  

On Twitter: @mukhtarjarmajo

Letter to Chibok-school abductees

You may wish to accept my apologies for not writing you all this while. I had thought that you would be rescued and brought back home within the shortest possible time hence my reason for not writing you much earlier. As much as you are, I am unhappy and particularly disappointed that Nigeria`s federal government, in whose hands the nation`s security apparatus rests, has fail to come to your aid almost a month after your abduction.

The news of your abduction on 14th April, instant, was received with total dismay. Many a country-man was flabbergasted by the detail that almost 250 of you were whisked away by uniformed unknown gunmen with no hindrances by the nation`s security apparatus. This was to tell you that the nation`s security is now at its lowest ebb.

But a nation without security is a nation without virtually everything. If the people are not guaranteed the safety of their lives and property, they can as well forget about every other thing. Security is everything- for without it everything disappears. It is badly lacking here and so Nigeria is in dire need of everything a nation needs.

But specifically, good leadership is what the nation needs at this point in time. Experienced and sincere crops; not mediocre and scoundrels, are needed at the helm of Nigeria`s affairs at this time, T. The callousness with which your matters are being handled simply indicates this. Jonathan and his aides are simply never ready for this nation.

Rather than developing strategies and working out ideas on how best to rescue and get you back home, the presidency decided to remain silent till almost three weeks of cries and lamentations in Nigeria`s public space. #BringBackOurChildren is the slogan and the people are still on streets not only here in Nigeria but also in many other communities of the world protesting your abduction.

The long silence and inaction on your abduction by the federal government could of course have one of three meanings. One, it may be that the federal government had a hand in it. Two, it may be part of a plan to provide concrete reasons that would in the end allow the West to come to Africa and Nigeria in particular to establish its long desired Africom in the continent. And three, it may be Jonathan is so incompetent that he cannot design and implement a strategy that would finally see you home.

The drama that transpired in the presidency when the first-family decided to quit silence and act remains a pointer to Jonathan`s incompetence. Perhaps because you are away it hasn’t come to your knowledge that it’s not only Jonathan who is in-charge of Nigeria now, but his entire family. So it’s about the first-family not the President.

 

When the first-family decided to act, Mr. Jonathan conveyed a meeting with Defense Service Chiefs and in a manner of presidential directive, subsequently challenged the DSCs to rescue and bring you home. Whilst Dame Patience summoned many public officials from Borno state including Commissioners of Education and Health and of course your school Principal to make enquiries into your abduction case.

Where Dame Patience got the power to summon officials of government remains a question our Constitution direly seeks answer to. But she did summon them and in the course of the inquiry disgraced herself, her husband and Nigeria. With poor grammar she talked and confused herself. She cried telling her listeners that #thererisGod. But that was all. She didn't go to Borno to sympathize with your mothers who are praying for your come back.

However, not only them are in this. We are with all of you and together we pray for your come back, write against and protest the callousness with which government is handling our matters. I do hope that you get rescued and returned home sooner than later.

Twitter: @mukhtarjarmajo 

2015: A clarion call

Democracy, undoubtedly, is a game of numbers. Hence, the universal conviction that democracy simply means the actualisation of a government that is people-oriented and people-friendly. The key to democracy, therefore, is a free and fair election. Free and fair election simply refers to a situation where the opinion of the populace is allowed to decide who becomes what in a democratic state, through the employment of an impartial election umpire.

Given the above, any citizen, who is eligible to vote, is entitled to holding his opinion regarding who to vote and which political party to belong to. Within a single family, for instance, it is logical to have different supporters for defferent aspirants. In clear and simple terms, democracy does not allow, in any way, the usage of power or any coercive measure to stop any body from depicting his support for any political party or candidate.

However, the political events that have been unfolding in this country have only succeeded in telling the world that there is no democracy in Nigeria. Political leaders can be blamed, in anyway, for using youths, wrongly, simply to achieve a desired goal. The `yan sara suka, the `yan kalare, and the Yan daba would , till the end of time, be identified as symbols for political murder, disobidience to the rule of law and many other attrocities. Politcal leaders have made it a culture to gather young Nigerians, with the sole aim of influencing them, through the usage of drugs, to physically fight opposition parties.

Every school of thought believes that the Youth is the vanguard and backbone of every society. Unfortunately, Nigerian political leaders have, deliberately or otherwise, refuse to understand this. What is most annoying is that majority of thier children do not live in this country not to talk of thier involvement in dirty activities as such.

Nigerians have every reason to declare that our politicians do not mind what our future would look like. They do not mind about the dilapidated condition of the education sector in this country. Most Nigerian youths are, today, only perceiving the miasma of hopelessness.

As the 2015 elections draw nearer, it is logical to call on all eligible Nigerian voters to try as much as possible to elect into office, only those aspirants who have the required credentials and also who are willing to see to the realisation of a better Nigeria so that our political environment would be one of understanding, maturity and sanity.

Blog: jarmajo.blogspot.comOn Twitter: @mukhtarjarmajo