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ON Tuesday, August 9, 2022, Kenya held its general election during which the President, governors, senators and members of the National Assembly were elected. The results of the elections were announced on August 15, 2022. William Kipchirchir Samoei Arap Ruto (57) had 7,176,141 votes, that is 50.5% of the total votes, while Mr. Raila Odinga (79) had 6,942,930 votes, that is 48.8%. The results were announced by Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, IEBC.
On September 5, 2022, Kenya’s Supreme Court affirmed the election of Mr. William Ruto as President of Kenya. He was sworn in on September 13, 2022 as Kenya’s fifth post-independence President.
On March 24 this year, Senegal, a country not too far from us with a population of 18 million people held its presidential election. A former tax inspector, Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye (44), was elected President. His party had 54% of the total votes. He was sworn in on April 2 in Dakar.
On May 29 this year, South Africa had its presidential election, the ruling party, African National Congress, ANC, won 159 of 400 seats—short of 201 seats needed to have a majority. After winning 40% of the total votes, the African National Congress was forced into coalition with Inkatha Freedom Party and the Democratic Alliance.
On June 29, the ANC Leader, Mr Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (71), a billionaire and the 13th richest man in South Africa, was sworn in as the President of the Republic.
On February 25 last year, Nigeria had its presidential election. On March 1, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced the results. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of APC scored 8,794,726 votes; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of PDP scored 6,984,520 votes; Mr. Peter Obi of Labour Party had 6,101,533 votes, while Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP scored 1,496,687 votes.
Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu scored 38.61% of the total votes cast, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar scored 29.07%, Mr. Peter Obi scored 25.4%, while Rabiu Kwankwaso scored 6.40%. There were 93.4 million registered voters. The turn out was only 26.71 % in a country that is assumed to be over 200 million.
Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu scored 25% of the votes cast in 30 states more than 24 states constitutionally required. He was sworn in on May 29 last year as President of the Republic.
The election was not confirmed by the Supreme Court until October 26 last year. In short, President Tinubu waited in suspense for over five months before his confirmation as President.
Definitely something fundamentally is wrong with our Constitution. There are many defects in our 1999 Constitution. My worry is that the Constitution guarantees winner takes all. The constitution guarantees politics of exclusion. As it is now, unless you are very very close to the executives or you belong to a caucus of the ruling party in the centre or in the states, you can never be given an opportunity to serve, however brilliant, competent or patriotic you are. Certainly, Nigeria’s problem did not start with the implementation of the 1999 Constitution, but it had made worse our problems.
Our journey in the presidential system of government began on October 18, 1975, when the then Head of State, Brigadier General Murtala Mohammed (November 8, 1938 – February 13, 1976), inaugurated the Constitutional Drafting Committee, headed by Chief Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams SAN (December 16, 1920 – March 26, 2005) at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos. Professor Akinwande Bolaji Akinyemi (82) from Ilesha in Osun State, was then the Director General of the Institute.
He declared the stand of the then Supreme Military Council on that day.
The following were his declarations: (a) unambiguous commitment to a federal system, (b) elimination of “cut-throat political competition based on a system or rule of winner-takes all,” characteristic of Nigeria’s political past; (c) de-emphasising of institutionalised opposition to the ground in power and development of “consensus politics and government” based on a community of all interests; (d) decentralisation of power; (e) evolution of a free, fair electoral system to ensure adequate representation at the centre; (f) depoliticisation of the census; (g) the formation of “genuine and truly national political parties”.
However, because of the “harmful effects of a proliferation of national parties”, criteria were to be evolved whereby their number could be limited. Interestingly but in vain (echoes of Ghana’s ‘Union Government’: “The Supreme Military Council is of the opinion that if during the course of your deliberations, and having regard to our disillusion with party politics in the past, you should discover some means by which government can be formed without the involvement of political parties, you should feel free to recommend.” But this was to be as much a non-starter as the Constituent Assembly ‘s decision to insert a clause outlawing military coups.
(H) Establishment of an executive presidential system, in which the President and the Vice-President would be elected and granted clearly defined powers. The method of their assumption of office would have to “reflect the federal character of the country.” So, too, would the choice of members of the cabinet who need not in future be drawn from the legislature alone.
To be concluded
The post How the Constitution deleted tradition, by Eric Teniola appeared first on Vanguard News.
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