| Less than one month to the April 2011 general elections, Nigerian political parties have once again been invited to sign a code of conduct to guide their activities before and during the polls. The first of such code of conducts was signed shortly before the 2007 elections.
The 2007 Code of Conduct provided that the Inter-party Advisory Council would elect a chairman and a secretary for a one-year term to be rotated among members.The tenure of the pioneer chairman and secretary elapsed [by their own admission] since June 2010, but they are currently still holding office and are encouraged in the illegality by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This is despite the fact that that same code of conduct states in article [5] under Rule of Law that It shall be the sacred and binding duty of political parties to ensure strict compliance with this code of conduct and assist the security agencies and electoral officials in apprehending and punishing their members who attempt to, or flout the provisions of the code, the electoral act and or INEC electoral guidelines. The 2007 Code of Conduct states that all political parties shall separate party business from government business. As such, political parties shall not utilise public resources for party activities and shall not permit any of its sponsored candidates holding public office to use public resources for the purpose of political campaigning in elections. The 2007 Code of Conduct also states inter alia: All political parties shall have equal/equitable access to public owned print and electronic media, as guaranteed by law.But all public print and electronic media in Nigeria have been turned into private propaganda machinery of the political parties in power at the respective levels. Nigeria is a nation where the highest office holders and politician agree on one thing and proceed to do the opposite without blinking. It is a nation where if one goes to a court of law and presents a case of a breach of agreement, especially, political agreement as demonstrated most recently, the court can prove beyond any reasonable doubt that indeed there was a breached agreement but that there is nothing it can do about it. The 2007 Code of Conduct as well as the 2011 revised version of it are designed to give the impression of fairness, and concern or commitment to a level playing field for Nigerian political parties and their candidates, but situations on the ground makes total nonsense of such pretensions. In Nigeria, Independent Electoral Commissions which are set up by the various state governors are 100 per cent loyal and dependent on those governors and their parent political parties. In at least 90 per cent of all the so called elections such bodies have conducted in Nigeria, they have through hooks and crooks invariably returned the candidates of the political parties whose governors set them up. The federal legislators who have had the effrontery to harass the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria for helping to bring to light the amount of money they were ripping off the nation monthly and who in truth individually collect per month at least double the amount of annual grants given to political parties are standing for the same elections as candidates of those political parties, 90 per cent of which have at present no representations in the national assembly.If Nigerians are indeed interested in a meaningful code of conduct, then they need to deepen their thoughts about this. INEC must be fair to all political parties. All talks about separating public government business from political party business are useless if the federal, states and local governments are not somehow compelled to observe them.Things are getting worse in almost all aspects of life in the Nigerian society. The culture of violence is creeping into the polity. Terrorism is a reality in Nigeria. Political rallies are events to dread. Nigeria is a nation where extreme partisan politicians who spend all their youthful days pushing sectoral and parochial agenda.Moreover, why are we not manufacturing our own cars, jeeps, airplanes? What is wrong with us and with our polity? Why is it that the nation earns more than 40 billion Naira everyday and the overwhelming majority of the citizens are wallowing in abject poverty? Why is it that the average Nigerian youth is doing everything possible to get out of Nigeria? |
Mar152011