NBA Elections Will be
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), is unarguably the largest professional body in Africa. With almost 200,000 members, the body’s biennial elections come with understandably humongous challenges. This year’s elections to its national offices present no less, and Mr Tawo Eja Tawo, SAN has been given the herculean task of midwifing the elections, which will be by universal suffrage and e-voting. In a chat with Onikepo Braithwaite and Jude Igbanoi, he outlined the responsibilities of the Nigerian Bar Association Electoral Committee (ECNBA) of which he is Chairman, and gave insights on how his Committee intends to deliver a free, fair and transparent election next month
Afew weeks ago, you assured Nigerian Lawyers that your Committee would deliver a credible, free and fair election. What specific plans do you have in place to fulfil this promise, given the fact the last few elections of the Nigerian Bar Association were trailed with controversies?
The assurance to deliver a credible, free and fair election for the NBA, still stands. To achieve that, we will ensure adherence to the attributes or ingredients of a credible, free and fair election, to wit, inclusiveness, transparency, accountability and competitiveness in the 2020 general elections of the National Executives of the NBA. Inclusiveness; where members of the Bar are provided equal opportunities to participate in the elections either as voters or candidates subject of course, to the Constitution of the NBA. Transparency; where members and stakeholders can verify independently, the conduct of the electoral process. Accountability; where the rights of the members with respect to the conduct of the stakeholders and candidates in the election is sustainable, and competitiveness where members will have reasonable and equal opportunities to compete in the elections.
The Committee has a road map of activities for the election, which commenced with the issuance of a preliminary notice for the elections. Thereafter, the guidelines for the elections were issued, and nomination of candidates opened on May 11th, 2020 and closed on May 29th, 2020. We are in the process of screening the nominees, before publication of the list of candidates. There shall be a period for appeals, as provided for in the election guidelines. We have, and shall be issuing periodic statements, to put members in the know of the activities and the electoral process.
We are aware that one of the keys to the successful delivery of our electoral mandate, is the compilation of an authentic and credible voters register consisting of only the names of eligible voters as prescribed by the Constitution of the NBA, in order not to disenfranchise any qualified member from voting. Secondly, since the election is by e-voting, the deployment of a suitable election portal/platform that is easily accessible and user friendly is very important, and this has to be done on the advice and in consultation with a credible IT Consultant engaged for the purpose of assisting in the conduct of the election, which will also include voter education for the use of the election portal.
Nigerian Lawyers were shocked when you stated in a recent press release, that the NBA presented your Committee with an already prepared e-voting platform, over which your Committee had no input.This has raised serious apprehensions in the minds of many, that it could be a ploy to rig the elections in favour of a particular candidate. Is your Committee ready to accept that voting platform to deliver the election? If so, how will you be able to convince Lawyers that the elections will be free and fair?
If you had the opportunity of reading my press statement No. 003 of May 15th, 2020 captioned “The Journey so far”, you would have discovered that those were not my words. However, I want to believe that was the understanding of the reporter who chose such a headline for his story. What I said was that, the Committee was briefed that the NBA has its own e-voting platform/ portal for elections developed by an IT firm. I did not say the e-voting platform/portal was developed specifically for the 2020 elections, and neither did I say anything that should warrant an inference that the NBA developed platform was created for the purpose of rigging the elections, far from it. It may be of interest to point out that, the IT firm, TAVIA, that developed the NBA election portal/platform, is not conducting the e-voting election for the NBA; rather another IT consultant will do that. I went further in that statement to state that, in spite of the obvious advantages of the NBA portal, namely reduction in cost and security of members data vis- a-vis deployment of another election platform or portal, there was the need to engage an independent IT Consultant to analyse, assess and critique the portal as to its integrity, functionality and suitability for the elections, or otherwise advice on other options.
Let me say this, we as a people, not just Lawyers but Nigerians, have so much programmed and skewed our mind set and perception to negativism and pessimism, that we fail to see or look at the good side or intention of a particular exercise or project; rather we look and search for the bad, the ugly and the hidden agenda, even when none exist. That is why bad news sells faster. Having said that, what is wrong for an organisation that conducts a crucial election biannually to develop an election portal for use for its elections, rather than every two years an IT firm is commissioned or contracted to develop an election portal for the election, and discard same afterwards?
However, like I stated in the said Statement No. 003, the e-voting portal to deploy for the election would depend on the advice and report of the IT Consultant engaged for the election, upon analysing the existing NBA election platform.
Despite your warning to candidates for the various offices, it does appear as if your warning was observed in breach, as many of them have been on all media platforms practically campaigning and canvassing for votes, even when the ban had not been lifted. How do you intend to assure that all candidates play by the rules? Do your rules and guidelines permit aspirants traversing the length and breadth of the country, visiting Branches to seek for votes? If not, what are your Committee’s plans to deal with this? What exactly do your rules permit for the canvassing for votes? After all, candidates must make themselves known to the electorate at large to share their manifestos and win them over.
The ECNBA has general powers to conduct the 2020 general elections of the NBA; those powers are however, subject to the NBA Constitution. It is in consequence of those powers, that we issued guidelines for the election. The ban for the campaigns has not been lifted, because there are no candidates for the elections yet. Assuming at this stage an aspirant embarks on a campaign spree and upon screening he or she is rightly disqualified from contesting the election, of what benefit would the campaign be? Come to think of it, and in all frankness, what is the campaign for the NBA election all about? Is it for vote buying or letting members know the candidate’s program for the Association and its members? If it is for the latter, paragraph 1.3(f) of the second schedule to the NBA Constitution 2015 (as amended) has taken care of that, to the effect that candidates are to submit copies of their curriculum vitae, comprehensive manifestoes and other campaign materials to the ECNBA for publication on the NBA website. Besides, with a few inquiries from colleagues, members will be able to ascertain and determine the capability of any of the candidates.
The essence of the guidelines and constitutional limitations and prohibitions to campaigns, such as traversing and criss-crossing the entire length and breadth of the country for votes, is to discourage unnecessary spending of money with the attendant urge to recoup same upon being elected.
In terms of any breach of the guidelines or the constitutional provisions by the candidates, we are monitoring the activities of the prospective candidates and their supporters, and we shall not hesitate to impose appropriate sanctions for any violation. This also brings me back to the issue of accountability which I mentioned earlier, as an ingredient of a credible election which pertains to members’ rights to question the conduct of the stakeholders and the candidates for the election.
Some Aspirants have been accused of enticing young Lawyers with juicy monetary offers, by asking them for their account numbers to help pay their practicing fees and Branch dues. Does this not amount to inducement and election malpractice? How are you responding to such allegations?
Inducement or monetary offers to voters, is vote buying simpliciter. It is an anathema to the tenets of democracy, and portends grave damage to any society or organisation that encourages it,