Blame electoral fraud on judiciary – Ahamba
By NDUBUSI ORJI
Thursday, November 5, 2009

As the problem of electoral malpractices continue to agitate the minds of Nigerians, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Mike Ahamba, has said vote rigging in the country is persisting because the judiciary has not been able to impose appropriate sanctions on erring politicians .

Ahamba stated this in an interview with Daily Sun in Lagos. He said in-as-much-as it is agreed that Nigerian politicians do not behave well, they are enamoured to continue the way they have always done because they always get away with such misdemeanour.

He said Nigerians while beaming searchlight on the politicians should equally extend same to the judicial arm of government. His words: “Why we agree that our politicians don’t behave well, let us stop talking about the symptoms, because the symptom of an effect, something is causing it and that is because when they misbehave, nobody calls them to order.

“Who are those that are supposed to sanction them when they do things wrong?. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) won’t do its job. The judiciary won’t do its job. Why would the politician behave well, if he knows that whatever he does will be sanctioned. Because when you ask them (politicians) to stop, they tell you nothing will happen. And this has developed a culture of impunity in the country. “We must lay the blame on the politicians; fine and good. But I advise Nigerians to turn the searchlight on those who are supposed to sanction them when they don’t do what they are supposed to do right. These are the people who can correct this nation, if those who are supposed to sanction those who breach the law are not doing their job well, the people will continue to break the law.

“Nigerians should stop blaming politicians alone. While blaming politicians, they should find out why the politicians are persistently refusing to change. Their persistence in refusing to change is because those who are supposed to sanction their misdeed are not doing their own job well. So, if I rig election very clearly and I know it, and somebody says there was no election rigged, even with all the facts available, then why won’t I rig again. If you have a result in which the number of votes written there is above the number of registered voters and the court refuses to nullify that election, why won’t that person write another result at the next election, this is what I am saying.”

Ahamba said the behaviour of the Nigerian politician is a symptom of something worse than what the politician is doing. He lamented that Nigerians are afraid to talk about the reason why every election is worse than the one before it. He stated that unless people begin to talk about it, there won’t be solution.
The senior advocate contended that curbing electoral malpractices in the country does not lie in forming committees or reforms but in enforcing of laws.

“Let me tell you the law is not better than the piece of paper on which it is written, until it is enforced. We can form all the committees, do all the reforms, but if we have people who will pretend that that law does not exist and do what they want to do, then all the efforts would have been wasted. This is my position, and if we are serious we should face it squarely because that is the main issue,” he said

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