Nigeria still in election mode until judicial process ends — Oby Ezekwesili

Former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has said that the 2023 general elections are not over until the ongoing constitutional judicial process is determined.

Speaking during an interview on Africa Independent Television (AIT)  at a forum organised by #FixPolitics Initiative and AIT in Lagos, she said that democracy is the anchor on which citizens determine how they are governed.

“It becomes very important that the bedrock of democracy, which is elections that are credible, based on fairness and transparency, should matter to all citizens regardless of their political persuasion. To the extent of the 2023 elections, it is very clear, even by the most charitable of people, that the elections were subpar,” she said.

According to her, Nigeria is still in election mode, and to that fact lies this concept of all eyes on the judiciary.

“Will the judiciary be very competent in the way it decides? Will it be ethical in the way it decides? All of these would matter for the future of our democracy,” she added.

She said that FixPolitics Initiative has carried on with topical engagement for citizens of this country around our democracy.

It is citizens that own democracy; without citizens there is absolutely nothing called democracy when you compare it with all the other systems of government,” she said.

Continuing, she said, “Two things come for me in terms of lessons of the 2023 elections. We do not have a work programme set out for us. We could see clearly that the matter of result management is below standard in our electoral process and we have to use legal instrument to fix this. We must  also fix all the administrative things that are necessary. Technology cannot fail in our own case when technology does work in another jurisdiction.”

Ezekwesili said it was not proper for Nigeria to have a candidate sworn into office while judicial petitions are still flying around.

“It just creates too much instability in the system for a society like ours. So, l believe that as we go forward, the third pillar of our FixPolitics group will focus on mobilising society towards the deepening of reforms that are necessary to build the institutions, nuances, precepts and ethos of democracy. We cannot have pseudo democracy and call it democracy. We do not need properly so-called democracy; we need  a system that will deliver the kinds of competencies, ethics and capabilities necessary to build us into an economically free and progressive society.

“I wish there were answers in the light of what we see clearly to be a systemic captive by a predatory political class; that is really what everyone has been saying. Though we don’t have the answers, we have some lessons from the past. One of the lessons is that it actually took the work of some people seated here, the ones online and, perhaps, some of the ones that are watching us, to get President Muhammadu Buhari, who was adamant about reforming the electoral system, to sign the bill. You know how long the Amendment Act, which is simple, something that was just going to advance the quality of elections in our country, lasted in parliament. Our own politicians fought it, for what purpose? One of the best outcomes of this election, for me, was that the Office Of The Citizen (OOTC) came to life,” she added.

She said these young ones are not moving on; they are saying to the rest of Nigerians, if you want to move on, move on. But as for us, we are interested, we invested our efforts to vote and that has to be respected all the way. So, l think the first step, we already have it: the nucleus of Nigerians, who think differently about the fact that Nigeria matters to us. I think this idea that Nigeria belongs to slim percentage of politicians is such a misnorma.

“So, l am so happy that there is an amalgam of Nigerians, North, East, West and South of this country, as well as the centre, that are now building a massive movement of citizens. Now, following all of this in whatever direction it goes is for the same group to sit down and be very analytical about the gaps that exist. They are so intelligent. I believe in the power of young people. They are so smart,” she stated.

Ezekwesili said, “They will be able to look at each of the barriers that stood in their way of getting to an outcome they would have lived by. I have heard many of them say that if the process of this election was fully complied with and they ended up not working according to what their definition of a win is, that they would have lived with it. So, now that they know that they can plug some of the holes that created this mess. I totally believe that they will win. I am actually more optimistic today than l was about Nigeria years ago.”

According to her, the judiciary has a role to play in this. And it depends on how they get this society to accept that a proper credible adjudication of the final leg of this election has happened either way. That is one. The second part is what we say about the electorate.

“The electorate must not retreat and permanently leave the space for a monopolistic political class that has not done well. So, the electorate must be reinvigorated and be totally determined to carry forward an agenda, forgetting a Nigeria that is democratically enlightened and able to solve problems that other countries have solved,” she stated.