AS UK GOES TO THE POLLS

 PATRICK TOLANI urges Nigeria to reflect as the UK elects councillors to run their affairs

Today, the United Kingdom voters will be going to the polls again to select their leaders at the local council levels.  It is an annual occurrence for selected Councillors to go back to secure their mandate to govern in the local councils.  For starters, United Kingdom has a five-year electoral cycle when members of the House of Commons go through the electoral process under the well-established parliamentary system that ultimately produces the Prime Minister from the party that secures the majority number of parliamentarians to run the central government with the ceremonial appointment into that role by the King.

This write-up today is to invite us as we approach another election year in 2027 in Nigeria to start to think deeply about the foundations and imperatives that shape our political system.  The Yorubas would say: “Amùnkùn-ún, ẹrù ẹ wó”. This translates to: “Knock-kneed fellow, your load is tilted”. The proverb is used to warn against judging or blaming someone for a faulty outcome (the crooked load) when they are dealing with a natural, inherent, or foundational disadvantage (the crooked legs). It highlights that one should not blame a person for issues arising from their physical limitations or circumstances under which they operate.  It is those circumstances under which our political system operates that create the outcome we find in our country.  In this analysis, I would like to draw parallels between the electoral system in the United Kingdom and the objective reality in Nigeria to show that whoever is voted into any political office in Nigeria will produce the same outcome that we see play out every four years in the country.

The starting point is the umpire itself.  The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the cost of running the establishment is scandalous.  When the Chair of the Commission, a law professor, got into post, he proposed a budget of close to N1 trillion to run the next election that holds next year.   That job, given the humongous amount of money available to whoever occupies the position opens the person to graft without further proof given our penchant for corruption in Nigeria. It is so interesting that in the United Kingdom where I have lived for over 20 years, I don’t even know the name of the electoral body let alone knowing the name of whoever is the chairman or whatever title the person is called.  All I know, as is most people in the country, is that every first Thursday of May, until the general election, we go the polling stations, we meet some old men and women providing us with the materials to vote and the next day, we get the results.  No police or security presence, no party agents. No payment-for-votes anywhere. Most of  the years when I have been in the country to vote, I have never seen any queue at the polling station.  Every voter walks into the venue, present their Voter’s Card which are pre-posted to the individual’s addresses and voting happens in about two to three minutes.  Just to mention quickly that the presentation of the Voter’s Card or ID is a recent phenomenon. In the years past, you just go the designated voting venue, mention your name and your address and you are provided with your material to vote.  Simple and straight forward.   Curiously, a pencil is used to tick the box for the person or the party you are voting for.  I am sure if such a thing happens in my beloved Nigeria, all that would be needed are erasers! 

After the elections, I have never heard of any situation where any contestant goes to the court to challenge the result.  What is more, elections hold on Thursdays – working day.  I think voting starts at about 7.00am in the morning and continues till 10.00am to allow everyone the opportunity to vote before or after going to work.  No electronic transmission of results.  Everything works smoothly and the system keeps running, delivering effective service to the people.

Prior to the day of the election, the candidates in the United Kingdom will go through the internal party selection.  Such selections and processes are the internal prerogatives of the parties.  Unlike Nigeria, it is an anathema to witness a scenario where politicians are doing transfers (as if our political parties are football clubs) or shopping around for platforms where they could pick the flag of the party that will allow them to be the Governor, President, or whatever position they are vying for.   One of the most outrageous parts of our electoral system is the amount that individuals pay to obtain “expression of interest form” and the “nomination form.”  Take the post of President of Nigeria as an example, in one of the parties, the nomination form is about N100 million.  The entire official salary of the President for the four years is less than N100 million.  So, how do you accuse anyone of corruption when the system as analysed with the Amukun-un scenario lends itself to unavoidable corruption?

The objective reality of the political system in Nigeria itself is an invitation to graft.  From the expression of interest form to the nomination form, to the electoral umpire, every step of the way, each operator is invited to come and steal, and stealing they do.  So how do we end up blaming them?  I have always wondered: why is it that every person who has occupied one political position or another in Nigeria, at least since the creation of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) in 2003, has always been a guest of the commission after leaving office?   The case of one of the earliest convicts who used to be a Traveling Secretary of a faith-based organisation called Scripture Union (SU) was my greatest bewilderment.  To be called an “SU” in those days meant that the person was totally ‘righteous’ and to be a Travelling Secretary, the presumption of righteousness became elevated beyond reproach.  When the Governor or the President has access to so much money that he is not supposed to account for in the name of “Security Votes,” we are only enthroning graft.  The Senate and House of Representative Members have what is called Constituency Votes – huge amounts of money that they do not account for – we have simply given them the tickets for graft.

Going back to the United Kingdom, the allowances and the salaries of the political office holders are not so attractive to make those offices what anyone would want to kill himself or spend thousands of pounds to attain.  Serving in the political environments in the UK are not enrichment tickets as they are in Nigeria; rather they are purely opportunities to serve.  For example, at the Oxford City Council, a January 2023 Independent Panel Report recommended the increase of the Annual Allowance of the Councillors from £5,245 to £5,471.  Councillorship, save for Cabinet Members of the Councils are part-time roles and their meetings hold in the evenings to give them to perform their governance role after they have left their normal jobs for the day.   Yet, they carry out serious oversight functions over the councils where they serve as Councillors.  Admittedly, some of the Councillors have some amounts of money that they could use to support community events in their constituencies, probably, in the region of £500 or even less.  Their annual allowances with no hidden perks and dubious payments do not heighten the stakes making the system too competitive for politicians to grab in a “do-or-die” manner. Having said that, it is also important to point out that the day-to-day operational management of the councils are run by professionals who earn high income in hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum; but they are still answerable to the councillors who provide governance functions for the smooth running of the councils.

As we approach the 2027 election year, we have seen all sort of movements from one party to another, bazar of expression of interest and nomination forms and other self-serving things happening.  In a ridiculous manner, one of the party officials or leaders recently openly admitted that they charge high expression of interest and nomination forms because that is the only way the political parties make money to run the parties.  That ignorant admission shows lack of understanding of how political parties are run. In a normal clime, again, using the United Kingdom as an example, grassroots members of the parties contribute monthly to their parties.  For many years, I had to set up my standing order for regular payments into my chosen political party in the country.  That is how the system should operate.  None of the activities of the politicians in Nigeria gives me any hope that they are doing whatever they are doing in the interest of anyone else but themselves. The election will hold again, and I know who will win the election.  The political class will win the election –  the ones who secure the ticket to steal.  The entire populace – the poor, the marginalised, the hungry, the disadvantaged – will lose again.   Services will continue to falter, governance will continue to be absent, and the vicious cycle will continue again.

Dr Tolani, CEO of Community Energy Social Enterprise Limited (CESEL) lives in Oxford.