Introduction
The Electoral Bill winding its way through the National Assembly has three provisions that are vexing to many Nigerians inside Nigeria right now, namely:
- Re-sequencing of elections to make the Presidential election first among all. Rather than leave well-enough-alone, the Assembly is playing a dangerous political game which, like in 1983, might light a fire under Nigeria's latest political experiment. At best, all elections should be
held on the same day. At worst, the sequence should be left as it was in 1993 - presidential elections last.
- Extension of the tenure of the local government councils from three to four years. Without respect to the merits of the argument for extension, and bearing in mind that the NORMAL UNDERSTANDING at the beginning of May 29, 1999 was that the LG term was three years, the illegality of retroactively increasing this term is glaring. Furthermore, the power of
the National Assembly to even effect this term change when the constitutional provision places such an LG matter in the province of state governments is debatable.
- The prohibition of governors previously elected once before May 29 to be caught up in the no-more-than-two-terms rule of the 1999 Constitution. Notwithstanding the four governors who are specifically affected by this new provision, it is also odious again because of the illegality of
retroactivity of laws. It should not stand.
This writer has argued elsewhere ["MONDAY Quarterbacking: "Staggering Our Electoral Process"; June 2001] for a more comprehensive electoral reform that may actually involve some extensions of terms. Such electoral reform however should not be done in ad-hoc fashion, but rather democratically and transparently, in a way that causes the least administrative headache for our nation.
The central idea was to lessen the potential for a whole-sale change in houses of assembly (and its concomittant loss of institutional memory) and the specter of a nation completely hobbled by ALL functionaries of elected government at ALL levels contesting for office ALL at the same time.
Nigerian Citizens Abroad and Voting
For those of us living abroad, two issues should vex us in this same electoral bill, the first a continuing omission, and another a new explicit provision, namely
- That Nigerian citizens living OUTSIDE Nigeria currently cannot vote;
QUOTE
77.
(2) Every citizen of Nigeria, who has attained the age of eighteen years *
residing in Nigeria at the time of the registration of voters for purposes
of election to a legislative house, * shall be entitled to be registered
as a voter for that election.
UNQUOTE
This provision has been left intact, in the proposed electoral bill, which should have expunged the phrase between the stars (*) because it is what explicitly hobbles Nigerian citizens living abroad.
- The novel explicit ban on dual citizens of Nigeria being able to contest in elections in Nigeria. Note that this provision in principle affects both resident and non-resident Nigerians.
Both of these provisions - a non-provision and a new incapacitation - are illegal at best and unfair at worst. Are we citizens or are we not citizens simply because we currently reside far away from Nigeria and/or because we LEGALLY acquire the citizenship rights of another country?
Are there steps that we can take to regain our full rights of citizenship if we are at the present time dual citizens? Those are the simple questions that we must ask, for if we are indeed citizens of Nigeria, then any measure that permanently abrogates our rights as citizens against our wishes is unconstitutional and ultra-vires. If we are not, then the issue
is moot. You cannot be allowed to assert a right (as distinct from a privilege) with the one hand and at the same time have it taken away with the other hand.
However, rather than agonize, let us organize and engage the best lawyers money can buy in Nigeria as we sue the National Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission, the President and the Attorney-General - the whole enchilada - if this bill passes and the
President assents to it or is over-ruled if he dissents. Let us put our money where our mouth is by collecting money in a pot and taking this constitutional matter all the way to the Supreme Court.
Or else we should just keep quiet for ever.
By the way, for the record I am a non-resident dual citizen of Nigeria and the US, so I am doubly involved. I would like to vote in Nigeria - but I am not contesting for any position - yet.
The 1999 Constitution
Section 25 of the Constitution clearly spells out who is a citizen - by birth and by naturalization
QUOTE
Citizenship by Birth - Chapter 3 Section 25.
(1) The following persons are citizens of Nigeria by birth-namely-
- every person born in Nigeria before the date of independence, either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents belongs or belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria; Provided that a person shall not become a citizen of Nigeria by virtue of this section if neither of his parents nor any of his grandparents was born in Nigeria.
- every person born in Nigeria after the date of independence either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria; and
- every person born outside Nigeria either of whose parents is a citizen of Nigeria.
UNQUOTE
Thus these stipulations do not make a citizen who lives OUTSIDE the borders of Nigeria for any reason LESS THAN A CITIZEN compared with those who reside WITHIN Nigeria's borders.
The only incapacitation is given in Section 28 for NATURALIZED citizens who CANNOT be dual NATURALIZED citizens of Nigeria and another country - they must give up their FORMER NATURALIZED citizenship, which is a reasonable provision:
QUOTE
Dual Citizenship - Chapter 3 Section 28.
- Subject to the other provisions of this section, a person shall forfeit forthwith his Nigerian citizenship if, not being a citizen of Nigeria by birth, he acquires or retains the citizenship or nationality of a country, other than Nigeria, of which he is not a citizen by birth.
- Any registration of a person as a citizen of Nigeria or the grant of a certificate of naturalisation to a person who is a citizen of a country other than Nigeria at the time of such registration or grant shall, if he is not a citizen by birth of that other country, be conditional upon effective renunciation of the citizenship or nationality of that other country within a period of not more than five months from the date of such registration or grant.
UNQUOTE
Qualifications and Disqualifications for Elections.
All the qualification sections in the Constitution (Section 65 for National Assembly, 106 for House of Assembly, 131 for president, 177 for state governor) simply write about citizenship and age requirements and have no restriction whatsoever about citizen's domain of residence or dual
citizenship is placed on contestants. The important sections for our purpose are the Disqualification ones, namely:
QUOTE
66
(1) No person shall be qualified for election to the Senate or the House of Representatives if:
(a) subject to the provisions of section 28 of this Constitution, he has
voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria or,
except in such cases as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, has
made a declaration of allegiance to such a country;
107.
(1) No person shall be qualified for election to a House of Assembly if -
(a) subject to the provisions of Section 28 of this Constitution, he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria or, except in such cases as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, has made a declaration of allegiance to such a country;
137.
(1) A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if -
(a) subject to the provisions of section 28 of this Constitution, he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria or, except in such cases as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, he has made a declaration of allegiance to such other country;
142.
(2) The provisions of this Part of this Chapter relating to qualification for election, tenure of office, disqualification, declaration of assets and liabilities and oaths of President shall apply in relation to the office of Vice-President as if references to President were references to Vice-President.
182 - Disqualification.
(1) No person shall be qualified for election to the office of Governor of a State if -
(a) subject to the provisions of section 28 of this Constitution, he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria or, except in such cases as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, he has made a declaration of allegiance to such other country;
UNQUOTE
Note that in all of these cases, for dual citizens for which Nigeria is their country of birth, it is not Section 28 which is the offensive section - since that section applies only to prohibiting dual NATURALIZED citizenship - but rather the phrase "declaration of allegiance to such other country", which would include declaration of allegiance during a foreign citizenship ceremony, and which the new electoral bill now wishes to now make explicit.
Any such explicit additional burden should therefore be a CONSTITUTIONAL amendment, and not a mere amendment of electoral bill as contained in Section 23 of the House version and Section 28 (5) of the Senate version.
Pleading The Non-Resident/Dual Citizens' Case
Who will plead our case? We should not deceive ourseleves: hardly anyone will except ourselves. There is remarkable cynicism about those of us living abroad even by those who are enlightened at home. Why should you vote in an election in Nigeria when you are not here "suffering" with us in Nigeria. I shall not comment on such prevalent myopia that always asks
us "to come home, come hoooommm muh!" whenever we abroad complain about events in Nigeria. Yet when we want to "come home now", obstacles are put in our path!
How can we vote abroad?
One is aware that it is not only the Constitution that governs elections in Nigeria, but also the Electoral Law, which however must be consistent with the Constitution. The point, however, is that the Electoral Law should not contain provisions which make it IMPOSSIBLE for cetain citizesn to participate simply because of their residence abroad or dual citizenship.
At the same time, it is UNDERSTANDABLE that these citizens should not have ADVANTAGE over Nigerians resident in Nigeria who, for example, are required to show their tax payment receipts before voting.
Consequently, I suggest the following two preliminary provisions:
- Beyond living outside the borders of Nigeria, we should not claim any other special privileges to vote in Nigeria. That is, any tax burdens placed on Nigerians INSIDE Nigeria should be placed on us. TO make things easy, we should be taxed at the highest rate possible for an assumed salary of the AVERAGE Nigerian wage-earner.
Alternatively, we could pay at the appropriate minimum or average wage-earner's tax of the country in which we are resident. This would serve as an ELECTION PARTICIPATION TAX for all those who wish to vote or participate in
contest, and could be required to be paid ANNUALLY to be maintained on the election rolls, or all at once for a four-year period.
- The burden to renounce foreign citizenship BEFORE contesting should not exist. Rather, after winning, renouncing foreign citizenship should be required. Thus, instead of the phrase, "No person shall be qualified for election...", this should read "No person shall take the oath of
office if he has an extant oath of allegiance made to another country..."
Even that condition should ONLY be for NATIONAL office - President, Vice-President and National Assembly " and not for state and local government elections as these lower levels of governance are far less prone to international loyalty conflicts.
After those two preliminary provisions, voting abroad should be done like it is done in ALL those other countries were it is allowed:
- Each citizen of Nigeria resident abroad must have a Nigerian passport issued by the Embassy or Consulate of Nigeria of his country of residence, and be registered for elections with the Embassy.
- They can only participate in NATIONAL elections, not state or local government elections.
- Upon request after paying the Election Participation Tax and sending in a certified photocopy of current Nigerian passport, a voter card is sent to the Nigerian citizen, with a stipulation that he or she return it to a Post Office Box in certain designated countries by a date certain.
For this purpose, we may choose no more than 5 - 10 capitals world-wide: in the US, Canada, Brazil, England, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, Australia and Japan and of course Abuja itself.
- Each Box is not opened until the announced date of the election in Nigeria, whereupon it is opened in a Public Hall and the votes are counted in the presence of any and all Nigerian citizens who may wish to be present.
- The tally is then sent to INEC in Nigeria.
I don't see how these steps can be too onerous.
Elitist Gripe?
I am sure that some reading this piece, including many Nigerians abroad, would dismiss it as elitist gripe, in the midst of the many debilitating problems in Nigeria. However, we can walk and chew at the same time: no Nigerian should be above the law, or beneath it, elite or
non-elite.
So when does the law suit begin? Will you be ready to throw in some money into the kitty?
Guides
