A message from the Chair
This section was first started by Richard Bourne to give a monthly update for readers and supporters of The Round Table journal on developments leading up to the centenary celebrations of our journal (started in the Edwardian era).
Due to its popularity, it is now being continued by the new Chair of the editorial advisory board, (known since the early twentieth century as the Moot), Stuart Mole.
View the messages by selecting any of the links below:
April 2011
Arriving early in the morning in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, I am struck by the changes that have occurred since my last visit nearly three years ago. New highways have been built, or are under construction. Gleaming high-rise buildings have mushroomed in the city centre. The telecommunications industry is booming and, on top of a growth rate of nearly 8%, there is the unexpected windfall of high oil prices. At 90% of total exports, oil revenues remain Nigeria's blessing - and its bane.
I am in Nigeria as part of the Commonwealth Observer Group to witness the country's parliamentary and presidential elections. The Chairman of the group is the wise and highly respected former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae. His country is the only one in Commonwealth Africa to have retained its democratic system since independence. In 2008, on his retirement from office, Mogae won the coveted Ibrahim prize for excellence in African governance.
Our group is drawn from around the Commonwealth and comprises electoral commissioners; governance, voter education and human rights experts; civil society, gender and youth specialists; politicians and diplomats. After meeting political leaders and candidates, other observers and a range of other organisations (including Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission - INEC), we prepare to deploy across the country, in teams of two. Along with the Electoral Commissioner of Lesotho, I am assigned to Lagos State, dominated by the sprawling metropolis and former capital of Lagos.
My previous experience of Nigerian elections was in 2003, four years after Nigeria's transition from military rule to democracy. I spent those elections covering the polls - and my back - in Rivers State, in the heart of the Niger delta. There my Canadian parliamentary colleague and I saw violence, widespread intimidation and massive electoral fraud. That was not the case in other parts of the country. "In most states which we observed", said the Commonwealth report, "the election processes were credible and most electors were able to vote freely".
However, as Dr Jibrin Ibrahim put it recently, the 2003 elections marked the moment - in a limited amount of states, including Rivers - when vote rigging moved from 'analogue' form to 'digital'. In other words, from ballot-tampering in all its forms, malpractice entered the results process itself (at collation centres) where 'digital' fraud bore no relation to the act of voting.
By the 2007 elections vote-rigging, violence and fraud were near universal. Even the chief beneficiary of this perversion of democracy, the new President Umaru Yar'Adua, recognised that the elections were flawed.
Will the 2011 elections mark a turning-point and put Nigeria back on a democratic path? There are some positive signs. Among Nigeria's public, there is a widely-held view that 'enough is enough'. Voters are prepared to 'protect their mandate' and intervene to stop vote-rigging. There is also general support for the new Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, who is perceived as a man of integrity. But his reputation has already taken a knock following two postponements of the parliamentary elections. Voting for the National Assembly, for the Presidency and for the Governorship and State Assembly elections are now due to take place, spread over much of April. Only then will Nigeria's future become clear.
Stuart Mole