…as ITV/Radio holds 26th anniversary, 2nd annual lecture
The success of any electoral system the world over depends on the total commitment of its umpire, according to Mr Mike Igini, former resident electoral commissioner, Akwa Ibom State, who was the guest lecturer at the 26th anniversary and 2nd annual public lecture of the Independent Television and Radio, on Thursday.
Speaking at the event which held at the Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub in Benin City, the Edo State capital, Igini said “the ill of democracy can only be cured by more democracy” and if Nigerians adopt democracy as a system of government, citizens should blend it with their own peculiarity, noting that in essence democracy should be government by discussion.
The lecture was themed ‘Nigeria 2023: Quo Vadis? (Where are we going?)’.
Using a pyramid as illustration, Igini said elections are multi-stakeholders’ responsibility, noting that the success of elections is determined by majority of Nigerians who are not the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) staff.
On what happened in Adamawa State during the last supplementary election, Igini said it was the lowest level of Nigeria’s democratic institutions, saying Nigeria is a country of several contradictions as the failure to recognise policies and responsibilities resulted in what played out there.
The guest speaker lamented a situation where election is finally determined by the court instead of the people, saying this was what the Electoral Act passed into law last year by President Muhammadu Buhari had in mind, but unfortunately, the Nigerian elite always find a way to circumvent every electoral system, even from the early days of the country’s independence.
Using the opportunity in admonishing his constituency, as a lawyer, he said democracy cannot be practised without the Rule of Law, adding, “If Nigeria and our democratic process will die, it will die because of the lawyers and judges, as the Nigerian elite are the greatest threat to our democracy.”
A situation where people do everything to rig elections and tell the opposition to go to court is not healthy for Nigeria’s electoral process, he said, calling this ‘the Expanding Empire of the Court’ – “as the vibrancy of democracy in Nigeria rests in the quality of the court”.
Giving the history of how democracy developed the United Kingdom, he concluded by saying that for every civilisation there is a primitive past, adding – let us believe we are in our primitive stage of our democracy, believing that we would grow out of this soon.
On 27 March 1997 when Independent Television started transmission of programmes on Channel 22 with its slogan “Certainly the Best”, the station radically changed the horizon of broadcasting in Nigeria. It was a local station but with a new vision to expand the frontiers of broadcasting in the new millennium, the concretization of Chief Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion’s dream culminated in the approval and subsequent presentation of a licence by the former Head of State General Ibrahim Babangida on 26th June 1993. It goes down in history that Independent Television is the first privately-owned broadcasting station in Nigeria to be presented its licence on that memorable day. The occasion was graced by Nigerians from all walks of life.
