Jonathan urges AU, ECOWAS support to avoid election, constitutional crises in Africa

Covid-19: Jonathan urges AU, ECOWAS support to avoid election, constitutional crises in Africa

Amidst the challenges posed by the Covid-19

pandemic to the economic and political lives of

nations, Chairman, Goodluck Jonathan

Foundation and Nigeria's former President, Dr.

Goodluck Jonathan has urged the African Union

and the continent's sub-regional organisations

to get ready to engage African nations whose

scheduled major elections risk being shifted, as

a means of avoiding constitutional crises on the

continent.

The former President noted that many African

nations that may not be able to organise

periodic elections because of coronavirus-

imposed difficulty are already walking a tight

rope, adding that those nations need the support

of continental and sub-regional bodies as they

seek stakeholders' compromise on new options.

Dr.Jonathan stated this while speaking during a

webinar organised by the Kofi Annan Foundation

last weekend.

In West Africa, Presidential elections are due to

hold in the last quarter of 2020 in at least five

countries including Cote d'lvoire, Ghana, Guinea,

Burkina Faso while Benin and The Gambia are

due to hold theirs in the first quarter of 2021.

Noting that postponing presidential elections

beyond constitutionally allowed limits could

trigger citizen distrust and increase political

tensions in many nations, the former President

stated that a negotiated settlement is required to

avoid crises.

He said further: "That is why I am suggesting

that the AU and subcontinental bodies in Africa

should begin now to warm up. They should start

engaging those nations that have elections

between now and September this year"

The former President added that in cases that

require some unusual measures to be taken to

bring about postponed elections, the decision

must involve all key stakeholders especially the

Political parties

 Warning against what he called resort to pseudo

democracies, Jonathan stressed that democracy

should be practised to the letter. He said:

Elections per se does not constitute a

democracy. The credibility of the election, the

transparency of the process and the issue of

trust from the citizens are key indicators of a

functional democracy"

He added: "This is the time that many

continental bodies must come up with their own

minimum standards for any country going into

election to operate. Otherwise people who

ordinarily would have loved to be dictators will

now exploit the problem of the COVID-19

pandemic and do what is not in line with the

laws of the land"

Making a case for electronic voting, the former

President said: "One thing that is clear

especially in Africa is that we must adopt

electronic voting. This covid-19 pandemic has

provided an opportunity and the need for Africa

parliaments to take another look at the need to

retool our electoral laws to bring an end to the

analogue and manual voting methods which

have now become problematic for the

continent's fragile democracies."

He added that with lockdown measures

announced, credibility of many elections going

on at this period may be questionable.

"For democracy to be acceptable, elections must

be credible; the process must be transparent

and observers must participate especially for

presidential elections.

He however pointed out that some countries

have been able to experience some positive

developments arising from their response to the

cOVID-19 pandemic. For instance he praised

the role being played by different levels of

government, especially in Nigeria where he

observed that the state governments are now

being forced to leverage potentials they had

previously ignored.

"We've seen the role played by the state

governments, and some of the state

governments are even looking post-COVID-19

era for a better management of the economy of

their people.

I have also seen what can be described as

devolution of power where governors are

exercising the powers which ordinarily they have,

based on the constitution, applying it to manage

the affairs of their state. To me yes, the negative

aspect on the elections are there, but there are

also some positive things that can come out of

it."

Source: gejfoundation.org