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Nigeria's former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has landed an international appointment.
Goodluck Jonathan
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has emerged as the Chairman of
the African Union’s International Summit Council for Peace (ISCP),
TheNation has reported.
Jonathan also urged AU to set minimum acceptable standards for
appointing the leadership of electoral commissions as a means of
building citizen confidence and ensuring credibility of elections on the
continent.
The former President spoke on Friday at the International
Leadership Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he emerged as
the chairperson of the newly inaugurated ISCP, a body made up of mainly
African former Presidents and ex-Heads of State.
The two-day conference tagged ‘Africa Summit and Leaders Conference 2019’ has in attendance government officials, former African Heads of State, clergy and traditional rulers from across Africa.
South African President was represented by Mr. Gwade Mantashe,
national chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) and minister
of mines and energy.
In a keynote speech titled ‘The Need for Good Governance and
Peaceful Electioneering Process in Africa, former President Jonathan
noted that the credibility and legitimacy of electoral processes are
hugely dependent on the competence, impartiality and independence of
electoral management bodies (EMBs).
He also stressed that many African nations face election-related
crises in cases where the citizens have no confidence in the electoral
process, especially when they suspect that the election umpires do the
bidding of the partisan appointing authorities.
The former President said: “It is interesting that almost all
the EMBs in Africa are identified with the prefix ‘Independent’, but the
jury is still out on whether these agencies are truly independent as
their names imply.”
As a means of deepening democracy on the continent Jonathan,
therefore, urged the African Union to establish minimum standards and
benchmarks for constituting electoral management bodies and encourage
member-nations to ratify such declaration.
He said: “The AU should, through its Political Affairs
Department, set up a team of electoral experts to study different models
and recommend the system they consider best for the continent.
“Such benchmark should also take cognizance of the need to
review the election of judicial processes to ensure that, where election
tribunals are set up to specifically handle election cases, one
judicial officer do not handle the role of appointing all members of the
tribunals.
“Since neutrality of the security services is absolutely
necessary in ensuring free and fair elections, it is also important that
the Africa Union should establish a code of conduct guiding security
officials in charge of elections. All these recommendations should be
accommodated in AU’s procedures for elections that should serve as
guidelines for election observers.”
Jonathan praised South Africans for the peaceful conduct of last
May’s national and provincial elections, adding that the credibility of
the process stemmed from the fact that all the stakeholders in the
elections had confidence in the electoral commission and the security
systems.
He said further: “Once you get to that point where all role
players in elections can express confidence in the umpire and the
security systems, you would have solved more than 70% of your electoral
challenges. Sadly, not many African countries have got to this point.
The point where they can beat their chest and boast of political
freedom, inclusiveness, independence of the electoral management body
and credibility of the political process.”
As the Chairman of International Summit Council for Peace the
former President is expected to lead the charge for the association’s
crusade for peace and good governance on the continent.
Speaking further Jonathan argued that “Africa’s leadership
problem has more to do with weak institutions than the case of leaders
serving in office for long periods of time. When the democratic
institutions are strong they will develop firewalls that will resist
attempts to alter the constitution and manipulate electoral processes
for selfish reasons.”
According to the President: “Democracy is not about holding
periodic elections but conducting credible, transparent, free and fair
polls. African elections must meet minimum acceptable standards for
democracy to be beneficial to the people of the continent.
“African nations must improve their electoral processes by
establishing systems that will support and deliver credible elections.
That is the impetus the continent needs to achieve lasting peace that
will catalyse growth and sustainable development.”
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