Neutralizing the incumbency advantage

Even in advanced democracies where politics is largely issue-based and where performance determines the incumbent’s reelection chances, incumbency advantage exists and it indeed favours the incumbent, one way or another, anyway.

While this is not necessarily bad, politically speaking, after all, a particular incumbent may still be better than the other contenders vying to unseat him, it is obvious that, incumbency advantage in Nigerian politics accords the incumbent a disproportionate political advantage that easily enables him to retain his position or practically install his favoured candidate while he vies for and indeed “wins” another elective office if he can’t constitutionally run for the same position anymore.

This is particularly common when it involves elective executive positions where an incumbent’s failure to retain his position or his failure to “arrange” his successor among his political subordinates or closet political allies generates surprise and indeed deeply shocks him, which in any case largely happens as a result of feud among political allies and results in election loss altogether due to “anti-Party” activities by some aggrieved elements from within.

            

Anyway, though no one doubts that excessive misuse of incumbency advantage, which is a common practice in Nigerian politics, sustains the status quo of incompetence and mediocrity in public service delivery and, of course, corruption and impunity in the country, the relevant constitutional provisions governing the process of reelection bid are too inadequate to address it.

Many political observers and activists have rightly called for amending such constitutional provisions in such a way that the incumbent is compelled to vacate his position at the appropriate time towards the end of his tenure and regardless of whether or not he is constitutionally eligible to seek reelection or run for another office, of course with adequate constitutional provisions to fill the vacuum with a disinterested and nonpartisan public figure pending the election and swearing-in of the duly elected official to occupy the office whether same previous office holder or any other contender, as the case may be.

Unfortunately however, this call is always being ignored while the stakeholders, being the beneficiaries of the status quo, continue to pretend to work towards addressing the situation within the framework of the already inadequate relevant constitutional provisions.

Nevertheless, there seems to be a glimmer of hope because the dramatic political intrigues and developments that have been taking place particularly ever since the formation of the All Progressives Party (APC) and which continue to affect the political equation in the country are steadily but consistently containing the influence of incumbency advantage on the reelection chances of even the incumbent President, Good Luck Jonathan.

This confirms that incumbency advantage is not unconquerable after all and that it could indeed be successfully challenged and defeated by the collective will of Nigerians and their sheer commitment to change and determination in pursuing it.

After all, the phenomenal rate at which Nigerians are becoming more and more politically enlightened, and though it is not yet adequate enough to do away with the politics of ethno-religious and regional affiliations, which the corrupt and incompetent politicians have always employed in their desperate bids to get or retain power, is quite inspiring and indeed keeps hope alive that the country will indeed change for the better. 

  

This is particularly impressive considering how President Jonathan who and ever since his accidental ascendency to the Presidency has systematically employed such tactics to maintain his political grip, having obviously no realistic socio-political and economic reform blueprint, willpower and sincerity to tackle the country’s worsening socio-economic woes and political instability.

However, for Nigerians to gain the benefit of this impressive development, they have to follow it through with appropriate commitment to put it into practice during the forthcoming general elections especially the presidential election by voting out President Jonathan in order to put the country on the right direction and revive the hope of ending the current mess and saving the country from the imminent doom into which we are practically herded by the current administration.

By the way, my focus on the office of the President in particular is informed by the fact that even though it represents the Executive, which is one of the three arms of government that make up the Nigerian state, its significance cannot be overestimated partly due to the enormous power attached to it constitutionally and partly due to how it uses and/or misuses the power to influence the other two arms of government i.e. Judiciary and Legislature.

Therefore the imperative of ensuring that a non-corrupt, competent and civil yet no-nonsense President is elected this time around can’t be overemphasized either. After all, the emergence of Mohammad Buhari (rtd) as the main opposition party’s Presidential candidate who is widely and rightly believed to poses such qualities challenges us to prove our collective passion for positive and sustainable change and indeed the extent of our sincerity in pursuing it by voting for him en masse so as to challenge and indeed neutralize the so-called incumbency advantage.