Why traditional rulers must play roles in elections — Osun monarch

The Eburu of Iba in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Osun State, Oba Adekunle Adeogun Okunoye, has said that traditional rulers cannot just fold their arms and watch while apathy mars the forthcoming general election in the state.

The Eburu said royal fathers can best be used as agents of advocacy and social change in raising awareness of their subjects on the importance of voting and for the right and best candidates.

Oba Okunoye, who spoke in his capacity as Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Centre for Rural Affairs and Community Development, said it was no longer fashionable to confine royal fathers to their palaces when they should encourage their subjects to troop out and cast their votes.

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The monarch said, “Our current reality as traditional rulers, who must be interested in development of our domains, is that we have to rise up and complement government efforts in mobilising our people before and during every election to record massive participation of eligible voters. This is not about partisanship but our responsibility to our people to do what is right as citizens of this country.”

He acknowledged the nation’s constitution, which gives authority to public office holders over traditional institutions, and said working for government success should guarantee fair distribution of development and political appointment to domains.

“Our expected non-partisan status perfectly qualifies us as a watchdog to evaluate and monitor voting, report vote-buying and expose corruption in the electioneering value chain,” he said.

He emphasised that the presence of indigenes in administration boosts chances of towns and communities to enjoy benefits of the administration, hence his call on his fellow monarchs to play their part in influencing more participation from voter registration to elections.

Oba Okunoya, who is the Pro-Chancellor of Atiba University, noted that traditional rulers in bigger cities were more fortunate than kings in the rural areas with regard to government patronage, saying “monarchs in bigger towns tend to enjoy more freedom in associating with politicians than monarchs from rural communities.”

He reminded politicians that voters now support candidates according to development brought to their communities, adding that political parties can no longer rely on vote-buying at the expense of developmental projects.

“Indigenes know exactly how the given development was attracted, and politicians involved will surely become popular and will be even more influential on votes in that particular domain.

“Also, a traditional ruler who is able to nominate and get indigenes to get political appointments could also have influence and bargaining chips to convince his people. There is a high tendency that the appointees will be supporting the monarch financially which will be utilised to support community people and thus earn their respect,” he reasoned.

Oba Okunoye added, “Unfortunately, such opportunities are not evenly available across domains. Thus, we can’t expect traditional rulers to have equal influence. Yet, the sphere of influence of traditional rulers is still significant, and if provided with similar necessary resources like politicians, they could definitely convince their subjects.

“I am not ignorant of the effect of financial inducement on voting and its effect on the extent to which a traditional ruler can educate his subjects on issue driven voting decision.”

He suggested that Nigeria should be divided into “card-carrying members of political parties and non-card-carrying members. The political class controls the card-carrying members while the rest are shared among religious and traditional communities. Careful examination of voting statistics will reveal the reason for a consistently less than 50 percent voting rate.

“Typical voters are primarily card-carrying members and few people they are able to mobilise. Most non-card-carrying members of the communities don’t vote for various reasons. Foremost reason is lack of knowledge of the importance of voting. Most of the non-card-carrying members are not reached or mobilised to vote. The political class couldn’t cover the entire populace despite the resources at their disposal. The efforts of INEC and NGOs with interest in civic education hasn’t yielded much result to increase voting rate. Also, logistics and fear of violence contribute to the apathy by non-card-carrying members.”

The Eburu emphasised that good governance starts with the choice of the right and best candidates by the majority of the populace, saying that in a situation where a significant percentage refused to vote, the election might produce “mere winners.”