Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), says a bill
seeking to make voting in elections mandatory infringes on the freedom of
citizens as enshrined in the constitution.
The bill, sponsored by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house
of representatives, proposes a six-month jail term or a fine of N100,000 for
eligible voters who fail to participate in elections.
The bill sponsor said the aim is to tackle low voter
turnout, increase civic engagement and voter participation, and make electoral
involvement a legal obligation rather than a personal choice.
In a statement issued on Monday, Falana said he “doubts that
the speaker and his colleagues paid sufficient attention” to the relevant
provisions of the 1999 constitution.
“Otherwise, they would have realised that compulsory voting
is constitutionally invalid in every material particular on the ground that it
is inconsistent with sections 37, 38, 77(2), 135(5) and 178(5) of the
constitution,” the human rights lawyer said.
“The said constitutional provisions protect the fundamental
rights of the Nigerian people to privacy, freedom of thought and conscience, as
well as the freedom to register and vote in national and state elections
conducted in Nigeria.”
Citing multiple decided cases, Falana said several courts
have interpreted the aforementioned sections of the constitution.
“The fundamental right to freedom of thought and conscience
was upheld by the supreme court in the celebrated case of Medical and Dental Practitioners
Disciplinary Tribunal v Okonkwo (2001) 7
NWLR (Pt 711) 206,” he said.
“In that case, a patient, Mrs Martha Okorie, and her husband
belonged to a religious sect known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe that
blood transfusion is contrary to God’s injunction.
“On account of the rejection of blood transfusion, the
patient lost her life. Dr Okonkwo, who treated the patient, was convicted of
negligent and infamous conduct in a professional respect by the Medical and
Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.
“But the supreme court set aside the conviction on the
ground that the doctor was right in respecting the fundamental right of the
deceased to refuse blood transfusion on the basis of her religious belief.”
Falana quoted Emmanuel Ayoola, a former justice of the
supreme court who delivered the judgement, as saying that “the right to privacy
implies a right to protect one’s thought, conscience or religious belief and
practice from coercive and unjustified intrusion; and, one’s body from
unauthorised invasion; the right to freedom of thought, conscience or religion
implies a right not to be prevented, without lawful justification, from
choosing the course of one’s life, fashioned on what one believes in, and a
right not to be coerced into acting contrary to one’s religious belief”.
Falana also cited the supreme court judgment which upheld
the rights of Muslims to wear hijab in schools.
The human rights lawyer advised the lower legislative
chamber to review the controversial bill “without any further delay”.
“Apart from the possibility that compulsory voting may be
declared illegal under the current political dispensation, it is practically
impossible to prosecute millions of Nigerian voters who may decide to boycott
national and local elections that have been reduced to the periodic renewal of
the misgovernance, corruption and abuse of power by the pampered members of the
political class,” he said.
Falana said lawmakers should amend the electoral act to
incorporate the recommendations of the Uwais electoral reform panel on the
unbundling of the INEC, proportional representation, conclusion of election
petitions — before the inauguration of winners of elections and creation of
electoral offences commission.
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