‘Blame politicians for electoral violence, not INEC’

By Joseph Jibueze

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should not be blamed for electoral violence, Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman Rotimi Oyekanmi has said.

He believes politicians should rather be blamed for fomenting trouble during elections.

According to him, INEC has been unfairly accused of partiality.

“Having credible elections depends on the behaviour of the political class. If they play by the rules, there will be no violence,” he said.

Oyekanmi said INEC has resisted acts of violence by refusing to issue certificates of returns to offenders but has been overruled by the courts.

Oyekanmi spoke in Lagos at a roundtable/presentation of Trends in reportage of 2019 election issues (scorecard for July-September 2019) by the International Press Centre (IPC).

The report is part of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria.

Oyekanmi said INEC’s efforts at ensuring that votes counts have forced politicians to resort to vote-buying, for which it has enlisted anti-graft agencies to curb.

Lagos State University (LASU) School of Communication Senior Lecturer Dr Tunde Akanni, who reviewed the report, said it provides evidence-backed information on the state of media performance in electoral processes coverage.

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The report focuses on equitable coverage of political parties, aspirants/candidates, youths, women, people living with disabilities (PWDS) and the Electoral Management Body.

According to Akanni, the report urges media managers to strategise on how best to ensure inclusive and equitable political reporting.

He said: “IPC goes on to counsel INEC to issue press releases regularly in response to the concerns of parties, candidates, the media, civil society groups, the citizens, etc.

“In particular, it notes the wide disparity between the no of its followers on Twitter – 1.4million and 3,000 engagements…

“I have personally found the report as invaluable for research and consider it as indispensably didactic for the media, INEC and the rest of us.”

IPC Executive Director Mr Lanre Arogundade said the report marks the continuation of a 24-month media monitoring activity covering the pre-election, election and post-election cycles under “component 4b: support to media of the EUSDGN project”.

He said: “This post-election phase report, however, covers the outcome of the monitoring of 12 print and online newspapers in the said period.

“As this report and subsequent ones will show, this phase is very important not only because we are beaming torchlight on the trends of reportage but because there are emerging critical post-election issues.

“These include conflicts, outbreaks of violence and killings (as seen in the recent Kogi and Bayelsa states governorship elections), tribunal/court cases and campaign finance, which the media most contend with.

“In dealing with these issues, we contend that the media must continue to be ethical and conflict-sensitive in their reportage.

“Thus, the report serves as a reminder to the media on their role in preventing insecurity and violence during and after elections through fact-based, independent, transparent, accountable and impartial reporting.”