It is to the consternation of Nigerians at the early hours of February 16 that the presidential and National Assembly elections were postponed for another seven days. Who does that? I don’t know of any country that has ever rescheduled elections for one week at the twilight of that degree of five hours to the commencement of the scheduled aforesaid elections.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had almost four years to prepare and deliver fair, free and credible elections.There is no alibi to absolve INEC umpires and managers of this all important exercise to a positive and acceptable state.
All necessary tools,instruments and logistics were sought by INEC and delivered in return sufficiently and timely by the executive organ saddled with this responsibility.
I’m particularly exasperated that INEC misled and chagrined the president by giving the assurances of its readiness to conduct the elections without rancour which invariably made the president to address Nigerians on Thursday evening approximately 36 hours before the scheduled elections. On the same day, the presidential candidates of the parties signed the peace accord which had in attendance eminent Nigerians and international observers. Up till that moment, the INEC electoral commissioners were so confident that all logistics were already in place and that the elections will proceed as scheduled.
The amount of resources and sweat already deployed may not be quantified but are nonetheless enormous. Of course,the voting apathy is looming. There is anger out of frustration in all nooks and corners.
I’m not a fan of bad practice and the philosophy I embrace always is not to undertake or do what I cannot defend. I wholeheartedly expect anyone holding this exalted office of the chairmanship of INEC to espouse this always.
Let me state here lucidly that it is time for us to stop having the conviction that only professors can deliver a credible election. Where did we get this impression from? A professor is expected to impact knowledge and engage in research or design policy and by extension to possess oratory or, eloquent prowess. I’m not swayed that they are the most efficient managers of men and resources. All we need is a non-partisan, apolitical and credible individual with unquestionable character. In other words, a person of high integrity with proven record of managerial skill and with no moral turpitude.Above all, someone with valour for the assignment. It’s a serious albatross to always zero down to a professor as the number one qualification or prerequisite to be the INEC chairman. Let’s jettison this archaic choice.
Further to my dismay is the comparison of failing areas of Professor AttahiruJega’spostponement of elections and that of Professor Mahmood Yakubu. That’s flagrantly disappointing and odious to be making such comparisons. In 2011, it was the National Assembly elections that Professor Jega postponed at this much twilight not the presidential, and in 2015 he gave sufficient notice and reason of insecurity as National Security Adviser was the proponent.
I have empathy for President Muhammadu Buhari as his imminent triumph will invariably be attributed to the postponement apparently because there is this belief that the presidency remotely controls INEC. Many people actually think that the All Progressives Congress (APC) government is behind the postponement. Even though the president and APC national chairman have both distanced themselves from this unfortunate and sad development, and in fact utterly condemned it, still a good number of our citizens considered their actions theatrical and a charade. A way forward regarding this false impression is to remove the word ‘independent’ from INEC. In real sense, how independent is INEC? INEC is in presidency. It is the president that recommends the appointment of the chairman and members of INEC to the National Council of States which is ordinarily an advisory body before the confirmation of the Senate. I believe INEC should just become National Electoral Commission NEC. This will give the body a real sense of independence in mental disposition. The National Judicial Council (NJC) is independent whereas it is NOT known as the INJC.
I’m privileged to be the agent for President Muhammadu Buhari in Lagos, hence I had the opportunity to be present at the Central Bank of Nigeria in my locality in Lagos and waited around the vicinity to ascertain the effective distribution of materials till wee hours of the night preceding the election and vehicles were loaded and left for different locations. I believe strongly that we have too many candidates on the ballots. It is time to review the Electoral Act regarding the number of candidates. My position on this is, in order to minimize the number of presidential candidates, we need to enshrine in our Electoral Act that for any party to field a presidential candidate, it should have been able to win a seat in any state of our federation or a seat in the National Assembly. This will prune the number of unserious candidates with little or no national appeal. Too many unserious candidates actually made logistics cumbersome. A party ought to have presence in a state or National Assembly in order to earn a spot for presidential candidacy at the General Elections.
Simultaneously, a party must have a councillor at the local government election before it may earn a place to contest in the gubernatorial election. The plethora of candidates for gubernatorial and presidential elections has made logistics very difficult hence efficacy may not be met. I hereby appeal for ease of enabling laws to be well enshrined in our Electoral Act.
Meanwhile, the INEC chairman claimed logistics as the reason for postponement. That’s unacceptable. It’s rather tantamount to incompetence. In a civilized country, the chairman will voluntarily resign by taking responsibility because the buck stops on his table. I’m glad to know that the president said further findings would be made on why the postponement took place.
Going forward, let’s re-examine our stance on INEC’s composition in particular the chairmanship and the entire ease of operations in order to carry out an effective election exercise. We are in a better position to avert and prevent an encore of such plight in the future before it erupts. We have to continually be ambitious to deliver a credible election at all times but ambition without knowledge and vision is like a boat on a dry land.
- Seriki is a former minister of the federal republic.
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