It is time to overhaul the manpower in INEC — Ajayi

Debo Ranti Ajayi was the Young Progressives Party (YPP) candidate in the 2022 gubernatorial election in Ekiti State.

In this exclusive interview with Iniobong Iwok, he spoke on the state of the nation, assessing the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Are you still in YPP or are you back in APC?

I am still in YPP, I joined the YPP on the basis of the manifesto of YPP and the need to have a clean platform that matches my own convictions of what it would take to move Nigeria forward.

There have been a lot of people putting pressure on me to return to APC, but I am still watching to see if the emergence of President Bola Tinubu would bring positive change in APC.

Buhari’s poor governance and the kind of leadership APC had in Ekiti State were factors that made me exit APC at that time. Considering the policies and the handling of internal party affairs, I could not see myself actualise my vision on that platform.

Things could change under the leadership of President Tinubu but as it is now I have no reason to leave YPP. I made a commitment to YPP and as long as YPP is committed to its manifesto and as long as the leadership of YPP show seriousness in providing leadership in Nigeria they can always count on my loyalty.

There are issues here and there within YPP, but they are not fundamental enough for me to want to leave the party.

You were formerly in APC, talking about APC are you surprised with the manner Adullahi Adamu resigned from his position as chairman of the party?

I am not surprised. Seeing how President Bola Tinubu emerged first to be the candidate of APC and winning the presidential election, it is obvious that there were internal gang-ups against him all the way. Now that he emerged it is not surprising that he would want to address those elements within the party who were not supportive and who could undermine his leadership.

I hope there is no other ulterior motive behind this action than to just make sure that there is internal cleansing and ordering of the affairs of APC.

Frankly, if you are a captain of an army, you would not want dissidents among your group, you would want your team to be driving in the same direction. But let it not be that this is to pave way for any particular power bloc. It is always healthy to allow for internal disagreements and resolutions. But it is fundamentally wrong to have people working against the candidate of the party.

You would notice that President Bola Tinubu campaigned as if he was in opposition to the ruling party at that time. It was enough evidence that there were serious power blocs in the party against him. In fact the emergence of Ashiwaju Tinubu as president is a miracle.

The operations of these saboteurs or anti-party individuals were obvious. I am sure he would have known the faces behind those activities to sabotage his ambition.

So, I am not surprised at all, with what is happening, but as I said, let it not go to the extent that they are trying to kill healthy opposition within the party. One can learn a lot from one’s enemy if one is wise.

It should not be expected that everybody in the party would have the same views all the time. That will not be realistic.

One of the problems of former President Muhammadu Buhari was that he was not proactive and hands-on enough. Early in his term, he said that he did not care who would be the President of the senate. If he really wanted to fight corruption he would have realised that he needed the National Assembly leadership beside him. The enactment of necessary laws to support that mission would require cooperation of the National Assembly.

What is your take on the performance of Abiodun Oyebanji, Governor of Ekiti State?

The reports about him have been very positive at least by the people on ground and generally speaking, the average person has been impressed with him resulting from his adoption of some populist policies, and his reaching out to the leaders, elders and opinion leaders in the state.

In terms of a substantial program we are yet to see anything. He has tried to repair some roads but they are patches that don’t last.

Ekiti State, being a civil service state, will hail a governor that is paying salaries and keeping pensioners happy. They don’t really care how you are getting the money.

It is a question that the government may need to answer as to where he is getting the money from. It is hoped that it is not a case of further indebtedness to pay salaries. We are yet to see any concrete economic development.

But then, he is yet to form his cabinet. We recently saw some list of commissioner nominees. Maybe when they are inaugurated, we can see more happening. Generally, nothing concrete on ground for us to consider as economic development and wellbeing of the state.

What is your take on the conduct of the presidential poll by INEC?

INEC over-promised and under-delivered, through the so-called BVAS and IREC. We went through the same BVAS and IREV in Ekiti State and we saw the ineffectiveness of those electronic systems. We saw how human interventions often render those electronic systems ineffective.

If this can happen in Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, it was clear to us that INEC making so much noise about it for the general elections was not going to happen. The way they described it was all hypothetical narratives. We knew all the promises on how that system was going to work were not going to happen.

I knew that INEC cannot deliver on the expectations it was setting for the general elections and behold that was how it turned out.

I think in Nigeria, INEC should be required to do adequate test runs of any new system before they are used. It should be a requirement for INEC to provide evidence before the approving authorities give the go-ahead on the implementation of innovative systems.

Are you saying BVAS failed in Ekiti gubernatorial election last year?

Of course, BVAS failed in Ekiti State gubernatorial election last year. Across the state it was only useful in the identification of voters. When you talk about electronic transmission of results, it failed woefully. It was good for identification of the fingerprint of voters and that was where it ended. Transmission of results into the central database in real time did not happen in last year’s Ekiti gubernatorial election.

But we saw the transmission of the National Assembly election results in several states using that?

The Senate and House of Representatives were state based elections. The success of that transmission was not everywhere in Nigeria. It may have been a success in some places. I am trying to say that in Nigeria, we innovate without adequate testing and verification. Often, we are too eager to get on something new without adequate assessment of human and physical infrastructural implications.

Some people said it was a predetermined arrangement by INEC. Do you agree?

I seriously doubt that it was. The reality is that with the best system in the hands of Nigerians, things will not work as expected because people operate these systems.

People are in charge of this equipment, so you would always have the human and Nigerian factors affect a good system to produce controversial outcomes, I think it is time to overhaul the manpower of INEC.

Many times, we think politicians are the corrupt ones, but in reality the civil servants are more corrupt. This is not to say that all of them are like that, but it is a safe generalisation.

These long-serving INEC officers are the people responsible for election results not to reflect the wishes of the people. Many times, people focus on the INEC Chairman, but we forget that the Chairman roles are very limited. It is the INEC officers at state and local government levels across the country that perform the key jobs and aid rigging. The sum total of results therefore reflect such activities at those levels.

What is your view on President Tinubu’s economic reforms so far?

Time is short to give a good assessment. However, I see that the government has a lot to do in the area of carrying the people along. They must do more in the area of communication because there have been a lot of shocks to the people that could be better managed.

The removal of fuel subsidy even though it was on the agenda of the main contenders in the presidential election, and we commend the President for the courage of leadership on the issue, but we see there is not much pre-planned follow-up actions on how to manage the effect of the removal of petrol subsidy.

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It may be because the federal cabinet is not yet in place. There is no institutional leadership to manage the introduction of such major policies. Therefore, one would give the President the benefit of doubt. But, there are still saboteurs in the system right now. For example, I expect the currency situation to be different from what it is now.

There are still elements in Nigeria trying to make sure that this new government fails even before it starts. The government needs to carry the people along and communicate effectively with the people about policies.

Are you optimistic the presidential election petition tribunal can rule in favour of any of the opposition candidates?

I don’t expect that anything in terms of overturning the presidential election is going to happen at the end of the day. Is that justice? Is that not justice? You can expect divergent opinions on that. Invariably, justice would still be determined by the judiciary as far as that goes.

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But I don’t expect that the judiciary would overturn what INEC has declared. Part of the reason may be that the Judiciary doesn’t want to create a real crisis in their decision. Frankly speaking, everybody rigged. The view that it was only the winner that rigged is not correct. People rigged in their local strongholds, otherwise the winner would not have scored 1/3rd of the votes cast. it would have been a lot more than that.

When you talk about justice you must come with a clean hand and none of them have clean hands. How the tribunal is going to give judgement without creating a crisis is not one that I can get into.

If the result is overturned, would that not create a constitutional crisis? What would be the interim arrangement while preparation is made for another election? Do you imagine the cost of another presidential election?

We have adopted democracy in Nigeria, but I don’t think we are ready to pay the price of democracy.

The kind of presidential democracy we have is expensive. And, another election can’t happen in less than another six months time.

I suppose these would be some of the considerations the tribunal will look at. But, one thing I expect to come out of this is a call for a total review of INEC, especially the manpower.