…Agbakoba wants INEC unbundled
…Itodo, YIAGA Africa boss, seeks review of appointment process
Many Nigerians have called for expunging of the provision in the Electoral Act, which empowers a sitting President of Nigeria to appoint the chairman and Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the sake of transparency, independence and confidence of the electoral process.
After the controversy which trailed the conduct of the 2023 polls, especially accusation of favouritism and bias in favour of the ruling party’s candidate in the presidential poll levelled against that INEC, Nigerians across that country speak in tandem that the appointment of INEC chairman should be done by another agency and not by the President, nor the judicial council based on credibility issues.
In recent weeks, many stakeholders have also suggested that the position of INEC chairman should be thrown open where people apply for it with conditions of an impeccable character, management and other qualifications.
They noted that similar practice exists in some African countries, like South Africa, where the position of the head of the electoral commission is often advertised when vacant.
“There are also other fundamental issues relating to how INEC is structured and that the power to make appointments into INEC needs to be revisited.
“You cannot have an electoral commission that is composed of persons who are appointed by the President and in some cases, you have the incumbents as part of a political party or leading a political party, and so in line with Justice Uwais recommendations, one of the recommendations is to review the appointment process of commissioners and resident electoral commissioners into INEC,” Samson Itodo, executive director of YIAGA AFRICA, said.
Recently, President Bola Tinubu was in the news for appointing card-carrying members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), his party, as Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs).
Two or more of the RECs were confirmed to be long-time allies of prominent politicians serving in the Tinubu administration.
Their confirmation by the National Assembly caused uproar in the country, especially among civil society organisations.
Civil society organisations were of the view that since there were complaints about some of the nominees, the leadership of the upper chamber of the National Assembly, should have referred them to the INEC standing committee before approving their appointment through screening.
The rigging of election, which is the bane of democracy in Nigeria, begins with unconstitutional appointment of partisan officers into INEC and must be resisted in the interest of all citizens.
Part of the reasons why the electoral commission failed in the conduct of the 2023 polls was corruption and partisanship among its top officials who could not resist the ‘carrot’ offered by politicians.
Many Nigerians are worried that appointment of partisan politicians as RECs by the President would not do the commission’s fast-fading credibility any good and only cast doubt on the outcome of future elections.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people in the country have lost confidence in the ability of INEC to conduct free and fair polls, which is why there is a call that the appointment of the head of INEC should be taken away from the President.
“It is unfortunate, but it is why people are calling for different manner of approach in dealing with the situation.
“We have to listen to people’s views and evaluate it and see the best solution out of the issue. What is obvious is that we can’t continue like this”, Ladipo Jhonson, lawyer and politician, said.
Civil society faulted their confirmation by the Nigerian Senate, noting that since there were complaints about some of the nominees the leadership of the upper chamber should have referred them to the INEC standing committee.
“With what we have seen, the return to democracy in 1999, it is obvious that it is the way to go if Nigeria is serious sanitising the electoral process.
“To remove that element of influence that the President may have on INEC or RECs, national commissioners, we need to allow a neutral body to decide who heads that commission. Stakeholders can decide how that can be done, but politicians need not decide who should be INEC chairman”, Doris Okuwa, political pundit, said.
Speaking further, Itodo noted that the discussion about unbundling INEC to rebuild the confidence of citizens is critical for future polls.
Read also: Tinubu’s first six months: Redemption way or road to Golgotha?
He stressed that there were other issues that also required urgent attention, especially the ambiguities in the result coalition process.
According to him,“We have seen that both the law and the guidelines issued by INEC have some inconsistencies and there is a need to strengthen the law to make it compulsory for electronic transmission of results because we believe that it will deepen the integrity of the process.
“There are also other fundamental issues relating to how INEC is structured and that the power to make appointments into INEC needs to be revisited.”
Gbenga Olu, a teacher, said the current INEC’s setup does not inspire much confident, noting that there must be a change ahead 2027 polls.
“For me and for lots of young people we came out to participate in the 2023 electoral process, I registered and got my PVC, unlike 2019, when I did not care.
“But I’m not happy the way the election was conducted, look at the gubernatorial election in Lagos; people were beaten up. There must be holistic overhaul or it would be difficult to convince or any young person to come out in 2027,” he said.
Experts point the way forward
Ahead of the 2027 general election, many experts and stakeholders have canvassed for holistic reform of the Electoral Act to guarantee free and fair polls.
The experts believe that the commission should rather appoint its own resident electoral commissioners or directors of elections that should manage elections.
Some have also spoken about the need to streamline the function of INEC going forward for efficiency.
Furthermore, part of the suggested way forward is for the incumbent administration to implement the Justice Uwais electoral committee report under the administration of late President Musa YAr’adua, which was submitted in 2008, but ignored by previous administrations.
Olisa Agbakoba, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and also a member of the Uwais committee, recommended the unbundling of INEC, noting that their responsibility is too much.
“INEC is the largest printer of paper in Nigeria. It is not their job to be printing.
“INEC is doing far too many things; in the Uwais committee report, we recommended removing the function of regulating political parties from INEC, by the creation of a political party regulatory authority.”
Agbakoba also recommended the creation of electoral offences commission.
“I would urge the 10th Assembly presided over by President Godwill Akpabio to simply enact the recommendations that was done in 2008, so many years ago since it was passed.
“The Electoral Act makes a mockery of democracy, so we can correct that, by passing all the recommendations of the Uwais panel”, he added. YIAGA Africa’s Itodo was of the opinion that I he need to remove the power to appoint critical officials of INEC was important to give independent to electoral process.
According to him, “This is just a way of protecting the independence of the Electoral Commission to prevent it from any form of political interference or manipulation.”
Speaking further, he said “Now, after the elections, we as stakeholders are reflecting on what are the big lessons from the elections.
“And from the conduct of the elections that Nigerians desired more, they deserve better, and the legal framework for our elections needs to be reformed because the election has shown that there are inconsistencies, ambiguities in the, and also inadequacies with the legal framework.
However, he pointed out that it now critical to respond to questions the Nigerian people have asked about the electoral process even before any reform can be done in the electoral process.
“And so, stakeholders and the Nigerian state need to pay close attention on how to rebuild public confidence, and rebuilding public confidence begins with providing critical answers to some of the questions that citizens have asked that we can think about reform.
“If we don’t respond to those questions, and in this case, both INEC, security agencies, including the judiciary does owe it to the Nigerian people to answer some difficult questions because only then can citizens begin to trust the process again.”
Sylvester Odion-Akhaine, a professor of Political Science, noted that there was hardly anything new that can be suggested as a way out of Nigeria’s political quagmire that had not been said in the past.
He said the Uwais recommendation had suggested that various stakeholders should be part of appointing individuals to INEC, but it is now left in the dust.
“I sincerely believe, for the sake of this democracy and the process of conducting elections, we need to bring transparency and processes to bear in the conduct of elections. It is very important,” he said.
The professor bemoaned the insincerity of previous administrations in reforming the electoral process with sincerity for the good of the nation. He however, expressed optimism that the incumbent administrations headed by President Bola Tinubu can make the needed change.
Tomitope Musowo, a public policy expert and lecturer, however expressed doubt in the willingness of the current political leaders to make the needed change to sanitise Nigeria’s electoral process in the shortest possible time.
He said most political leaders know what to do, but are happy with the present state of INEC because they benefit from it.
According to Musowo: “The performance of INEC in the 2023 was a clarion call for all of us that the commission needs urgent reform going forward.
“Personally, I am disappointed with the handling of the general election and it is no only that, look at the recent off-cycle polls, especially in Kogi.
“We can’t continue like this or we should just stop deceiving ourselves that we are practicing democracy. We need to review the electoral Act and take the power to appoint INEC chairman and other critical members of that commission away from politician.
“That reform would not come easy, because theses guys are benefiting from this system and want it to continue.”
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