Obasanjo calls for change of INEC leadership

. Says commission willfully failed to use or implement iREV in 2023 presidential election

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) needs new, credible leaders with short tenure to prevent corruption and re-establish trust.

Obasanjo said this during the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum held at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

In his keynote address at the forum entitled ‘Leadership failure and state capture in Nigeria,’ Obasanjo described the 2023 general elections as a ‘travesty,’ stressing that any INEC chairperson and their staff must be vetted before appointment.
“As a matter of urgency, we must make sure the INEC chairperson and his or her staff are thoroughly vetted,” Obasanjo said.

“The vetting exercise should yield dispassionate, non-partisan actors with impeccable reputations.

“Nigeria must ensure the appointment of new credible INEC leadership at the federal, state, local government, and municipal—city, town, and village levels—with short tenures—to prevent undesirable political influence and corruption and re-establish trust in the electoral systems by its citizens.”

The former president said the INEC chairperson must not only be absolutely above board but must also be transparently independent and incorruptible.

He further said Nigeria must prevent electoral interference at every level, including from foreign powers, to make elections credible.

“On the local level, we should implement and enforce clearly defined financial regulations for political campaigns and establish effective control and enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance with financial regulations,” he noted.

He said INEC must intensify activities to prepare and secure the voting infrastructure, such as safeguarding the technology used to collate, transmit, verify, and disseminate election results.

Obasanjo accused INEC of deliberately failing to utilise the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) and election viewing portal (IReV) technologies during the 2023 presidential election.

“The BVAS and IReV are two technological innovations that, prior to 2023, were celebrated for their potential to enhance the accuracy and transparency of our election results, eliminate the threat of election rigging, and boost public trust in electoral outcomes,” he said.

“These technologies were touted by the INEC chairman himself. In the end, these technologies did not fail. INEC willfully failed to use or implement them, which resulted in widespread voting irregularities. It was a case of inviting the fox into the henhouse.”