The Independent National Electoral Commission said recently that it had begun preparations for the 2019 general elections.
The Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, while defending the commission’s budget before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Electoral Matters in Abuja, said that INEC had begun an early preparation to ensure credible, free and fair election in 2019.
But, since these remarks were made by the head of the electoral umpire as regards the 2019 general election, Nigerians and analysts had expressed the opinion that INEC as presently constituted and headed by Yakubu did not have what it takes to deliver on the 2019 electoral mandate, especially against the background of its recent performances and antecedents in elections conducted in some states across the nation.
INEC AS IT IS TODAY IS ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS ELECTORAL COMMISSION, BECAUSE ALL THE ELECTIONS IT HAS CONDUCTED SINCE THE APC TOOK OVER AT THE CENTRE HAVE BEEN TOTAL DISASTER
According to them, in the last few elections conducted, INEC, under Prof. Yakubu had not demonstrated the capability to effectively and efficiently handle electoral matters in the country.
They added that the commission, based on its reccurring poor performances at several elections, had lost the trust, which the handling of the 2015 general elections earned for it.
Speaking on the development, the National President, Civil Liberty Organisation, Comrade Kenny Bakare, said INEC had a lot to do if it was really committed to a free and fair 2019 general election.
“There have been spates of inconclusive elections and serious allegations of INEC staff’s involvement in explicit attempt to commit electoral fraud,” one analyst, who craved anonymity, said, rating the performance of the commission as “very bad.”
Another respondent said, “Poor arrangement for distribution of electoral materials, increased incidents of ballot-box snatching and political killings, occasioned by poor security arrangements, inability to address the shortcomings in the card readers to improve its value to the elections, have all congregated to portray the electoral umpire as unserious and not ready for the 2019 general elections.”
He also rated the electoral umpire very low in its performance since the exit of its former chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega. “INEC also lacks the capacity to manage the challenges peculiar to elections in Nigeria, particularly logistics and personnel capacity for objectivity,” he said.
On the “inconclusive elections,” which have become the hallmark of INEC since Yakubu assumed the leadership of the electoral umpire, analysts noted that the unfortunate trend in the electoral process had become a source of concern and frustration to voters, politicians and other stakeholders, in view of the time, energy and resources being put into conducting such polls.
Political pundits also opined that the current wave of inconclusive election recorded by INEC recently showed that Nigeria’s democracy was being put on trial by an electoral body that ought to be an unbiased umpire.
This was also compounded by the spate of the commission’s staff involvement in cash-for-vote allegations, which continually trailed elections it conducted. Meanwhile, another issue which Yakubu and his men must wake up to address is corruption in the commission.
It was gathered that some corrupt INEC officials were willing tools in the hands of desperate politicians, who use them to compromise the electoral process.
Recently, a Joint Investigation Panel, set up by the Police, which probed last year’s legislative elections in Rivers State, alleged that the state government bribed INEC officials with N360 million to rig the poll in its favour.
The panel stated that it recovered N111.3 million from 23 INEC officials, who confessed to have received the money from the Rivers State Government officials to manipulate the December 10, 2016 rerun polls in the state.
The panel, which presented its findings at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, indicted six dismissed police operatives for misconduct and misuse of arms during the polls, contrary to the provisions of Force Order 237.
Speaking during the presentation, the panel chairman, DCP Damian Okoro, said, “The sum of N111,300,000 was recovered from 23 INEC officials. Three INEC of cials said that they met with Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and that the Rivers State Government gave them money.
Out of N350 million, N15 million was given to each of the electoral officers and N5 million was added by the government of Rivers to the EOs who were in charge. Okoro said that the committee established cases of misconduct against some electoral officers and law enforcement agents, who, according to him, allowed themselves to be compromised in their line of duties.
Speaking on the development, the Edo State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Dan Orbih, said INEC had not convinced Nigerians that it truly had what it takes to conduct credible polls.
He added that INEC, since the assumption of office of its current chairman, had not achieved any tangible result in terms of conduct of elections. Orbih said, “Certainly, INEC has not done well. There is no question of whether INEC has done well or not recently. It is not even an issue; it is the level of failure on the part of INEC that we should be talking about. INEC, as it is today, is All Progressives Congress Electoral Commission, because all the elections it has conducted since the APC took over at the centre have been total disaster.
The Edo State gubernatorial election was a clear case, where the will of the people was thwarted by the award of votes to another party, and that is why we are in court. “Look at the case of Rivers State.
If nothing is done about INEC’s recent performances, I think there should be an amendment of the law to turn it to a department of the APC, because certainly it is no more an independent commission again.
We have seen INEC under former President Goodluck Jonathan and late President Musa Yar’Adua, where it conducted free and fair elections, but since APC has been in power, what has INEC achieved except failure? I think the present chairman of the commission should buckle up or be shown the way out of the system.”
Meanwhile, an APC chieftain, and a serving member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Ayodeji Joseph, said INEC needed to take advantage of the remaining time frame to brace for the coming general election in 2019.
“Well, I am not a member of the committee over sighting the INEC, but at the same time, I can say INEC’s performance in recent elections under Prof. Yakubu has just been average, because in the recent elections conducted, there have just been cases of inconclusive elections.
So, I think it has enough time to correct all the anomalies that it had in the previous elections. I want to believe INEC would have informed the House Committee of how serious it is concerning the 2019 elections, before it can be given a go ahead in its budget,” he said.
The INEC chairman’s Chief Press Secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi, while speaking with The Point, however disagreed with the toga of ‘inconclusive election’ that the commission is being dressed in. He said more than 80 per cent of elections conducted under the Prof. Yakubu-led INEC were totally successful.
He added, “Let me correct one impression. Between November, 2015, when my chairman was appointed and now, we have conducted 155 elections, more than 80 per cent of those elections were conclusive.
This is what I can prove. Now, people have begun to realise that the few elections that were not conclusive were due to violence, because we were able to prove it. Take Edo and Ondo states gubernatorial elections, for instance, weren’t those elections conclusive?
“Those who are saying most of the elections were inconclusive are lazy, they don’t have facts. Ask them how many elections were conducted by INEC and how many were inconclusive?
It is only a lazy man that will say that most of the elections were inconclusive without any findings. I have given you my own facts; let them give you their own facts. Another thing I will tell you is that, of the 155 elections we have conducted, only one had been nullified by the court, all the others that were challenged, the court threw out the applications of the challengers.
So our insistence on doing the right thing is paying off and politicians have realised that it is no longer like before, when they would snatch ballot boxes at gun point, do all sort of things they like.
“We have multiple collation system, which links result direct to the headquarters, so if you snatch ballot boxes, you are just wasting your time. Of course, some lessons have been learnt, for example, the issue of smart cards, and we have had a better positioning towards a better future.”
On preparation ahead of the 2019 general elections, Oyekanmi said that the commission had already begun serious preparations that would give the nation the freest, fairest and most credible elections.
“The challenges noticed in the elections we have conducted are being addressed now; we are putting in technology to improve on collation, so that the result will be out shortly after elections have been concluded. We have started different preparations to make sure that we have better performance in 2019,” he told The Point.
