- INEC should wake up to its responsibility to deliver clean elections
About nine months after Professor Mahmud Yakubu mounted the saddle at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), conduct of elections is becoming a nightmare. In every state where executive or legislative elections have been conducted by the new team at the commission, the outcome has been inconclusive. This is leading many Nigerians to ask if the INEC as composed now has the technical capacity and will to build on the foundation laid by the Professor Attahiru Jega-led commission.
Under Jega, the number of litigations following general and bye-elections dropped to all-time low. The confidence of the electorate in the ballot box improved and there was hope that the country was on the way to attaining the international standard in election management.
The 2011 and 2015 elections proved that the former national chairman of the commission was, indeed, a man of integrity; a political scientist who knew his onions. The outcome of the last general elections would stand as the ultimate proof of Professor Jega’s competence and integrity. For the first time, an incumbent President lost to the opposition party’s candidate. It won him accolades and called the attention of the international community to a rare development in the country.
The ascendancy of Professor Yakubu was greeted by many with expectation that he would build on the Jega foundation. He is not unknown to the public service and came in also as a political scientist. However, the performance of the commission under him in recent times has called to question the basis for the initial euphoria. In all elections conducted so far in Kogi, Bayelsa, Rivers, Osun and the Federal Capital Territory, the commission has been scored low by all stakeholders. None was concluded as scheduled; nor could they thus be considered successful.
Whereas the commission under Professor Jega showed incontrovertible zeal to improve on the electoral process and could boast that new features such as the card reader, permanent voter card and a rare will to succeed were introduced, not much could be said for the Yakubu team yet. Under the last leadership, the rate of litigation dropped drastically. At the time Jega mounted the saddle, Nigerians were about losing confidence in the ballot box and thus on the verge of seeking alternative means of accessing political power. But, a trend for the better had started by the time the former Bayero University, Kano vice-chancellor bowed out last year.
Professor Yakubu who was given the task of improving on the Jega standard does not appear to know exactly the public expectation of him. In Kogi State, the logjam that trailed the November 2015 governorship election is linked to the indecisiveness of the commission. Had a winner been declared after the election, there would have been no need for a supplementary poll and the late Prince Abubakar Audu’s running mate, James Faleke, would have succeeded his principal. In Bayelsa, the result of the governorship poll that pitched incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson against the All Progressives Congress’s former state helmsman Timipre Sylva is still being examined by the judiciary, owing largely to inability of the commission to deliver the election on the same day.
The Rivers State legislative elections caused a stir as only 10 of the 21 state constituencies had their results declared. In others, owing to widespread violence and malpractices, the polls were declared inconclusive and postponed indefinitely.
We have keenly followed the litany of excuses by the commission following its inability to deliver clean polls in the Federal Capital Territory where the level of enlightenment is high. In the elections conducted on April 9 in the six area councils, only two had the vacancies filled. It is unacceptable that all the commission could deliver are reasons why it has failed in meeting with the standard passed on to it. Nigerians want free and credible elections whose results are made public as scheduled. We are not oblivious of the roles played by other agencies of government in managing the process and the terrible conduct of some politicians and political parties, but, the buck stops at INEC’s desk. It has the duty of engaging all critical stakeholders before elections and based on its judgement go ahead on a fair assessment of the political climate.
Professor Yakubu and his men should wake up to the reality of the moment; Nigerians may be patient and resilient, but they are not infinitely docile as some of those in authority think.
