Ahead of Nigeria’s governorship and state assembly elections rescheduled for Saturday, March 18, 2023, some Nigerian lawyers have expressed zero confidence in the ability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct credible and hitch-free polls.
Basing their misgivings on INEC’s poor administration of the
February 25 presidential election, the lawyers said that the commission cannot
be taken seriously and trusted to electronically transmit results of the
forthcoming elections to its public Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in compliance
with its own regulations and guidelines for the polls.
The governorship elections
earlier scheduled for March 11, 20223, will now be held in 28 states, with the
exception of Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Ondo, and Osun which fall
among states that conduct off-cycle polls.
Having failed to
promptly transmit the results of the presidential election in real-time as
earlier programmed, INEC recently promised to ensure that the results of the
state elections are transmitted to the IReV portal.
INEC made the promise
despite the fact that it is yet to conclude transmission of the presidential
election results nearly three weeks after the election was held.
“Nothing else will be
acceptable to Nigerians,” the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, had told
Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at a recent meeting, adding “All staff
found to be negligent, whether they are regular or ad hoc officials, including
Collation and Returning Officers, must not be involved in forthcoming
elections,” and that RECS “must also immediately initiate disciplinary action
where prima facie evidence of wrongdoing has been established” against such
persons.
Abdul Mahmud, who is also a social critic and human rights
advocate, observed that Yakubu has shown over and over that he is incapable of
conducting credible elections and as a result cannot be taken for his words.
“Look, we are dealing
with an incompetent institution and election management body that is clearly
not in control of its processes. Even where it is in control of its processes,
you have people who are not performing up to standard, ruining the internal
processes within INEC.
“We are also dealing
with an election management body that is deeply corrupt. I am a lawyer and I
use the word corruption because the chairman of INEC did say last week that
culpable principal officers of INEC (who undermined the presidential election)
would be disciplined. What are you disciplining them for if they have not
committed infractions? And who is disciplining who? The bulk of
responsibilities stop at the desk of the chairman of INEC.
“He was the chief returning officer of the
presidential election and some of the shenanigans that have become attendant of
the presidential election of February 25, 2023, should be traced to the
doorsteps of the chairman of INEC, as the chief returning officer.”
Mahmud recalled that the
INEC boss gave a lot of Nigerians and the international community high hopes
that with the technological improvements made to Nigeria’s electoral system,
the February 25 presidential election would be one of the country’s most
credible presidential polls.
“He made several
promises that are on tape. I had the opportunity of sitting in my hotel room in
Houston, United States, in January when he promised the world at the Chatham
House in London that election results would be transmitted in real-time. He
didn’t do that and he is solely responsible for the grief that has today
enveloped our country. People are mourning and yet he has not told us what
really happened.
“On the 25th of
February, while election results were transmitted for the national assembly
elections, non was done for the presidential election. And he is also giving us
a promise that he will transmit the results of the governorship and state
assembly elections, in a country where competition for state offices is fierce.
Look, Nigerians can trust him but I won’t trust him.
“INEC may have the
capacity because we have spent so much in building the IT infrastructure of
INEC, but do we have individuals within INEC that are moral enough to ensure
that processes are made and pursued according to the book? I do not think so.
So, Nigerians should trust Professor Mahmood Yakubu at their own peril,” he
said.
Asked if the forthcoming governorship and assembly elections
could offer INEC an opportunity to repair the damage done to its image, Mahmud
said the current management of the electoral umpire is “irredeemable” and must
resign before “we can now begin to review INEC.”
Quoting him, “Look, let
me tell you, the present leadership of INEC is irredeemable. Let’s be honest
with ourselves. Place your finger on one credible election that Professor
Mahmood Yakubu-led leadership of INEC has conducted since 2015 when he came on
board. He began with a series of inconclusive elections. We went from Edo State
to Anambra State, and in Anambra, the BVAS failed catastrophically.
“It took only 130,000
votes for Soludo to be elected as governor of Anambra State, one of the most illegitimated
governors that we have in Nigeria. In a state with about 1.3 to 1.5 million
voters, only about 200,000 people voted. The difference between Soludo and
Valentine Ozigbo is just about 60,000 votes.
“Also, just look at the
figures from the 2023 presidential election. In a country with about 93.7
million voters, slightly fewer than 24 million Nigerians voted (and) he would
tell us BVAS has worked? That is a lie. What we have seen is series and series
of voter suppression. In the aftermath of the 2023 presidential election,
Nigerians have been discovering all sorts of ballot papers and the EC8a in the
bushes of our country, so let him conduct the governorship and state assembly
elections jejeje and resign. Then we can now begin to review INEC.”
Frank Tietie, an
Abuja-based lawyer, similarly expressed lack of confidence in the current INEC
management, citing flawed processes of the presidential election.
“What INEC fails to understand is that the requirements that
have been put in the guidelines, to the extent that it would transmit election
results from polling units, is a fundamental aspect of the election.
“INEC knows that it is the
reason for which the electoral process can be challenged and totally set aside.
As we speak, the presidential election is hanging in the balance because of the
fact that INEC did not comply with the provision that election results would be
transmitted from the polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal.
“So, if INEC does not
want to go on a wide goose chase, if it does not just want to embark on
something whose outcome it knows would be challenged, it has to responsibly
ensure that it complies with the requirements in its guidelines which forms
part of the law. If it fails to do so, all of the governorship and state
assembly elections would be successfully challenged and set aside.
“So, the promise by INEC
is to itself, it is a warning to itself, that it does not need to embark on a
fruitless exercise, knowing certainly that the failure to ensure that that
aspect of the provision, which is the transmission of results from the polling
units using the BVAS machines, is fundamental to the election.”
Tietie added, “Let me
tell you, I had a lot of hopes and high optimism before the presidential
election that INEC was going to be compliant with not only the law but the law
entirely involving its own guidelines.
“Having offered a lot of
disappointments in the presidential election, I am of the view not to be
hopeful that INEC would conduct credible elections,” he noted.
0 Comments