From Fred Itua and Ndubuisi Orji Abuja
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, has said the electoral body has the capacity to conduct the local government elections if provided with necessary resources.
He stated this when he appeared before the National Assembly Joint Committee on the INEC and Electoral Committees, yesterday, in reaction to a question from the members of the joint panel concerning the Commission’s position on the Supreme Court’s verdict about the financial autonomy for local government.
He said he was aware of the calls for the unbundling of INEC or creation of a new federal agency for the purpose of conducting council polls. He, however, declared that INEC under his leadership has the capacity, competence, human resources, and adequate experience to conduct local government elections across the 774 councils.
He justified his position with the successes already recorded by the commission in the six Federal Capital Territory Area Councils, including the frequent off-season and bye elections across the country.
The INEC boss also said the fact that the commission had been conducting elections at the federal and state levels over the years successfully was an indication that it has all it takes to conduct council polls.
“So, if this responsibility for the conduct of local government elections is transferred to INEC, can INEC cope? The answer is yes, INEC can cope. What are we? By definition, INEC is the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“Right now, we do national elections, we do state elections, we do local government elections. A national electoral commission may be expected to implement only the presidential and National Assembly. We also do governorship elections, we do state assembly elections, and we do the area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory.
“Our track record actually proves that we can do it. Take the case of the Federal Capital Territory for example. I would like to say one or two things about the FTC local government elections.
“There are six area councils in the FCT. So, there are six chairmen of the area councils, and 62 wards in the FCT. Each ward has a councillorship for the council elections.
“This is one part of the country, where INEC has conducted local government elections and it has resulted in the following.
“First, it is perhaps the only part of the country where local government elections are held regularly. Second, there has never been a caretaker committee for any area council in the FCT. INEC has been conducting the elections regularly.
“Thirdly, there is stability of tenure or security of tenure. It used to be three years, but in 2022, the National Assembly amended the Electoral Act to provide for a four-year tenure for area councils in the FCT. So, they enjoy the security of tenure.
“No single political party has ever won elections in all the constituencies in the FCT, not one. In fact, what is interesting now is that out of the six chairmen of the FCT, actually the council and the constituencies are evenly split between the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, which won three councils each.”
The chairman also noted that the FCT councils were made up of urban and rural communities, an indication that it has adequate experience to do so in any part of the country.
Yakubu assured the joint panel that the commission had made adequate arrangements to conduct the two off-cycle elections in Edo and Ondo states.
He confessed that the commission has more difficulty conducting off-season elections than general elections. He said this is because during off season polls, political parties deploy their governors and political leaders to the affected areas.
According to him, the electoral body has implemented eight out of the 13 activities outlined for the elections.
“We are on the ninth activity and not one activity has been shifted by one day. We have implemented those activities in Edo and Ondo seamlessly. The ninth activity is the submission of names of polling agents by political parties. For Edo, by the end of this month 30th July but for Ondo would be 30th of September.
“The Commission is prepared for the election. In terms of preparation, we don’t anticipate much problems in spite of the unfortunate case of flooding in our Edo office. Not for the first time.
“For the Commission it is more difficult to conduct off-cycle governorship elections than it is to conduct general elections. These off-cycle elections are very difficult and very challenging for us for the simple reason that you have one stage conducting governorship elections and all the political parties would form their campaign councils and would deploy all the governors, all the honourable members in support of their colleagues.
“It becomes very challenging for us. But in the Nigerian election, all of you would be in your various constituencies fighting your own battles. But this one you would descend on a small constituency which makes the management of the process extremely difficult. “
He also said the commission had prepared budgets for the outstanding bye-elections about seven federal and state legislative constituencies.
Yakubu also explained to the federal lawmakers that the agency’s 2024 budget is currently being adequately funded by the Ministry of Finance. “In terms of the performance of the N40 billion appropriated for the commission in the 2024 budget, Yakubu said the Ministry of Finance broke INEC’s budget into 12 tranches.
“Every month, they give us one-twelfth of the budget for the year. And for the last seven months, since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Finance has released N23.3 billion to the Commission, which is one-twelfth of the 40 billion as of July 24.
“The monthly releases to the Commission this year is now N23.3 billion out of N40 billion. That is 58.3 percent. What is outstanding is N16.6 billion, amounting to 41.67 percent not released.”