Following the shoddy conduct of the 2023 general election and subsequent off-cycle polls, some concerned Nigerians have called for a comprehensive overhaul of the independent National electoral Commission (INEC). They believe that the current perception of INEC by Nigerians will erode the people’s confidence in the electoral system and lead to voter apathy and total boycott of polls if nothing is done now to reform the electoral body.
Therefore, in a bid to ensure electoral integrity and transparency in the conduct of Nigeria’s future polls, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for the appointment of a credible leadership of INEC at all levels. Obasanjo, who made the call at a recent Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States, listed the qualities of individuals to be appointed for the job. These include persons of proven records and impeccable reputations. He charged Nigerians to ensure that the INEC chairman and his staff were thoroughly vetted to ensure that the best emerged for the positions.
“As a matter of urgency, we must make sure the INEC chairperson and his officials are thoroughly vetted. The vetting exercise should yield dispassionate, non-partisan, actors with impeccable reputations. The INEC chairperson must not only be absolutely above board, he must also be transparently, independent and incorruptible,” Obasanjo stated.
The tenure of the INEC officials, he said, should be for short-term to prevent undesirable political influence and corruption, and re-establish trust in the electoral systems by its citizens. Controversies arising from the 2023 general election and other off-cycle contests seemingly informed his call for the reform of the electoral body.
Obasanjo is not alone in asking for a transparent electoral body that is truly independent. He has further underscored the thinking of many Nigerians on the issue. Since 1999, some elections in the country have consistently failed the test of fairness and credibility. The height of the malfeasance was attained in the 2023 general election, in which INEC failed in the discharge of its duties despite the massive deployment of technology and adequate funding for the exercise.
Before the polls, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had vowed to give Nigerians the best poll in the history of the country. He particularly boasted that the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) would ensure a transparent poll. However, the election was marred by technical glitches which led to the alleged manipulation of the election. Both local and international election observers who monitored the polls scored INEC and its officials low on the exercise.
Similarly, the off-cycle elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states, which came shortly after the 2023 poll, were also plagued by allegations of irregularities, including falsification of election results and other infractions. The September 21 Edo governorship election and subsequent exercise in Ondo on November 16 2024, were not remarkably different from others before them.
The absence of transparency in the electoral system is not new. The irregularities in 2007 elections were so glaring that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who emerged the winner, late Umaru Yar’Adua, described the process which led to his election as flawed.
Displeased by the manipulations that brought him to power, President Yar’Adua vowed that future polls would be free, fair and credible. Consequently, on August 28, 2007, he inaugurated an Electoral Reform Committee headed by former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mohammed Uwais.
In its 254-page report, the committee made far-reaching recommendations to transform the economy, improve the welfare of Nigerians and restore their confidence in the electoral system. The committee recommended, among others: Constitutional amendments that would insulate INEC from the political influences of the executive arm of government in terms of its composition and funding.
It also recommended that the power to appoint INEC board be transferred from the president to the National Judicial Council (NJC), while its funding should be on first line charge on the Consolidated Revenue of the Federation. The committee further recommended that there should be no swearing-in of elected officials until the courts have determined all the petitions arising from the elections. The report of the committee is yet to be implemented.
Obasanjo’s call for electoral reform is in order. It is also timely, coming before the 2027 general election and the end of tenure of INEC chairman. Let the government and the National Assembly put measures in place to make INEC truly independent. Let there be laws that will ensure transparent elections.