• Wants neutral bodies to appoint electoral umpires

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

Former senator representing Anambra South, Ikechukwu Obiorah, has called for an overhaul of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) to improve the credibility of elections in the country.

Obiorah, in a proposal to the National Assembly, called for the president and state governors to be stripped of the powers to appoint the INEC chairman and chairmen of the various SIECs at the state level.

According to him, following years of allegedly flawed elections, the power to appoint the electoral umpires should be vested in a neutral body.  He argued that once Nigeria gets its elections right, development would invariably follow.

The former lawmaker, who was in the Senate between 2007 to 2011, in a document entitled, “The Philosophy of Elections and Nigeria’s Fake Democracy,” argued that had the people been allowed to exercise the power to freely elect their leaders since 1960, the country would have been fully developed by now.

He noted that, “by virtue of the 1999 Constitution, the power to appoint the state electoral bodies responsible for conducting local government elections was transferred to the state governors.

“Consequently, the world has been witnessing the Soviet Union style results declared from Nigeria’s local government elections, where the Governor’s political party, in most cases, scores 100 percent victory.

“The world has also been hearing loud cries and protestations against rigging and seeing the avalanche of court cases that attend all other elections in Nigeria for which the President appoints the electoral bodies and officers. “I most humbly propose a constitutional amendment to provide for the establishment of a new, truly and literally Independent National Electoral Commission, (new INEC), charged with the responsibility of conducting all elections for all elected offices in the three tiers of government, the federal, state and local governments.

“I also propose that the new INEC be composed and constituted by 13 commissioners, six of whom would be elected by the under-listed six Nigerian labour and professional organisations and six commissioners nominated by the United Nations and one commissioner – observer nominated by Transparency International, totalling 13 commissioners.

“The new INEC would have the power to elect and remove its chairman and hire and fire all staff, including the chief executive officer.

“The election of six commissioners by the under listed Nigerian labour and professional organisations is arranged in a corresponding alphabetical order as follows: The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics would elect one commissioner out of its members from the North Central geopolitical zone; the Academic Staff Union of Universities would elect one commissioner out of its members from the North East geopolitical zone; the Institute of Chartered Accountants would elect one commissioner out of its members from the North West geopolitical zone; the Nigerian Bar Association would elect one commissioner out of its members from the South East geopolitical zone; the Nigerian Medical Association would elect one commissioner out of its members from the South South geopolitical zone and the Nigerian Union of Journalists would elect one commissioner out of its members from the South West geopolitical zone.”