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Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has called for the transfer of the power to appoint the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from the president to the judiciary.
He made the call yesterday, in a personally signed press statement titled “Towards Credible Elections: The Role of the Judiciary.”
The former vice president said it is one of the key recommendations of the National Electoral Reform Committee (NERC) headed by a former Chief Justice of the Federation (CJN) Mohammed Uwais.
Similarly, Atiku also called for the creation of an Electoral Crimes Commission to investigate and prosecute electoral crimes, insisting that if the two major reforms are implemented, they would help to deepen the country’s democracy.
Former president, Umaru Yar’Adua, had after his election in 2007, acknowledged that the election that brought him into office was flawed and promised to reform the country’s electoral system.
In fulfillment of the promise, he set up the National Electoral Reform Committee (NERC) to examine the problems of conducting credible elections in Nigeria and make recommendations for addressing the problem. However, most of the recommendations of the committee were not implemented.
But Atiku said: “Obviously, the 2019 elections were several steps down from the 2015 elections in terms of credibility, and as a democrat, I am challenging that election in the right arena, the courts. However, leadership does not just entail getting justice for the past. A real leader knows that in terms of justice, prevention is better than cure. I have been pondering on the question, how Nigeria can have credible elections. Our electoral system needs not just to be brought up to
date, by the acceptance of the amendments to the Electoral Act passed by the eight National Assembly, we also need to be up to tomorrow, by taking steps today to ensure that the lapses that made it possible for the 2019 elections to be manipulated or rigged are addressed. One way of addressing these lapses is to implement the salient recommendations of the National Electoral Reform Committee (NERC) headed by former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais.
“The second is the creation of Electoral Crimes Commission. One of such recommendations, which will enhance the independence of the supposedly Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is the recommendation that the power to appoint the Chairman and board of the INEC be taken away from the President and given to the Judiciary. Of all three arms of government, the Judiciary is the least affected by elections, meaning that it has the highest objectivity in matters relating to the INEC. It is therefore in the best position of the three arms, to appoint a Chairman and board members for the electoral body that are impartial, competent and patriotic. This recommendation may seem like a small change, but my experience in life has taught me never to underestimate the big difference small changes can make.
Nigeria today faces a lot of challenges, chief of which are security and economic revival. To effectively tackle these problems, a government must have an honest and indisputable mandate.
Where you have an administration whose mandate is considered tainted, such a government will lack sufficient moral authority to tackle the myriad of problems this great nation currently faces.
I conclude by saying that I do not believe in blaming. Leadership must be solution-oriented, not blame focused. This is why I proffer this patriotic advice. Nigeria must be great again and all hands must be on deck to achieve that,” Atiku added.
