The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Lagos State has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s reappointment of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) leaves much to be desired.
The IPAC Chairman, Mr Femi Olaniyi, who made this remark in an interview on Wednesday in Lagos, said much were still being expected from Yakubu-led INEC.
Olaniyi, popularly known as Ferrari said: “The structure and quality of electoral management is a crucial factor of the democratic project in any nation.
“To this end, the reappointment of Prof. Yakubu Mahmood leaves much to be desired giving the myriads of electoral problems experienced during and after the 2019 general elections.
“Today, it is an open secret that many of the INEC officials are partisan politicians and readily have their own candidates.
“They easily decide when and where to cancel elections or declare them inconclusive, even if those elections were adjudged to be free and fair by even international the observers.”
According to him, with the way elections have been conducted in Nigeria since the return of our nascent democracy, it is correct to say it has never been smooth sailing.
“The country’s tortuous history with electoral irregularities has continued to inform Nigerians’ fervent vigilance towards electoral conducts as the countdown to 2023 begins,” he said.
Olaniyi, also the Lagos State Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said that Nigerians had been longing for an electoral process in the country’s democracy where votes would actually count and voters would be proud of the process.
He added that the craves for free and fair elections had been the reason for countless electoral litigations that had continued to result in numerous court overrule of election results and court-appointed leaders.
The IPAC chairman said: “The panacea to organising free, fair and credible elections in any clime is to have a just and unbiased electoral body.
” It requires an umpire that will serve the interests of the citizenry as against the selfish and wicked interests of the few oligarchs whose intentions are always to perpetuate themselves in power.
“INEC should therefore endeavour as much as possible not to tamper with laid down election guidelines in favour of certain parties, especially the ruling All Progressives Congress.
“INEC should work round the clock to improve the hitherto biased and maligned accreditation methods. Clearly, failure to do these would lead to massive election rigging. Therefore INEC should come clean and not shift the goal post.”
President Buhari on Monday nominated the INEC Chairman in a letter to the Senate for a second and final term in office.
