Politics
…urges Tinubu to act now
“It is generally expected that with the political battles of last year over since the Supreme court has awarded the result of the hotly contested and disputed presidential poll to Tinubu, and with the last batch of cases centred around the governirship in 4 states of the Federation about to be terminated one way or the other by the nation’s apex court, the President who enjoys the constitutional power of appointing unbiased electoral umpires, should behave as a statesman and request the National Assembly to remove the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission and the national commissioners so new sets of patriotic, competent, neutral and committed Nigerians are appointed to head that body. It is so true that the current crop of the hierarchy of INEC almost pushed Nigeria into civil war, anarchy, doom and instability by their intentional mismanagement of the last election circle.”
With the above summation, the leading Civil Rights Advocacy group: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to disband constitutionally, the current ethically challenged and grossly compromised hierarchy of the Independent National Electoral Commission with immediate effect through the National Assembly so the government can publicly advertise the slots for interested Nigerians from all over the World to apply and be thoroughly screened then the competent applicants are made Chairman and National commissioners of INEC to conduct free, fair, transparent elections going forward. The present corrupt INEC can’t deliver a transparent poll because nobody can donate what he/she doesn’t have( nemo dat quod non habet).”
HURIWA which accused the federal government officials who responded to the comprehensive report of foreign observers especially the report done by the European Union, of sabotaging the democratic interests of the larger body of Nigerians, has therefore tasked president Tinubu who has by now achieved his lifetime ambition of become Nigeria’s president, to emulate great Nigerian statesmen such as Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir. Ahmadu Bello and Chief Obafemi Awolowo all of illustrious memories, by taking drastic but fence-mending decisions to reform and unbundle the national electoral management body for the sake of posterity and for the electoral health of Nigeria.”
“If truth be told, the deliberate misconduct and crass electoral heists supervised by the current hierarchy of INEC almost and very nearly pushed Nigeria into a state of civil war but for the fact that the leading co-contestants with Tinubu such as Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi are great Nigerian peace lovers who prevailed on their supporters who are in their millions to maintain the peace and believe in the rule of law. If those who ran against Tinubu of All Progressives Congress were desperate for political power by all means, they could’ve very well mobilised their millions of supporters to set the stage for a massive political unrests which may inevitably snowball into a civil war all because of the wilful incompetence and gross compromise of the electoral system by INEC during the 2023 poll. If the present INEC stay on till 2027, then surely there may be National conflagration if they try to do what they did in last year’s poll.”
“We urge the president to consider the larger interest of Nigeria by bringing about a dispassionate reforms and unbundling of the cotrupt ridden INEC. Let the president not be focused and fixated on the next Election but should be bothered about what quality of legacy or name he will leave for generations unborn to remember him for. Mr. President must know that good name is better by wealth amassed through political corruption. Will the president take the bull by the horns by reforming and removing the axis of evil embedded deeply within the present INEC or will he out of selfish interest allow these unqualified and unmeritorious bunch of officials to continue to mess up the polity by conducting elections that are prone to been hijacked by moneybags?”
HURIWA said the European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) did Nigeria a groundswell of great things by presenting its final report on the last Nigerian general elections highlighting six priority areas even as the Rights group pointed out that Nigeria stands to benefit immensely by incorporating some of the salient proposals made by the European Union.
The HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA in a statement by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko its Executive Director, recalled that the Chief Observer of the European Union election monitoring mission to Nigeria last year, Barry Andrews, presented the report which has 25 recommendations, at a press conference in Abuja.
Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), conducted the presidential and National Assembly elections on 25 February while the governorship and state houses of assembly polls were held on 18
Presenting the report, Mr Andrews said: “we are particularly concerned about the need for reform in six areas which we have identified as priority recommendations, and we believe, if implemented, could contribute to improvements for the conduct of elections.”
The areas, he said include removing ambiguities in the law; establishing a publicly accountable selection process for INEC members, and ensuring real-time publication of and access to election results.
Others are providing greater protection for media practitioners, addressing discrimination against women in political life, and addressing impunity regarding electoral offences.
Although the last elections showed the commitment of Nigerians to democracy, it also exposed enduring systemic weaknesses and therefore signal a need for further legal and operational reforms to enhance transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability, Mr Andrews noted.
He added that shortcomings in law and electoral administration hindered the conduct of well-run and inclusive elections and damaged trust in INEC.
He stated that political will is crucial in achieving improved democratic practices in Nigeria and the EU stands ready to support Nigeria in the implementation of its recommendations.
Priority recommendations
It also made some recommendations.
Removing ambiguities in the law: Protect the interests of voters through certainty of law for all stages and aspects of electoral processes by eliminating from electoral law and regulations errors and ambiguities to avoid potential for conflicting interpretations, and ensuring the revision processes are inclusive.
Establishing a publicly accountable selection process for INEC members: Establish a robust operational framework for the independence, integrity, and efficiency of electoral administration through an inclusive and publicly accountable mechanism for selecting candidates to the posts of INEC commissioners and RECs based on clear criteria of evaluation of merits, qualifications, and verified non-partisanship.
Ensuring real-time publication of and access to election results: Protect the free expression of the will of the voter and integrity of elections by establishing a robust, transparent, and easily verifiable results processing system with clear rules. These include uploading polling unit results from the polling unit only and in real time, at each level of collation results forms to be uploaded in real time, and all forms to be published in an easily trackable and scrapable database format.
HURIWA said if President Bola Tinubu will forget his self interest and think only about the collective interest of Nigeria as a sovereignty, then he should immediately adopt mechanisms for the immediate implementation of the suggestions by EU just as the Rights group said the way to start is to demonstrate the political will to put square pegs in square holes at INEC by disbanding the current leadership that suffers from irreparable ethical erosion and because their continuous stay in office is corrosive and toxic to our electoral system as a nation, the best bet is to sack them now.
A.
-January 22, 2023 @ 14:35 GMT|
Tags: HURIWA INEC
