FORMER President Goodluck Jonathan has said that no single person should have the power to appoint all the election petition tribunals.

This is as Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, said that the problems of Nigeria were self-inflicted as they flowed from politicisation of everything and the promotion of pervasive injustice.

Jonathan, who made this remark during a lecture/book presentation to mark the second term inauguration of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, in Port Harcourt on Monday, explained that allowing a single person to appoint election petition tribunals would erode the confidence in the system.

“The judicial process where one person constitutes all the election tribunals to hear petitions is not right. It is difficult in a democracy for somebody to be extremely neutral.

“In one way or the other, somebody close to you will be in one party or the other. The only way to be above is to make sure that one person does not have all the powers to constitute tribunals to listen to all cases,” he said.

The former President stated that if democracy must endure, the democratic process must be developed in a way that people will have confidence in the electoral process.

Jonathan explained that in spite of the challenges, Nigeria must embrace electronic voting, describing electronic voting as the ultimate, going forward.

He stated that the African continent must come up with a minimum standard for the establishment of an election management body.

Jonathan said for the purpose of confidence building for credible elections, no single person should have the power to constitute an election management body.

Jonathan, however, called for the enthronement of independent security agencies that would provide security during elections.

He decried the online video in Rivers State where women were dragging soldiers attempting to compromise Rivers elections.

According to Jonathan, “The African Union must come up with a code of conduct for security operatives that participate in elections.

“What happened in Rivers State, in a video being circulated where women were dragging soldiers down from walls was a very sorry sight. When these things are being discussed outside the country, if you are a Nigerian, you feel so ashamed.” – Punch

– 27 May, 2019 @ 19:12 GMT |