Next INEC Chairman Must Be Competent, Credible, CSOs Declare

*Say Tinubu not addressing 2023 election shortcomings 

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Nigeria Civil Society Coalition Situation Room has advocated for the engagement of qualified and credible Nigerians at the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
Convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room Coalition, Y.Z. Ya’u, who spoke at an advocacy meeting with the Nigeria Union of Journalists(NUJ),  said the next set of appointees at INEC should be people that will be ready to do the right thing and not to compromise on rules and standards of electoral process
 He said that this became necessary following a series of unfulfilled expectations for free and fair elections.

“It is important that we ensure that people appointed into the leadership of INEC, whether as its chairman or Resident commissioners, are persons with credibility and integrity devoid of partisanship,” he said.
He added, “This is one major election coming and the government has not made any serious effort in terms of addressing the flaws that we observed in the 2023 general election and previous elections.
“We haven’t seen any executive bill sent to the legislature that will address any of the issues people have raised.”

Ya’u said yesterday’s engagement was meant to flag off discussions on the way forward in reforming our electoral system to ensure a more credible and transparent election.
While presenting some key highlights of the 2023 general election, a civil society activist, Aghanpe Onyema, said that the poor use of IREV electronic devices by INEC was responsible for most of the disputed results.
She said that the Electoral Act needs to be further amended in order to take care of current realities.

Lead discussant, Bukola Idowu of Kimpact Development Initiative, said that no matter what the wishes and expectations of Nigerians are for a credible election, a defective Electoral Act will always render such expectations untenable .
For instance, he pointed out that what caused most of the flaws of the last 2023 presidential election was that whereas INEC was expected to transmit election results via the IREV, such was not expressly stated in Nigeria’s constitution.

He listed key factors that affected the credibility of election in Nigeria to include; election framework, Election Management Board (EMB) selection and appointment, election delimitation,selection security.
Others are political party management, electoral justice, political finance, electoral education, electoral logistics and procurement, political office incentives and misinformation and disinformation.

According to him, there is need for a strong media sector that is not election day focused but process driven.