Chuks Okocha in Abuja
With events of the 2023 general elections still reverberating across the nation’s political space, Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, has warned that a partisan electoral commission poses a serious threat to democracy in Nigeria going forward.
Itodo explained that one of the key lessons from the 2023 general elections is the fact that a ‘captured’ Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cannot in any way deliver credible and flawless elections to Nigerians.
The Yiaga chief, who delivered a goodwill message at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre Conference in Abuja, said such unhealthy development led to the crisis situation witnessed in Adamawa state, where the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) blatantly declared a false result without minding the possible consequences of his action.
According to Itodo; “If you have an election whose policy-making process has been captured, its procurement system has been captured, an electoral commission whose operating system has been captured does pose a threat to democracy; that is what we saw in the 2023 elections.
“You cannot have an Electoral Commission whose appointees are dominated by politicians; people who have tainted and compromised records. As a people, we have to rise at this critical moment to say enough is enough.
“This capture of the electoral commission, I don’t know how INEC will be able to deliver a credible election if the managers of our political system are people who are aligned with political parties, you will not have a credible election in the circumstances”, he stated
Condemning the brazen nature some of the INEC officials conducted themselves during the 2023 polls, Itodo said: “This is what happened in places like Adamawa, Sokoto, and Abia states among others. It is good that INEC responded and took some actions, but I think it is important to note that a captured INEC is a threat to our democracy.
“Another issue is that we need more than technology to deliver credible elections, we need the principles of integrity to deliver credible elections. Technology did not fail in the 2003 elections, what failed is the human factor. So, we can have the best of Technology, if we have human beings who are compromised, human beings who are determined to subvert the process there is no way technology will deliver credible elections.”
However, he said the need to build trust among the people is the reason that Civil societies are demanding an independent review of the elections in order to make the electoral process more robust, fair, and credible going forward.
Also speaking on the occasion, the Inspector General of Police (IG), Usman Alkali Baba, said all the Commissioners of Police across the states had been instructed to tidy up their case files and forward those on electoral offences to INEC for the prosecution of all electoral offenders.
Hinting that those who committed other offences will be prosecuted by the police, the IG, represented by Basil Idegwu, the Commissioner of Police in charge of Election Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation, said the process was already in progress at the moment.
IG further explained that the investigation of the case against the Adamawa REC, Hudu Ari, was still ongoing, adding that: “we is still looking into it and at the end of the day the appropriate action will be taken.”
Welcoming participants to the conference, the Director General of NIPSS, Professor Ayo Omotayo, said the Institute is a think-tank that captures and reflects on every critical issue of National importance.
He also said the Institute considers the 2023 election as very important given that it set the tone for the country’s development in so many ways.
Omotayo, who was represented by NIPSS’ Director of Research, Professor Pam Sha, said with the Political Party Centre established in the Institute; “We believe that we can organise a discussion around the elections, especially since we are aware of the positive and negative sides of the elections.”
