Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has restated that the Senate should review the mode of appointment of the chairman and commissioners of the electoral body.
Jega made this emphasis while speaking in an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday.
He stated, “I call upon the senators to review the mode of appointment of INEC Chairman and Commissioners as well as the resident electoral commissioners. And that point I made was somehow taken out of context to say that the 2023 elections were compromised; actually, I didn’t say so, so what I said, as you rightly pointed out, is that Resident Electoral Commissioners should be ideally appointed by the commission.
“A situation in which the person who appointed the chairman is also the same person who nominated or appointed the Resident Electoral Commissioners brings indiscipline into the system and the lack of a clear line of authority.
“And that is what I said. When we look at the 2023 general elections, we know that some people in the corridors of power succeeded in getting Resident Electoral Commissioners to be appointed, and, regrettably, these Resident Electoral Commissioners were not thoroughly vetted and screened by the Senate.
“And they ended up going into a state where they disregarded lawful instructions from INEC and where we have seen irregularities largely because, logically, they may be doing the bidding of those who are responsible for their appointment.
“I believe that moving forward as we continue to reform the electoral process, it is very important, first of all, to have an independent, transparent process, independent of the presidency, for the appointment of Chairman and Commissioners.
“And once you are able to have very good people appointed to the commission, then there is no reason why they shouldn’t be the ones to hire and fire lower-level administrative officers, particularly those in charge of states.
“But the point I made is, clearly, if you have two Resident Electoral Commissioners who are very reckless and disregarded lawful orders, if you can do your investigation, you will find that it was a particular person very close to the president who made the nomination, because they were either his friends or his classmates or because they were actually workers in his company.
“And that’s why we’ve seen all these problems. So to avoid this thing, the reality, as well as the perception, is that he who pays the piper dictates the tune.
“It is important to sanitise the process of appointing the chairman and commissioners, and then to allow the commission to now appoint Resident Electoral Commissioners and also professionalize the staff of the commission,” he said.
Vanguard
