Ex – Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] Prof. Jega Attahiru express that the Senate should look into the way INEC appoints its Chairperson and Commissioners, as well as Resident Electoral Commissioners.
Jega said that the situation where the Chairperson and Resident Electoral Commissioners are appointed by the same person adds to the system’s indiscipline and lack of clear authority. He added that his point was misinterpreted to suggest that 2023 elections would be compromised. “I didn’t say that, I said that Resident Electors should be appointed by the Commission,” he said.
The former INEC Chairman said in a statement on Tuesday. “I urge the senators to look into how INEC appoints Chairpersons and Resident Electors.” I have said it before. When we look at the general elections in 2023, we knew that certain people in the political system were able to appoint Resident Electoral Commissioners.
Unfortunately, these Resident Commissioners were not thoroughly screened and vetted by the Senate. As a result, they ended up in a state where they were not following the lawful instructions of INEC and where there have been irregularities largely due to the fact that they were not following the orders of those responsible for appointing them.
I believe that as we move forward with the reform of the electoral process, one of the most important things to have in place is an independent and transparent process for appointing the Chairperson and Commissioners.
Once you have appointed very good people to the commission, there is no excuse why they should not be the ones to appoint and fire lower level administrative officers, especially those in charge of the states. But the point I was making is that if you have two RECs who are acting irrationally and disregarding legal orders, if you do your research, you’ll find that it was someone very close to the President who nominated them, either because they were friends or classmates of the President or because they were employees of the President’s company.
That’s why we’ve seen all these issues. So, to avoid this, the truth is, and the perception is, he who pays the price dictates the music. We need to clean up the appointment process of the chairman and the RECs, and then allow the commission to appoint RECs and also professionalize the commission’s staff.
