Ahead of Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu’s exit as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), some civil society organisations (CSOs) have called for a constitutional amendment that would strip the president of the power to appoint the commission’s chairman.
The call was made at the weekend during a sensitisation workshop organised for civil society groups based in Anambra State by a renowned democracy advocacy organisation, Yiaga Africa, in Awka, the state capital.
The event was organised ahead of the November governoship election in the state.
Yiaga Africa programme manager Cynthia Mbamalu, said the workshop was to enable the CSOs to brainstorm on potential flaws that needed to be highlighted that could make the outcome of the governorship election uncredible.
It was observed that the appointment of the chairman of the electoral body gives the president powers to influence election outcomes.
It was recommended at the workshop a commission to be composed of representatives of various professional organisations such as the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), etc, should be created by the law to be responsible for recommending applicants to the National Assembly for appointment of INEC chairman.
Such a commission would invite applications from people qualified for appointment to the INEC position as chairman, screen and shortlist qualified applicants, and forward the same to the National Assembly for the National Assembly to organise a public hearing to choose the most qualified person to be appointed INEC chairman by the National Assembly.
The CSOs recommended further that any person who would be appointed chairman of the commission should not belong to any political party, should not be over 60 years old, and should be courageous and able to reject any pressure from higher authorities.
It was also recommended that the National Assembly amend the electoral law to remove the president’s power to appoint the chairman of the INEC before the 2027 general election.
As part of the measures to purge the electoral system of such electoral malpractices like vote-buying, thuggery, etc, a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT), Yiaga Africa, Prof. Nnamdi Aduba, called for a law that would make political offices less attractive by cutting down salaries and allowances of those occupying the positions.
He said, “Allowances of political office holders are so huge, and this is why they do everything to get to the position.
“Unless an appropriate law is made to reduce the huge amount of money political office-holders control, it is a reason why vote-buying and thuggery are prevailing during elections,” Prof Aduba insisted.
Meanwhile, the organisation said it would deploy 250 observers under its Process and Result Verification for Transparency (PRVT) in polling units across the 21 local government areas in the state during the governorship election.
The observers would be deployed to polling units that would be randomly selected through technologically driven data to monitor the conduct of the polls, starting with voter verification, accreditation, voting, sorting, counting, recording, and pasting of results in the polling unit.
The Yiaga Africa programme director also said that on election day, another 22 citizen observers would be deployed across the 21 local governments to observe the conduct of the polls.
Mbamalu also stated that the organisation has already started sensitising the electorate at local government and ward levels ahead of the governorship election to encourage them to turn out en masse to participate in the voting and shun electoral malpractices like vote-buying, thuggery, etc.