Ikechukwu Obiorah, lawmaker who represented Anambra South Senatorial district between 2007 and 2011, says the executive arm of government should be stripped of the power to appoint electoral officials.
Obiorah, who is a lawyer and author, stated this in his treatise on “The Philosophy of Elections and Nigeria’s Fake Democracy”, made available to journalists in Abuja, on Sunday.
He said since independence, many elections have been brazenly rigged, leading to poverty and underdevelopment across the country.
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Obiorah blamed the non- existence of honest, transparent, free and fair elections in Nigeria for the mass poverty and gross underdevelopment in the country.
Worried by the prevailing situation, the erstwhile federal lawmaker said he has proposed a constitutional amendment that will ensure that the power to appoint members of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and State Independent National Electoral Commission (SIECs) is taken away from the President and Governors.
He said the power should be vested in a neutral body which would trigger processes in motion for lifting Nigeria out poverty.
A proposed bill to that effect has already been sent to both the Senate and the House of Representatives, according to Obiorah.
He reasoned that had the people been allowed to be exercising the power to freely elect their leaders since 1960, Nigeria would, be a fully developed nation by the first world standards and ramifications.
According to him, “Since Independence, 90 percent of all elections, Parliamentary, Presidential, National Assembly, Governorship, House of Assembly, Local Government Council elections, have been brazenly stolen or rigged or perverted or altogether thwarted or nullified.
“In other words, Nigerians have never really and voluntarily chosen their leaders, nor have Nigerians ever been governed with their proper consent and participation.
“In Nigeria, the simple but painful cause of stealing and rigging of elections is that those vested with power to appoint the electoral bodies and personnel were themselves or their political parties or their preferred candidates, contestants in the same elections.
“Right from Independence, the then Prime Minister, and later, the President, was always cloaked with the power to appoint the commissioners and senior officers of the electoral bodies responsible for the conduct of all elections in Nigeria.
“However, by virtue of the 1999 Constitution, the power of appointing the State electoral bodies responsible for conducting local government elections was transferred to the State Governors.
“Consequently, the world has been witnessing the Soviet Union style results declared from Nigeria’s local government elections, where the Governor’s political party, in most cases, scores 100% victory. The world has also been hearing loud cries and protestations against rigging and seeing the avalanche of court cases that attend all other elections in Nigeria for which the President appoints the electoral bodies and officers.” he noted.
