Iheanacho Nwosu, Abuja
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Abuja have demanded immediate prosecution of all the people involved in electoral malfeasance during the last election even as they called for the signing of a new electoral law to forestall a repeat of pitfalls of 2019 polls.
This is as the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied claims that the body compromised 2019 elections, insisting that the blame for whatever shortcomings that might have been discovered in the election should be taken to the doorstep of politicians and mischief makers.
It said that it would soon submit to the National Assembly the report of the last election as required by the constitution.
Both the CSOs and INEC spoke at the presentation of 2019 General Election Report and 2019 General Election Observation Statements. The events were organised by Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) and Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room.
At the two well-attended event include the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, represented by the Resident Electoral Commissions In charge of Information, Festus Okoye, scores of other RECs including Amina Zakari, Mohammed Haruna, May Agbamuvhe-Mbie and Chairman, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) Peter Ameh .
Others were Resident Electoral Commissioner for Akwa Ibom, Mike Igini, his colleagues from Zamfara, Enugu and Osun states.
Describing as unfortunate a situation where months after the general election those who committed diverse electoral offenses were walking the street free, the acting Executive Director of CTA , Ms Faith Nwadishi, said the situation was sending a wrong signal to the public.
She said: “Let us state clearly here that the ultimate test of credibility is how the government handles criminality. If people do not see electoral offenders prosecuted and punished, the message would be clear that these persons work for those we have elected and who tomorrow will come seeking our votes again. If the government and the political class continue to act nonchalant, the people will lose confidence in politics and democracy and anarchy and self-help would be the outcomes. That would spell the end of Nigeria as we know it. It ‟is, therefore, the duty of the government, INEC and every patriotic citizen to ensure that. We have to work for a better electoral system now by ensuring that the law is upheld and offenders are appropriately punished.
Her stand was re-echoed by Igini who said the problem with the country’s democracy was the elite whom he said were benefiting from the current situation.
He said “political elite is the greatest threat to our democracy. They are working to consolidate on their wrongdoings.
“The problem we have is the absence of consequence for offenders. A situation a wrong is allowed, it could be repeated tomorrow. That is the challenge we have on our hands.”
Calling for a concerted action to rebuild credibility in the country’s electoral system , Nwadishi canvassed joining of forces by stakeholders to firm up new laws in that regard.
She said “we believe the attempt to rebuild electoral credibility must start with the law. The incoming National Assembly must work in collaboration with INEC, civil society organisations and other stakeholders to firm up our electoral laws. We are prepared to make our technical contributions in this regard. Indeed, there is a need to give INEC more powers to reflect the presumed independence of the body. It must as much as possible be put fully in charge of the resources and personnel it needs for elections.
“We cannot afford to continue placing the fate of our nation in the hands of ad-hoc staff for such important assignments related to elections.”
On security, she said: “While we generally commend members of the security services for helping with maintaining law and order during the election, we cannot overlook the fact that the deployment of the military was unlawful and uncalled for. Our laws do not give soldiers any role to play in our election and our courts up to the highest level have ruled accordingly. Their deployment and brazen partisanship against the opposition was an affront on decency. Of course, we realise that they could only have acted on the orders of their political and civil superiors, but no soldier or commander of military forces is compelled to obey an unlawful order.
“The way and manner the Nigeria armed forces handled itself in the general election has not brought it respect and glory at all. Making themselves unlawful instruments of agenda-driven politicians has not brought honour to the uniform.”
She stressed that there was the need to invest in technology to help bridge the gap left by poor deployment of technology.
The CTA boss said: “We must also invest in technology. It is an embarrassment seeing the amount of paper we carry all over the place during elections. There are ways people can vote credibly from wherever they are and for the vote to count. We do not need the massive national logistical and personnel mobilisation we engage in during elections. There are climes where elections are conducted while people go about their daily businesses without disruption. Technology makes that possible and we must not be left behind.”
She argued that it would be wrong to wholly blame INEC for the lapses observed during the election when they were mainly caused by other forces.
“We salute Nigerians for their role in the election. That the election did not turn out as planned isn’t because of them. We witnessed the huge turnout of Nigerians during the presidential and National Assembly elections and the fact that this was not the case in the governorship and the State Houses of Assembly and FCT Council elections is because of the disappointing way the first one went.
“A people are entitled to their frustration when political leaders behave horribly as our Nigerian political leaders have done. We urge Nigerians to persevere with the democratic system because it is our only way out of the woods. However, to get the best of it, we must do our duty of courageously holding our leaders accountable at every level. We also salute our citizens who are persons with disability (PWD) for coming out in record number during the elections. Obviously, this must have been influenced by the conditions created by INEC to make their voting experience more comfortable. So, we also thank INEC for that. But, in all, we are happy that Nigerian citizens are getting more informed and are prepared to stick with the democratic process as we continue to work collectively to get it right.”
Meanwhile, INEC has said that there is need to amend Section 35 of the Electoral Act (2010) relating to the withdrawal of nominated candidates. According to Okoye the timeline is inadequate and does not give the “commission enough time to procure sensitive materials required for the conduct of elections.”
He said the commission was concerned about the recruitment of ad-hoc staff. He said politicians have “moved in to corrupt some of the ad-hoc staff and unleashed violence on others.”
The INEC spokesman disclosed that the commission will review the “rough edges and issues raised relating to deployment, neutrality and overall conduct of security agencies.”