A Civil Society organisation, Partners for Electoral Reform, has faulted a recent call for the removal Prof Yakubu Mahmoud as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) had recently asked President Bola Tinubu to sack the INEC boss.
Agbakoba hinged his call over claims of poor logistics arrangements by the electoral body during the recently concluded 2023 elections.
But convener of the Partners for Electoral Reform, Ezenwa Nwagwu while addressing journalists Friday in Abuja said the former President of NBA showed poor understanding of the electoral process.
Ezenwa said anybody who followed the 2023 election would have been able to know the context in which that election was held.
According to him, being a Senior Advocate of Nigeria does not confer knowledge of electoral issues, adding that “You have to have a painstaking participant engagement with the process to be able to understand it.”
He said: “For many people now, what they do is, ‘believe me because my name is Olisa Agbakoba.’ But We’re not just going to believe you because your name is Olisa Agbakoba, we’re going to believe you, only from the point of the knowledge of the real issues that you are able to exude.”
Explaining some of the reasons that led to the logistic challenges experienced by INEC, he said: “The issue of the unnecessary colouring of the Naira, which brought about shortage of cash both for citizens and for institutions, and for an organisation like INEC that its activities actually depend on vendor relationship. That catastrophic policy of the central bank was a setback for logistics for the election. We also know the issue of fuel scarcity during that period. The circumstance around that election was held around the period of fuel scarcity and the rest of them.”
Ezenwa said while it is true that the election experienced some challenges, the positives far outweighed the negative outcomes
He said under the kind of climate which the election held, “somebody who is a participant observer in election issues should not make the kind of call that Chief Olisha Agbokaba made.
“Even more worrisome, he (Agbakoba) also said recently that he made a shocking discovery that our election is manual, and I asked him ‘Where have you been?’ if as a senior advocate of Nigeria you don’t know that election in Nigeria is manual, then it means that you have no right to make a call on issues that are not very substantive. And Senior Advocate of Nigeria does not confer knowledge of electoral issues.”
Ezenwa said while INEC seems to be taking all the heat, the political class are being excused for their roles in electoral violence and voters apathy experienced during the election.
“I’m not saying that there were no issues. An election is not a church service. Election is a competitive enterprise. We give comfort to the real people who cause challenges in the election. INEC does not cause voters suppression. Politicians do in collaboration with disgruntled INEC officials, right? INEC does not unleash violence, politicians unleash violence. Now 90% of the time in discussing 2023 election, you focus on INEC, you leave the role of security agents. You leave the role of the political parties and their candidates and the role they play in making bad elections.
“INEC will bring its ballot box to the most remote part of this country there will be a ballot box there. INEC d officials were killed in 2023, they were Nigerians. INEC were kidnapped. By whom? Who kidnapped them? Who murdered them? We provide comfort for the political class and their inability to embrace reforms and conduct themselves in a manner that allows for free and fair election. So, I’m not saying there were no issues, and nobody can say that. But I am more interested in the positives.
“When you say INEC said it will upload results in real time, and it didn’t do so. I am saying that is a moral issue. It has nothing to do with the law. Because the law has been satisfied when collation and announcements have been concluded.
