Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu on Wednesday lamented absence of electoral integrity with respect to the elections that are held to produce leaders for the third tier of government in the country.
He described local government elections that are held in the country as mere ‘coronation’ of the candidates nominated by the ruling parties in the respective states and he has therefore expressed the need for significant reforms that will henceforth ensure fair and credible local government elections.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Yakubu said this when the executive members of the Forum of State Independent Electoral Commissions visited him in his office in Abuja on Wednesday.
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He accused state governors of not allowing SIECs to operate independently while adding that many of the state electoral commissions lack functional offices, permanent staff, and the security of tenure necessary to ensure free and fair elections.
‘Realizing our shared responsibility for the conduct of democratic elections in Nigeria and the challenges faced by SIECs in carrying out their mandates, INEC encouraged the establishment of FOSIECOM in a genuine effort to foster partnership for credible elections in Nigeria.
Unfortunately, the conduct of local government elections in virtually all the states of the federation has become mere coronation of candidates of the ruling parties. It is time to stop the coronation and conduct proper elections.
State governors should allow the SIECs to have greater capacity for an independent action. Many of the SIECs have no functional offices in the Local Government Areas in their States and cannot recruit their permanent staff’ he said.
Mahmood also lamented that in some states, the electoral commissions are only constituted shortly before elections and dissolved immediately afterwards, with critical functions often taken over by government officials.
SIECs are forced to rely on INEC for basic election materials like ballot boxes and voting cubicles.
‘In some states, the SIECs are either not properly constituted, have no security of tenure or their critical functions have been taken over by government officials. Some SIECs are only constituted on the eve of elections and dissolved thereafter.
They are also severely under-resourced to the extent that some of them rely on INEC even for basic facilities such as ballot boxes and voting cubicles’ he added.
Cognizant of INEC’s enormous responsibilities and limited federal budget, Yakub emphasized that INEC’s support for SIECs would be largely restricted to providing the voter register, as mandated by the constitution.
‘Consequently, many Nigerians mistake the SIECs for INEC. Indeed, even some of the stakeholders, including candidates for Local Government elections, call them state INEC.
This situation has forced us to reconsider some aspects of our relationship with the SIECs. Our support is now largely restricted to the voter register as provided by the constitution.
INEC cannot shoulder its extensive responsibilities and at the same time extend almost limitless support to other independent electoral commissions for elections outside our mandate across the country from our lean Federal budget’ he submitted.
Yakub also clarified that while INEC is responsible for elections in the Federal Capital Territory, SIECs conduct elections that will produce 768 Local Government Chairmen and 8,747 Councilors in the country.
He described the FCT elections conducted by INEC as a model for local government elections in the 36 states noting that elections in the FCT have witnessed improvements such as secure tenures for elected officials, regular elections, and diverse electoral outcomes.
‘No single party has ever dominated all constituencies in the Area Councils’ he added-Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
