Ahead of the expiration of the tenure of the incumbent chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, renowned civil society organisation, Yiaga Africa has called for a constitutional amendment that would strip the President the power of appointing the chairman of the Commission.
The call was made at the weekend during a sensitisation workshop organised for civil society groups based in Anambra State by Yiaga Africa in Awka, ahead of the November governorship election in the state.
Yiaga Africa’s Programme Manager, Cynthia Mbamalu, stated that the workshop was to enable CSOs brainstorm on potential flaws that need be highlighted that could make the outcome of the governorship election not credible.
They observed that allowing the president to appoint the chairman of the electoral body gives the occupier the powers to influence outcomes of elections.
It was recommended at the workshop for the 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), among others which should be created by the law with the mandate to recommend applicants to the National Assembly for the appointment of INEC chairman.
Such Commission would call for applications from qualified candidates for appointment into the INEC position as chairman, screen, and, shortlist qualified applicants, and, forward same to the National Assembly for public hearing for a choice of the most qualified person to be appointed as INEC chairman by the National Assembly.
The CSOs recommended further that any person who would be appointed chairman of the commission should not have belonged to any political party; should not be above 60 years old, and, should be a courageous person who can reject any pressure from any higher authorities.
It was also recommended that the National Assembly should amend the electoral law to strip the President the power of appointing 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, and other vices, a member of 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 reason why vote-buying and thuggery are prevailing during elections “, Prof Aduba insisted.
Meanwhile, the organisation said that 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.
Yiaga Africa said 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 from voter verification, accreditation, voting, sorting, counting, recording and pasting of results in the polling unit.
Aduba also said that another set of citizen observers totalling 22 would be deployed across the 21 local governments on the election day to also observe the conduct of the polls.
He also stated that the organisation has already started sensitisation of electorate at local government and ward levels ahead of the governorship election to sensitise them to turn out en mass to participate in the voting, and, to shun electoral malpractices.
