CSOs Criticizes Calls For Removal Of INEC Chairman

A Civil Society organisation, Partners for Electoral Reform, has criticized recent calls for the removal Prof Yakubu Mahmoud as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The calls where hinged on 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 on Thursday in Abuja said the former President of NBA showed ignorance and poor understanding of the electoral process.

Ezenwa said that anybody who followed the 2023 election would have been able to know the context in which that election was held.

Instead, Ezenwa said the Electoral Commission deserves commendable for the reforms it introduced into the electoral process.

He also that despite the challenges experienced few days to the election, it was the first time in the last 3 election circle, that the exercise held as scheduled and wasn’t postponed.

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

“Even more worrisome, the calls made a shocking discovery that our election is manual, and I ask ‘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.