As off-circle elections draw closer, the Director, Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, Nigeria, ASSPT, Dr. Sam Amadi, has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to repeat the mistakes made in the February 25 presidential election, ahead of the Kogi, Imo, and Bayelsa gubernatorial elections.
This was as he expressed concerns over the integrity of previous elections in these states, highlighting the importance of rectifying any flaws that may have compromised the electoral processes.
To achieve this, he advised INEC to immediately initiate a thorough assessment of all past mistakes and identify areas where improvements need to be made.
For instance, he said the current insecurity challenges bedeviling Imo state came as a result of the poor electoral process and decision during its 2020 gubernatorial election
This, he urged INEC to stand firm on its promises of on-the-spot transmission of results as part of efforts to ensure transparency and regain public trust.
Amadi spoke at a policy roundtable, with the theme: “The gubernatorial elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa: A national Security Challenge”, held, Friday, in Abuja.
He said: “We have seen cases where non-qualification of candidates elections were canceled whether House of Reps or the Senate because those who ran elections were improperly qualified to run.
“So, everything points to a significant degree of failure on INEC and the other stakeholders like the defense, military, police and all that. So, now, we are about to face another election. The governorship elections in Imo Bayelsa and Kogi states. Already we are here getting discordant messages about this election.
“Earlier on, INEC has said that we are going to do transmission of these elections, which is what they promised at the presidential election. And just some two to three days ago, we got news circulated that Bayelsa elections will be manually collected.
“So, back to the same false assurance and false confidence. We know know that place like Imo is under serious security threats in terms of the very sad incident of the killing of Nigerian soldiers. We also know that during the 2023 elections and the August and March elections, there were also significant security. We know that oftentimes these securities have been leveraged by incumbents to remain in power to rig elections.
“And where the insecurity seems to have worsened after the 2020 election, when the Supreme Court removed the governor then and declared the current governor as the governor. So, insecurity worsened because of political fallout?
“So, the issue for us is what do we need to do to ensure that this offseason, elections do not worsen the insecurity crisis in the state? We know that if elections are manipulated, it could spike into new levels of insecurity, particularly in Imo states.
“Is it not time for extreme actions to be taken, considering the level of insecurity in that state and to change or ensure that the election is free and fair? That’s really our worry and then coming to Bayelsa slightly a different case would a lot more peaceful?”
Speaking on specific areas where improvement should be made, he said: “Issues around Bayelsa is ensuring that logistics and voting materials get to some rural or riverine areas on time
“Kogi has had a history of electoral violence that has committed in deaths and although the incumbent governor is not running but we have seen build buildup of allegations of assassination attempts and so on and so forth, particularly against the SDP candidate they have allegedly all these things.
“So, the question is, what are the proactive measures that the National Security Adviser himself the INEC and even Mr. President, should take to ensure that first we guarantee that the electoral officers on ground in the states are going to be impartial those who are indicted or have serious allegations like in Imo state should be removed?”
On his part, Prof. Abiodun Adeniji from Baze University, tasked all concerned stakeholders and players to take the Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa elections to redefine democracy in the country.
“We are talking about enhanced democracy using the case of the imminent elections as a template so that we can for once, change the narrative, and again, raise our hope on the prospect of consolidating and deepening our democracy”, be said.
