A former minister of education, Dr
Oby Ezekwesili, has called for the financial and operational autonomy of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enable it to conduct credible elections without political interference.
She stated this at the National Electoral Reforms Summit 2025 themed ‘Critical Constitutional Amendments for Credible Election in 2027′, organised by the National Consultative Front/Labour and Civil Society Front in collaboration with Movement for Credible Elections held in Abuja on Tuesday.
Ezekwesili insisted that INEC should receive allocations directly without going through the executive branch in order to ensure independence from political interferences, saying the commission’s budget should be protected and released in full and on time to enable proper election planning.
She stated that in turn, INEC which is “one of the institutions bedevilled by corruption, should be mandated to adopt the full principles of open budgeting and spending, working with civil society to track every money sent in order to ensure accountability.”
The former minister also called for organisational strengthening to enhance prosecutorial powers for INEC as it currently relies on the police and the Attorney General for prosecution of electoral offences.
“The absence of any credible investigation and conviction for electoral offences has led to a country where there is no deterrence for bad behaviour. As a matter of fact, that gap is the reason that people repeat the behaviours that infringe fraudulently on our electoral system and democracy.
“Granting INEC its own prosecutorial unit or guaranteed access to dedicated prosecutors would ensure timely action against electoral violations,” she said.
Ezekwesili advocated the mandatory electronic transmission of election results, arguing that codifying the use of technology for results transmission in order to make it entirely explicit would reduce the opportunities for the massive manipulations that were allegedly witnessed in the 2023 elections.
According to her, the current legal ambiguity around transmission of results will create many more controversies, if not immediately fixed.
The good governance advocate also harped on the need for extended timeframes for electoral activities, saying INEC often struggles with compressed timelines.
“Extending periods for voter registration, candidate nomination and election preparation would improve quality and accessibility.
“We do need to strengthen the results collation procedures, the results collation procedures, clearer guidelines, and oversight mechanisms for collation at local government and state levels would reduce disputes and manipulation opportunities,” she said.
Ezekwesili further called for transparent appointment processes for the chairman and commissioners of INEC, saying
“most of them that are sitting there now are members of the ruling party.
“So, we must reform the process for appointing INEC commissioners and the chairman to ensure merit-based selection with input from civil society, reducing partisan influence. We need to stagger the appointments in order to prevent wholesale replacement by one administration.
“We need to create a career structure within INEC with proper training requirements and job security for permanent staff, reducing reliance on ad-hoc workers during the elections,” she said.
Ezekwesili equally called for expedited electoral dispute resolution, saying pre-election disputes often were not resolved before elections occur.
She demanded stronger penalties for electoral offences, insisting that the current sanctions were too weak to deter violations, hence increasing fines and jail terms for vote-buying, results falsification and violence would strengthen deterrence.
The former presidential hopeful said INEC should be given excessive legal authority to direct security agencies assigned to it during election, ensuring that they respond to electoral needs rather than political pressures.
She noted that the completeness of rebuilding electoral integrity must not only support INEC reforms but extends to addressing key issues and instituting relevant judicial reforms.
Ezekwesili said Nigerians were aghast at the courtroom democracy phenomenon, whereby elections are increasingly decided in courts rather than the polling stations, delegitimising the power of citizens to determine their leaders.
“Since 1999, numerous governors, senators and even presidential candidates have had their mandates nullified or cancelled through lengthy litigations, sometimes years after taking office.
“This creates a perception that judicial decisions, not voters, determine electoral outcomes. In consistent and contradictory rulings, different courts often issue conflicting judgments on similar electoral issues. Lower courts sometimes contradict higher courts and even the Supreme Court decisions have been criticised for internal inconsistencies.
“This erodes public confidence in both elections and the judiciary.The real problem is not judicial involvement per se, it is that courts have become the primary arena for contesting elections because, number one, election credibility is sometimes, in fact, in these days, very questionable, forcing aggrieved parties to go to court.
“So I do leave you with a saying that our courts, when involved in elections, must realise that this system of technicalities over substance reduces our democracy to the lowest common denominator. And for us as a people, we must come together to resist a devaluation of our democracy,” she added.
For his part, a former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, declared that electoral reforms remained an illusion and only citizens’ action would save the nation’s democracy.
“Citizens’ participation will stop those who don’t want reform. Will government give you reform? No. Government will not give you reform. Don’t wait for NLC.There is no NLC. I hear their members are somewhere here. There is no ASUU. There is no NANS.
“If you call NLC for any action, that’s when they will know they are from North or from South or from East or from West. It’s not going to be easy. And please stop electing people that you will complain after. If you want to elect people, elect people you can hold accountable for.
“The problem with Nigeria is lack of accountability. Somebody can come in and shoot you and nothing will happen. Absolutely nothing will happen…we will know the person and nothing will happen. It’s not that we lack law. What we lack is the rule of law. There are laws, national assembly, state assembly, passed laws here and there, but nothing is happening.
“So I will repeat exactly what I said yesterday. If you are waiting for government to make any reform, you are wasting your time. Before election, there must be resistance to those who don’t want proper election. If you do it after election, you are also wasting your time. We must agree as a people that we must resist,” he said.
The former minister of transportation stated that just a very few Nigerians awee enriching themselves as politicians and contractors, which is absurd.
“You can’t be a politician and a contractor. You have to choose one. You can’t be the two. I said Nigerians are hungry. If they are not hungry, I’m hungry. Some people are abusing me. Look at this man. He has been in office for how many years? Minister, governor. Okay, they expect me to go and steal. No problem. That’s not an issue.
“But whether I’m hungry or not, are Nigerians not hungry? So why are those few people who are supporting those in government say they are not hungry? They are not hungry because they are joining in the stealing.The stealing is beyond what we fought for. So if you continue the way we are going, in the next three, four years, we’ll get here again.
“I gave an example in yesterday’s session.I said when we were in government, Buhari swore that he would leave behind electoral reform, that he would ensure that his government would make sure that votes count.
“So, most Nigerians who speak about this electoral reform, it depends on where their stomach is facing. If their stomach is facing the wrong place, they will want electoral reform. If they are chopping, they will tell you that they were taught in primary school that it is wrong to eat and chop,” he added.
But speaking as a panelist at the event, a former Senator who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th National Assembly, Comrade Shehu Sani, challenged Amaechi for blaming the current political class, saying he was one Nigerian who had served the country in different levels.
“Amaechi is not supposed to blame the government that he had been part of just because he is out of the government just for two years,” the APC chieftain submitted.
