Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate in the February 25, 2023 presidential election in Nigeria, Prince Adebayo Adeboye, has said receiving funding from foreign agencies by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), peace committees and civil society organisations had undermined the electoral process in Nigeria.
He also pointed out that foreign funding of Nigeria’s elections should be discontinued if elections must be free, fair and credible, adding that foreign funding was undermining the country and its electoral process as both government institutions and civil rights groups receive such funds.
Adeboye stated this when he featured as a special guest an online discussion programme anchored by Rudolf Okonkwo, ‘90 Minutes Africa.’
He said, “Nigeria is a collection of foreign agents and that is why the international community will come to supervise our elections. When I addressed a gathering at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, I wanted to know why INEC, after collecting N350 billion from Nigerians, would still collect money from such foreign bodies as the European Union (EU) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) among others.
“Almost 90 percent of the civil societies we were interacting with were collecting foreign funding, including the Peace Committee of Bishop Matthew Kuka and General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Many political parties, including the ones that claimed they wanted revolution and change, collected money from foreign agents and this is not good for our electoral process,” he stated.
Adebayo said the electoral body was designed in such a way that only the president appoints the INEC chairman, although subject to the confirmation of the Senate, lamenting that such arrangement cannot produce credible leaders.
He expressed fear that if the arrangement was not changed, an ex-convict would one day be appointed to head the electoral body and there is nothing anybody can do about it.
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