Mahmood Yakubu, national chairman
of the Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC), says politicians who
praise INEC when elections favour them turn around to cast aspersion on the
commission when things do not go their way.
Speaking at a meeting with
editors in Lagos on Monday, Yakubu said INEC would keep on playing its role as
an umpire.
He said the commission chose to
engage journalists in order to have their input on the steps that INEC needs to
take to strengthen the electoral process.
“We will continue to do our best
but our concern is where the trust is reduced by people who will say the best
thing that ever happened to Nigeria since 1914 is INEC when they win an
election but when they don’t win, they say it’s the worst thing that happened
since Lord Lugard,” he said.
“There is a story I love to tell.
I am just in love with this story. There was a time that we conducted a
gubernatorial election, I won’t tell you the state. I monitored it from Abuja
via live television. One of the candidates lamented after casting his vote. The
smart card reader couldn’t pick his biometric immediately.
“He tried the second time, he
tried the third time, it won’t work. He was eventually accredited and he voted.
He came with his wife; his wife had no problem whatsoever but immediately after
voting, he turned to the cameramen and started abusing INEC.
“He said ‘this INEC will crash
our democracy’… he complained about the card readers not working. He said and I
quote, ‘We are creating the impression that we are a nation of scammers’. We
never responded; we continued with our job. We concluded the election and
perhaps to his surprise, he was declared winner.
“So when the certificate of
return was presented to him, I watched the live coverage on television again.
Immediately he collected the certificate and grabbed the microphone, one of the
first things he said was that the best thing that ever happened to our election
is the card reader. So, when someone wins an election, our election management
board is the best. When someone loses an election, our election management
board is the worst thing that ever happened to the country.”
Yakubu said INEC needed the
support of stakeholders, especially the media, to succeed.
He said some of the
recommendations made by foreign and local observers could not be implemented by
the commission alone.
“Many national and international
observer have made recommendations but some of these recommendations cannot be
implemented by INEC alone. They require collaboration with others and in many
cases, amendment to electoral legal framework which is actually beyond INEC
itself, it has to go the national assembly,” he said.
“Let me give you an example, the
EU made 30 recommendations to improve the electoral processes in Nigeria. Out
of which only nine can be implemented by INEC by administrative action. The
Commonwealth made 24 recommendations out of which only eight can be implemented
by INEC by administrative action.
“We are committed to ensure some
of the recommendations that can be implemented by administrative action will be
implemented in forthcoming Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections.”
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