THE 2023 general elections, the provoked debates, and the controversies trailing it appear to have remained a permanent feature in political discourse in Nigeria.
An evidence of this occurred recently when former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan singled out political interference in the appointment of electoral umpires (the Chairman and Commissioners of the nation’s electoral commissions) as a major factor responsible for the manipulation of election outcomes in Nigeria.
Jonathan expressed his concern over this development while reflecting on the earlier submission of the former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega at an event where both men addressed attendees in a conference hosted by the pro-democracy and advocacy organization, ‘Yiaga Africa’ in Abuja. The theme of the event was; “Reflection Conference on Democratic Elections in West Africa”.
According to the former president, it is difficult to get an accurate count of votes in Nigeria because there are too many ghost voters and only having credible people as umpires can stem the tide. He leveraged his submission on that which was earlier presented by an ex-INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega who had pointed out the fact that political leaders who are so domineering will always want to pressurise electoral officers to take wrong steps in managing elections.
The ex-president is of the view that any officer under such pressure should be able to resign and leave. In his words, “You should be able to resign and walk away, please. If we do not have this kind of people, then we are in trouble. If you are accepting to be Chairman of INEC or to be a commissioner of INEC, then you should be ready to say; ‘If I’m pressurized to do what is wrong, I will take care of the democratic people and walk away’. And if we don’t have such people managing our electoral management bodies and if what we have are people who will continue to go in a circle, we will not get what we want.”
Jonathan further underscored the necessity for strong and ethical leadership in electoral management to avoid a flawed electoral system and advocated for a robust framework to ensure credible elections.
The views expressed by the academic-turned politician must not be allowed to lie low if the nation’s quest for credible leadership must be seen to be receiving the attention it deserves.
Going forward, the appointment of Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and her commissioners must not continue to be left in the hands of the president of the country alone. The positions should be advertised for qualified and interested citizens to apply. The names of shortlisted qualified individuals should be published in national dailies to allow for scrutiny by the public before forwarding the same to the national assembly for further screening. This process will guarantee that card-carrying members of political parties or those who have served a political party in whatever nomenclature are not considered for appointments into election management positions.
Furthermore, the president and all those with powers to appoint electoral umpires must be constitutionally mandated to present their nominations to the approving legislative houses under oath. With this, those appointing electoral officers can be impeached or prosecuted under relevant laws if found guilty of misleading the country at any time.
However, it takes a man of proven integrity to be in such a position of authority for the right things in governance to take preeminence over mediocrity and deceits. A situation where the elections of leaders into exalted positions have to be validated by the law courts before they are seen to have been concluded is preposterous and unacceptable. Apart from the avoidable hard-earned government resources normally channeled towards these cases, they sometimes end up in favour of election losers on technical grounds. And this no doubt further robs the electorate of their votes. This must stop!
