Nigeria’s former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has called for the sack of the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, and also a comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s electoral process.
Speaking at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum, Yale University, in the United States, Obasanjo described the 2023 general election as a “travesty.” Obasanjo highlighted the imperative for reforming the electoral system to restore credibility and trust in the system.
The retired Army General and former Head of State also advocated for shorter tenure for INEC officials and a more rigorous recruitment process for the election body’s officials to avoid bringing on board obviously partisan individuals.
In his words, “As a matter of urgency, we must ensure the INEC Chairperson and their staff are thoroughly vetted. The vetting exercise should produce dispassionate, non-partisan actors with impeccable reputations.
“Nigeria must ensure the appointment of new credible INEC leadership at the federal, state, local government, and municipal – city, town, and village – levels, with short tenures to prevent undesirable political influence and corruption, and to re-establish trust in the electoral system by its citizens.
“The INEC Chairperson must not only be absolutely above board but must also be transparently independent and incorruptible.”
The former president equally pointed to the commission’s failure to utilize cutting-edge technologies at its didposal particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV) very well during the 2023 presidential election, notwithstanding the sundry firm promises made by Yakubu to the contrary. That omission, Obasanjo insisted, led to widespread voting irregularities.
“The BVAS and IReV are two technological innovations that, prior to 2023, were celebrated for their potential to enhance the accuracy and transparency of our election results, eliminate the threat of election rigging, and boost public trust in electoral outcomes.
“These technologies were touted by the INEC chairman himself. In the end, these technologies did not fail. INEC wilfully failed to use or implement them, which resulted in widespread voting irregularities. It was a case of inviting the fox into the henhouse,” he said.
