FCT council elections: Amupitan’s INEC failed — Professor Odinkalu

A professor of Law and former chairman of the Nigeria Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chidi Odinkalu, has chided the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Amupitan, for not being in total control of the Area Council Election, which was held in the nation’s capital over the weekend.

Recall that the All Progressive Congress (APC) won in five out of the six Area Councils to dominate the elections, which were seen as preparations for the 2027 general election, especially in the FCT.

Picking holes in the conduct of the elections, Professor Odinkalu, who spoke on Politics Today on Channels TV on Monday night in Abuja, said the INEC chairman failed the electorate by not delivering a credible election in the FCT, using it as a yardstick of what could happen in next year’s election across the country. He said the pressure not to conduct a credible local election was never on the electoral body chairman, describing the election as a failure.

According to Odinkalu, the election was marred by logistics, poor management of electoral roles, lack of investment in voters’ education and information management and others. He said going forward, INEC must improve on its election conduct and show evidence of improvement and the evidence of commitment to improvement to election.

Odinkalu said, “Nobody is asking for perfection here. It’s not as if people do not understand that that there could be failures, but the idea that we deny that there are failures, the idea that we accept that failure is the only path.

“Number one election logistics were poor. First of all you must first understand the context I was just trying to apply those, right? But one, election logistics were poor. Number two, the management of electoral roles were poor. You assigned people to different electoral units, polling unit… you were sending out text messages to tell people that they have been reassigned. No investment in voter education or information management, nothing. Number three, the violence was unacceptable. Four, results manifestly were changed in different places. Collation glitch on the day.

“His first outing was in Anambra State. Second of all, Federal Capital Territory is very visible. This was local election. It’s a very visible place. It’s the epicentre of government and politics in Nigeria. It was local election. So the stakes were not as high as it would have in a presidential election or general election. The pressure were not as high. So this was well made, tailor-made… for his outing with a bang and he failed. Let’s be clear about that, he failed woefully.

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He added, “Number one election logistics were poor. First of all you must first understand the context I was just trying to apply those, right? But one, election logistics were poor. Number two, the management of electoral roles were poor. You assigned people to different electoral units, polling unit… you were sending out text messages to tell people that they have been reassigned. No investment in voter education or information management, nothing. Number three, the violence was unacceptable. Four, results were manifestly changed in different places. Collation glitch on the day. This is a small election in the Federal Capital Territory. It’s disgraceful. He has failed.

“He can actually come out and say, I take personal responsibility. This is a … experience, yes, I’m learning but some of these things I saw cannot happen on my watch. But to simply pretend as if this thing did not happen and to say… Well, this is the standard to which election should be organised I think is irresponsible. Citizens are not asking for perfection mind you, people are looking for evidence of improvement and the evidence of commitment to improvement.

“Nobody is asking for perfection here. It’s not as if people do not understand that that there could be failures, but the idea that we deny that there are failures, the idea that we accept that failure is the only path for us is something I think we all got to resist and call attention to. And do expect, let me repeat myself, that a chairperson of INEC who is committed to credible elections would admit that there are failures that should never had happened on the watch of a credible election administrator and would say we would do something about this. And we would enlist citizens who are not partisan, who have no partisan committment, whose only goal is to see credible elections and will of the people prevail.”