The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has come under the searchlight for months. There are questions about the commission’s capacity to conduct credible election and operate beyond the influence of a few individuals, following many unfilled vacancies on its board and, at least, 29 unoccupied REC seats. Many have raised legal, political and institutional constraints placed on the path of the commission. Group Politics Editor, TAIWO ADISA, digs into INEC’s peculiar circumstance.
THE Senate, on Wednesday, November 2 took the polity by surprise when it took on an unusual activist role right inside the Red Chambers. Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who moved a well-accepted
motion told the nation that the Senate was ready to down tools immediately to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct outstanding legislative elections in Rivers State.
INEC had for months held back the conduct of the elections, thus shutting out the three Senators from Rivers State, a number of House of Representatives seats and members of the State House of Assembly.
Though the election tribunal which nullified the elections ordered that fresh elections be conducted in 90 days, INEC had remained silent on the polls after its officials declared the elections inconclusive months back.
The commission’s excuse is the state of insecurity in the Niger Delta, but the ruling party in the state had made a show of series of events it successfully hosted including the national conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the meeting of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) as direct examples of a peaceful environment. With all hopes getting dim about the conduct of the legislative elections,
The motion against INEC
Ekweremadu in a motion titled: “Non–Conduct of Elections in Rivers State,” argued that in spite of Senate’s resolution (S/Res/O16/02/16) of 27th of September 2016, which called on INEC to immediately conclude all pending re-run elections, the commission failed to conduct elections in Rivers.
He also stated that the Commission’s failure to conduct elections within the timeframe ordered by the different Election Tribunals and the courts was a breach of the Electoral Act and Section 76 of the 1999 Constitution, adding that such a development endangers democracy.
The Senate’s number two man said: “non-representation of the entire people of Rivers State in the Senate and some constituencies of Rivers State in the House of Representatives and State House of Assembly is in breach of Section 14 (2) (c) of the 1999 Constitution, and endangers peace and order in the State.
“Failure of lNEC to conduct election in Rivers State has continued to deny the people of Rivers State their constitutionally guaranteed rights to be represented in the legislative houses where laws affecting them are being made, and has engendered palpable anxiety amongst people of the state.”
He also wondered why INEC was able to conduct elections in insurgency-ravaged areas in the North-East of Nigeria, especially the areas around Sambisa Forest, while it has been unable to do the same in Rivers State.
In seconding the motion, Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, said that a trend of inconclusive elections was already emerging in the country adding that elections must be conducted at the right time.
He said: “Since the assumption of office of the incumbent INEC chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmud, it has been cases of inclusive upon inconclusive and suspension of elections with attendant confusions.
“It is inexcusable for the commission not to have conducted the Rivers election up till now, a situation that is making the Senate not to have a single senator from Rivers State at a time debate on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is about to commence.”
The motion was largely supported by the senators across political divide, while the senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, also used the opportunity to call attention to the failure of the president to announce a minister from Kogi state after the demise of the late Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, James Ocholi, in March 2016.
Though Ekweremadu’s motion had intended to slam an immediate ultimatum on INEC, Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Abubakar Kyari, saved the day when he intervened to inform the Senate that his committee’s interaction with INEC showed that it was getting ready to conduct the Rivers election on December 10 2016.
The Senate thereafter voted in favour the date supplied by Kyari and directed INEC to conduct the outstanding polls not later than that date. Senate President Bukola Saraki, in his submissions, asked INEC to do the needful within the time frame given by the motion.
The fact that a move was needed from the Senate to ginger INEC to its responsibilities was enough to paint an unlikely scenario of INEC and the situation it has found itself. While INEC had defended itself in the open, with its national commissioner in charge of publicity, Solomon Shoyebi, and the Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, constantly announcing the recourse of the commission to the laws of the land at every instance.
But then, insiders in the polity and those knowledgeable about the process have raised a number of issues afflicting INEC. They claimed that institutional, legal and political matters might have combined to unsettle the emerging solid foundation INEC was being built upon ahead of the 2015 general election.
The commission has come under heavy tongue -ashing by politicians and civil society activists alike for fast becoming the master of inconclusive elections after it turned out that the governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa in November and December 2015 were declared inconclusive, just as the same election in Edo state slated for September was postponed at the last minute.
Insiders in the commission have raised the issue of capacity, especially as it emerged that only two National Commissioners in office right now have institutional memory. Besides Mrs Amina Zakari and Mr. Solomon Shoyebi, the other four National Commissioners in office right now have no experience in INEC operations. The same is true of the National Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
Besides, it was gathered that the failure of the commission to operate with its full human resources as prescribed by the Constitution could also be a source of trouble for its operations.
Right now, only six of the 12 recommended national commissioners as prescribed by the 1999 Constitution are in office.
Though the Senate on November 17 approved another six national commissioners including a former Law editor of ThisDay newspaper, May Agbamuche-Mbu (Delta); Professor Okechukwu Ibeanu (Anambra); Ahmed Mu’azu; Mohammed Kudu Haruna (Niger); Dr Adekunle Ogunmola (Oyo) and Abubakar Nahuche (Zamfara), the six are yet to be sworn in, thus limiting the number of existing National Commissioners below the constitutionally recommended number.
Besides, no fewer than 29 Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) have completed their tenures and left and are yet to be replaced as of November 2016.
Records show that only eight of the 36 states and the FCT currently have RECs, while the bulk of that eight will serve out their tenures on February 16, 2017.
Is INEC grinding to a halt?
“Is it possible for instance to state that the tenure of a governor would expire without the conduct of an election in the state? That is not to be contemplated because the constitution stipulates the tenure, the same way the constitution stipulates the tenures of the RECs and the INEC national commissioners,” a source close to the commission said.
Implications of non-appointments at INEC
The Constitution has made the job of the president simple in the case of such appointments. Section 153, 154, 155 as well as Paragraph 14(1) and (3) of the Third Schedule all define and describe the positions of the Executive bodies as well as the tenure and composition of INEC’s Board and the RECs.
Persons close to the workings of the commission emphasised the need for INEC to be well constituted at all times to guarantee democratic ethos and ensure stability as seen in other countries. A source specifically said that the key power of the people in a democracy is the ability to re-invent itself after each election circle and correct itself if it observes non-performance.
“What is most important for an institution as INEC is for the citizens to be able to make or effect changes of leadership as Nigerians did in the 2015 general election, after observing whether campaign promises were fulfilled or not. Such power should not be eroded by INEC’s lack of composition.
Another concern raised from certain quarters is that the delay in appointing the RECs and Commissioners could deny those to be appointed requisite knowledge of the terrain as elections draw close.
Said the source: “It is instructive that the nation runs the risk of having an electoral body that would be made up of personnel who will be at different stages of understanding of the task of election management at the time of general elections. Right now, at the national level, only seven of them 13 constitutionally required members have been running INEC for over a year. The remaining six have just been cleared by the Senate but not sworn in. Worst hit are the states and FCT where 29 have no commissioners.”
Another source also raised the question of INEC’s silence on the alleged discovery of a printing outfit in Rivers state which was said to be printing sensitive INEC election materials.
Silence by any government agency, particularly the electoral body in the face of such allegation that could tarnish its integrity, is hugely a risk not worth taking. The institution should utilise its whole power to prevent such indication notwithstanding where the allegation is coming from.
While speaking at a Discussion Series on Electoral Reforms organised by the Nigerian Bar Association, Abuja branch, on Thursday, Senator Ekweremadu said that the electoral process would continue to wobble if appointments into the electoral commission are not made in due times.
He said: that “the nation will only have electoral processes marred by willful manipulation, reckless judicial interventions, induced violence, vote selling and buying, abuse of power, and disregard for the law, unless critical stakeholders play by the rule,” adding that “the tragedy of our electoral system is never in the lack of laws, but lack of respect and proper implementation of the laws.”
He further stated: “Whereas Section 14 (2) of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, provides for a Resident Electoral Commissioner, (REC) for each State of the Federation and the FCT to ensure that INEC performs optimally in delivering credible elections, as I speak, 28 States of the Federation have no RECs.”
Ekweremadu, who canvassed early conduct of primaries ahead of elections, stated that by rushing primaries, the citizens are denied of the benefits of the knowledge of the candidates.
The senator, who also chairs the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, expressed worries that whereas Section 76 of the Constitution as well the Election Petition Tribunals and courts have always been clear on timeframe for bye-elections or reruns to fill vacancies occurring in the National and State Houses of Assembly, “it took two separate resolutions by the Senate to compel INEC to fix a date for the remaining rerun elections in Rivers State.”
He further submitted: “This is why sometimes, even the most revered institutions of democracy, which their neutrality should be sacrosanct, to boost confidence in the electoral system, literally descend into the fray. Such institutions of democracy must not only be fair and immune from the political fray, but must also be seen to be so.”
and then