IT would be more than saying the obvious that the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmud Yakubu, is increasingly coming under pressure with 41 days to general election. Not with the mesh of controversies surrounding some activities of the commission in its preparation for the epic polls. The more the commission makes spirited effort to defend, clarify or deny some of the issues, the more messy the matter seems to become, in the opinion of some observers.
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After the conclusion of the September 22, 2018 governorship election in Osun State, the leadership of the INEC ordered a shake-up at the national headquarters, Abuja. Sources within the commission claimed the directive followed serious anger expressed by the INEC chairman, Professor Yakubu over perceived partisanship among some officials involved in the conduct and supervision of the election. Apart from some national commissioners, a number of resident electoral commissioners in congruent states to Osun were deployed to assist in the conduct of the election. Following reports concerning activities of some INEC officials during the election, the leadership directed that some changes should be immediately carried out. So, among the top functionaries of the commission affected by the shake-up was Amina Zakari, head of electoral operations and logistics at the INEC headquarters.
She was redeployed to the Department of Health and Welfare. A national commissioner of INEC, Mohammed Haruna, who announced the reorganisation in a statement, explained that the heads of four other committees were affected. They included Festus Okoye, who was redeployed as the head of information and voter education committee; Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, board of the electoral institute; Mohammad Mustafa Lecky, planning, monitoring and strategy; and Okechukwu lbeanu, electoral operations and logistics committee. Then, sources within the commission had also hinted of more changes taking place even weeks to the general election this year. Nonetheless, a lot of people were curious about the sudden and impromptu shake up. In fact, the shakeup, according to some insiders, came as a surprise to some workers of the commission at the headquarters with some members alleging that is was because of the role played by some top INEC officials during the election. The national chairman was reportedly furious over the alleged uncomplimentary role played by some of the officials which brought the INEC to ridicule.
But the dust over the reorganisation after the Osun election was yet to settle when information began to filter out that some powerful forces did not feel comfortable with the whole exercise and would want a rethink on the action. The insinuations gained ascendancy, in spite of repeated attempts by officials of the commission to deny or clarify issues on the redeployment. Some principal officers of the National Assembly and the opposition parties, particularly, have scaled up the pressure on the INEC in their dissatisfaction with the continued stay of Zakari in the commission because of her alleged blood tie with President Muhammadu Buhari. While she was acting chairman of the commission, the then Ekiti State governor, Chief Ayodele Fayose, in his capacity as the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum, had also voiced his opposition to Zakari as acting INEC chairman. Fayose alleged that Zakari was an in-law to President Buhari and as such should not have been appointed in the first place. He contended that the most honourable thing for Buhari “is to rescind the unlawful appointment of Mrs Zakari as INEC acting chairperson.”
He added that the tenure of Zakari as national electoral commissioner had already expired and she could no longer preside over the body “except if duly appointed as substantive chairman of the commission as provided in Section 154 (1) and (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).”
Fayose had said further: “Two weeks ago, respected former lawmaker and former top civil servant, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, revealed that he had known Mrs. Zakari since childhood, and that her late father, the former Emir of Kazaure, was married to President Buhari’s elder sister. Alhaji Yakassai went on to reveal that President Buhari lived with and spent a significant part of his early years in the home of Amina Zakari’s father.
“This is enough establishment of conviviality between Mrs Zakari and President Buhari, whose party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) will be standing elections with other political parties this year and this will, no doubt, cast credibility aspersion on any election conducted by INEC headed by Mrs Zakari.”
He said Section 153 of the 1999 Constitution, which established INEC, did not make any provision for the appointment of acting chairman.
Fasoye said: “Section 154 (3) provided that the President shall consult the Council of State in exercising his powers to appoint a person as the chairman of INEC and there is no record of such consultation before the appointment of Mrs Zakari as INEC ‘Acting Chairperson’.
“The only requisite condition for Mrs Zakari to be acting as the chairman of INEC is that she must be a National Electoral Commissioner and her tenure as National Electoral Commissioner ended on July 21, 2015.
“As of today, there are four National Electoral Commissioners in INEC instead of 12. They are Abdukadir Sulaimanu Oniyangi, Mohammad Ahmad Wali, Chris Iyimoga and Lawrence Nwuruku. If anyone should act as INEC chairman, it should be any of the remaining four National Electoral Commissioners, not someone whose tenure has expired.
“The danger in this is also that any action taken by INEC with Mrs Zakari as its head will amount to illegality and it is hoped that President Buhari will avoid plunging Nigeria into an avoidable legal quagmire by rescinding immediately, the illegal appointment of Mrs Zakari as INEC acting chairperson, a position that is not known to the Constitution of Nigeria.
“Therefore, ignoring facts suggesting that the INEC acting chairperson and President Buhari are in-laws is dangerous to democracy in the country, and lovers of democracy in the country must rise in defence of the impartiality of INEC now.”
However, the Director of Voter Education and Publicity of the INEC, Mr. Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, has tried to defend the commission over the former INEC acting chairman issue. He faulted the call for Zakari to resign from her latest appointment.
“She was also very involved in the International Conference Centre (ICC) management in 2015. So, her duty is to ensure the facility is ready. She has no role whatsoever with the process of collation,” he said.
Osaze-Uzzi was further quoted as saying Zakari’s committee is “basically in charge of the physical structure (the International Conference Centre which is the collation centre),” adding that “removing her as the chairman of the committee to prepare the facility is a needless controversy. The chairman of INEC, by virtue of the Electoral Act, is the returning officer of the country for the presidential election. It is he who decides the validity of votes and any issues in the election.”
Similarly, promoters of President Buhari have thrown their weight behind Zakari’s choice for the new position, claiming she was not a blood relation to the president. According to the deputy director of media of the Muhammadu Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation, Aliyu, contrary to the claims made by the PDP, Amina Zakari is not a blood relative of President Buhari.
“The PDP are crying wolf and are trying to misinform Nigerians because Amina Zakari is not a blood relation of President Muhammadu Buhari. I want to believe that her being chairman of this committee does not have to do with the issue of announcing the results or even accepting or collecting the results from the returning officers. What Amina’s role seems to be, to my own understanding, is purely an administrative and logistics support and that may be informed by her experience. She is the longest-serving commissioner among this set of commissioners,” Aliyu stressed.
He added, “She has witnessed the last election as a national commissioner. She is in charge of welfare. So, naturally, setting-up the venue, administration and support of the collation center would be in her domain.”
However, a PDP presidential campaign council spokesman, Kazeem Afegbua, said Zakari’s engagement in INEC was shrouded in controversies.
“We have seen her roles in previous elections, and so, to that effect, we know she is being accused of partisanship in the way and manner she has been conducting herself within the INEC. Hence, somebody cannot just come and rub off all that,” he stressed.
According to him, it does not matter if Zakari is from Jigawa, while Buhari is from Daura.
“If we say somebody is a niece, that means maybe the mom is a sister to President Buhari and this is a daughter to a woman who is a sister to the president. INEC must, as a matter of responsibility, allow the electoral process to be seen to be transparent, to be devoid of any partisan inclinations to an extent that the participants in the electoral process would see that INEC is fair enough in the way and manner in which they deploy staff (whether ad-hoc or permanent) in the process of conducting elections,” he added.
Also, a top member of the PDP who spoke with Sunday Tribune on phone on condition of anonymity retorted angrily; “they can lie to themselves, not to some of us. Amina, DG NYSC, minister of water resources, commissioner for education, Jigawa State etc. are children of the former emir of Kazaure who was Buhari’s elder sister’s husband.
“Buhari’s sister was one of the emir’s wives, but she was barren. Buhari lived with her and was raised in the palace alongside Amina and others.
“Apart from Buhari appointing her into the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) then, he nominated her to former President Goodluck Jonathan as national commissioner in the INEC representing the entire seven states in the North-West. When Jonathan was re-organising the INEC and he was bringing in Professor Attahiru Jega, he reached out to Buhari and asked him to nominate somebody from the North-West so that the person would be a national commissioner.
“Of all the people in the North-West, Buhari decided to nominate his own niece, the stepdaughter of his elder sister. That is Amina Zakari. She has been there since. When Jega left, Buhari was determined to make her chairman, if not for the massive backlash.”
Nigerians are surely waiting with bated breath to see whether or not Zakari’s new appointment will determine certain outcomes in the election.
and then