Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, has said the sum of N1 billion would not be enough for it to conduct outstanding elections next year.
He expressed his reservations, on Thursday, while speaking at budget defence before the joint Committee of Senate and House of Representatives on INEC.
In the 2020 Budget estimate presented by President Muhammadu Buhari, the sum of N40B was announced as statutory allocations for the Commission for recurrent and capital expenditures.
The INEC chairman told the Committee that the Edo and Ondo States governorship elections were scheduled to be conducted next year. He also insisted that other supplementary elections might arise.
Professor Yakubu said apart from increasing the allowance of his workers, he was determined to increase their wages in order to motivate them to rebuff inducement from desperate politicians.
He disclosed to the Committee that about 205 staff of the Commission were placed on half salary following their investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) after the outcome of 2015 elections.
He pleaded with the committee led by former Kano State governor, Senator Kabiru Gaya, to push for the passage of the Electoral Offences Act into law for the take off of the Electoral Offences Tribunal.
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He said:” On electoral offences, we don’t have the capacity to investigate, we can only collaborate with Police. Only recently, we received 16 case files from the Police. But we can’t prosecute. There is the pending Electoral Offences Act to facilitate the Electoral Offences tribunal, let the bill be passed so that all violators, including our staff can be prosecuted.”
Senator Gaya decried the decrepit shape of INEC state offices across the country.
The INEC chairman said its allocation for maintenance of offices was often overstretched as a result of violence as he revealed that 16 of its offices at local councils and states were bombed during last general elections. “They aren’t administrative but collation centres.”
At a separate meeting with Forum of State Independent Electoral Commissions of Nigeria (FOSIECON) who paid him a courtesy, Professor Yakubu called for the review of laws governing the conduct of local government elections to guarantee financial autonomy of the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIEC). He equally advocated for uniform laws guiding the operation of the State Independent Electoral Commissions.
He said:” We need modern law to guide and govern the conduct of local government elections in the country, that draw to a considerable extent from the national electoral legal framework.
“The second issue we need to work together is the independence of SEIC. Independent of SIEC cannot be guaranteed where there is no financial independence.
“We will look at whatever we can do to work to ensure financial independence for the SIEC that will enormously help the conduct of elections.”
He assured members of the Forum of his Commission cooperation to facilitate free, credible elections at all levels.
Earlier in his remarks, Chairman of the Forum, Justice Igbozuruike Akomas, said they were at INEC headquarters to facilitate the implementation of MoU and proposals they entered into with INEC last year.
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