Much ado about new INEC chairman, by Tonnie Iredia

As the tenure of Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman for Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, is about to end, it is time to appoint a replacement. The assignment is a big deal in Nigeria because the country runs a system of strong men instead of strong institutions. In another clime, all that is needed to be done is to follow extant rules to produce the best candidate for the job. In such other climes, the relevant criteria are usually empirical but in Nigeria, prescriptive criteria such as state of origin, religion and relationship with the appointing authority take the centre stage.

To start with, some strong public analysts who ordinarily have no direct roles to play in the recruitment process begin to compile articles and statements for public education on the subject. Such compilations which might even be statistical often project the number of times,persons appointed to hold the position have come from one geographical location of the country or another. Yet, nothing in the relevant procedure suggests that the position is rotatory among zones. In the case of the chairman of INEC, the rules mandate more than one arm of government to make inputs with a view to achieving a rational decision.

The practice in the last few years, has shown that a person who is selected to serve as INEC chair or any other similar position is determined by trial and error. Some people imagine that it is by luck while others believe the subject is determined by destiny. The appointment of the next INEC chair is not likely to follow a different pattern more so, as the current Senate which is to clear any nominee of the President for the post has proven to be the most collaborative with the executive arm. In other words, the President’s nominee may easily sail through even if many people have some misgivings about the choice.

Going by precedents, the Senate may clear any nominee even if his records show that of a politically tainted personality not withstanding that the Constitution insists that such a nominee must not have been known to be partisan. During the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari, the public outcry against certain nominees with known partisanship was ignored. At the tail end, the relevant Senate Committee told the nation that allegations against certain persons nominated for the position of Resident Electoral Commissioners RECs were not substantiated.

If what has been said so far exists in Nigeria’s electoral history, what is the big deal in appointing a Chairman for INEC? Why is the appointment of the next INEC chair allowed to occupy a precious space in the nation’s public affairs? More importantly, why are Nigerians behaving as if an INEC chair is the automatic solution to our system of poor elections? Is the job of an INEC chairman more important than that of the least official in a polling unit who is in charge of managing the casting of ballots in the unit? The true position is that the INEC chairman who is at the topmost level of the organization’s hierarchy is not expected to change the outcome of voting in any polling centre. 

Of course, while there is no attempt to derogate from the position of the Chief Executive of INEC, it amounts to abuse of office for those in authority to appoint a bully who can then use the privileged administrative position of chairman to adversely influence the outcome of any electoral event at the lowest or any level of the organization. Indeed, INEC can only be seen to be truly independent if every official of the commission is allowed to do his job according to the approved processes and procedures for each assignment. Put differently, the independence of INEC is not necessarily represented by the disposition of its chair.

What seems to have projected the INEC chair’s position to prominence is the new trend where he also serves as the returning officer of the presidential election.  The point to note here is that the INEC chair is not the returning officer in every contest. At state levels, he does not announce results. Whereas occupants of the position of INEC chair now serve as returning officers, it has not always been so. In 1979, for example, the returning officer was not the chair of the commission. Instead, it was one F.L.O. Menkiti that announced the presidential election of that year. 

Although some top politicians had wrongly accused Humphrey Nwosu who chaired the electoral body from 1989 to 1993 of failure to announce the winner of the June 12,election, Nwosu was not the returning officer for that election. Several months before the election, one Professor Felix Ideriah a National Electoral Commissioner had been appointed to serve as returning officer. Many Nigerians didn’t get to know him because the military did not allow the process to naturally get to where he would have performed. Announcing election results is therefore not enough to make an official strategic as he is only to declare figures collated from the work of other people. 

History also tells us that the position of the INEC chair can be greatly diminished by what other agencies can do during an election process in Nigeria.  Nothing underscores this point clearer than the baptism of Professor Mahmood Yakubu early in his first term. What happened then was that the governorship election in Edo State in 2016 was postponed without his consent. From the grapevine, it had been rumoured that election riggers in the statehad planned to postpone the election to have enough time to perfect their schemes. At a media briefing a few hours to the contest, Yakubu categorically stated that there was no basis for the rumour. Yet, the postponement was later attributed to security reasons!

As powerful as successive INEC chairmen appeared to have been, none has been able to attain a credible voter’s register. The politicians will never let it be. At the same time, rancorous party primaries by political parties will always pollute the election environment making it virtually impracticable to have free, fair and credible elections. These are not the only issues beyond the reach of INEC. Another issue of grave concern is the failure of the authorities to set up an election offences commission to try certain persons who often engage in election malpractices. All that can be said on this was that it was in vain that Yakubu severally cried hoarse. 

It is hard to forget the role of the Judiciary that often went overboard to attempt to handle the collation of votes under the guise of settling election disputes. On one occasion, the Judiciary determined the correct flagbearer of the ruling party during a governorship election but at the end ruled that another person won the election. In addition, the votes approved for the new governor by the same judiciary was more than the number of voters at the election. At that point, what powers did the law give to the acclaimed powerful chair of INEC to establish his commission’s independence?

The point to be made therefore is that it is superfluous for the nation to attach so much importance to a powerful chair who quite often is made to contradict himself. Mahmood Yakubu and Attahiru Jega are distinguished University Professors; so, were Eme Awa, Humphrey Nwosu, and others. Previous chairmen such as Justice Ovie Whiskey and Ephraim Akpata of the Supreme Court were eminent jurists. These men who were brought into Nigeria’s electoral bodies had achieved great feats in their chosen professions, but were virtually rubbished while handling elections.

Any person’s previous profession can thus not guarantee free and fair elections in Nigeria. In fact, University Professors have been the most bruised of recent as some of them have been jailed for falsification of election results. One would have thought that anyone who is not able to be above board like Caeser’s wife ought not to be an umpire in any game. It has not been so in our clime. In the last few years, one or two Nigerians such as Mike Igini have proven that they have the integrity, to manage our elections. Is there any reason why such persons are overlooked while their colleagues who demonstrated less integrity are either elevated or have their appointments renewed? 

As of today, the law empowers the President to nominate an INEC chair. The same law says such a nominee must be a person of integrity that is non-partisan. It is the duty of the President to search for such a person and present to the Senate for approval.  It is hoped that the latter will depart from its old method of confirming the nominee through the popular ‘bow and go’ strategy without adding value to the subject. Nigeria desires and deserves a nominee of proven integrity as INEC chair.

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