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Mike Ozekhome SAN, eminent legal luminary
Constitutional lawyer, Prof. Mike Ozekhome (SAN), on Thursday, said President Bola Tinubu should not appoint the next National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) if Nigerians want free, fair and credible elections in 2027.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the current INEC chairman, will step down next month after serving the maximum two terms, totalling 10years.
He oversaw two general elections (2019 and 2023), making him the longest-serving INEC chairman since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.
Speaking to Daily Independent, Ozekhome said there is no way INEC can serve as an independent electoral commission because it owes its loyalty to its appointer both at the state and national level.
He said, “I think genuinely, for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be truly independent, as the name suggests, then its chairman should not be appointed by the president and then subjected to Senate confirmation. We have seen that the president, like every other human being will normally appoint a person who is loyal to him. He cannot go and appoint a person that he feels will be disloyal.
“The story across Nigeria is that many of the Resident Electoral Commissioners are actually card-carrying members of political parties. It didn’t start today. The party in power appoints people who are their surrogates, supporters or affiliates to be INEC commissioners whether at the state or national level.
“The present template of the president appointing the INEC chairman cannot truly guarantee a free and fair election in terms of INEC being independent. He who pays the piper calls the tune and the tail cannot wag the dog, it is the dog that wags the tail. You cannot expect the appointee of Mr. President not to favour him in an election. It will almost be an aberration and impossibility.
“In 2015, former President Goodluck Jonathan said he never considered sacking the then INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, because he believed he was loyal and he was not necessarily against him”.
As a way forward, Ozekhome suggested that the three arms of government, the judiciary, legislative and the executive, should be involved in the appointment of the next INEC chairman.
According to him, the National Judicial Council (NJC) should nominate the next INEC chairman and forward his name to the National Assembly, who will in turn, forward his name to the president after confirmation.
“In terms of who should be the best. A name cannot just be forwarded to the National Assembly. A group or an institution has to send the name to the National Assembly. There are three arms of government – judiciary, legislative and the executive. The National Judicial Council (NJC) of the judiciary arm, presided over by the Chief Justice of Nigeria can nominate a person and send to the Senate for confirmation. The Senate, upon confirmation, will send it to Mr. President who heads the executive. That would have involved the three arms of government”.
Ozekhome further argued that aside the issue of who appoints the INEC chairman, Nigerians should be more concerned about having a technologically and electronically driven election where the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) works perfectly.
“Beyond who appoints the INEC chairman, I think there is a more serious issue of involving the use of technology in the conduct of our elections. We should make BVAS work perfectly. We should make electronic transmission of results real- time as it is happening to work. The entire voting system in Nigeria must be electronized.
“The National Assembly must immediately intervene in their constitutional amendment exercise. The constitution must be amended to deal with these electoral processes so that we can have truly credible and transparent elections in Nigeria.
“As it is today, it is difficult to have credible election in Nigeria because the electoral umpire owes its allegiance to Mr. President, its appointer. That has been the trend and it didn’t start under the Tinubu administration. I am now saying it is not a good template. The fact that we have gone through that stage in the past does not mean we have to dwell on the anomaly”.
Also speaking with our correspondent, Monday Onyekachi Ubani, another Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said the president will continue to appoint the INEC chairman as long as Nigeria’s law and the 1999 constitution is in operation.
“There is no debate anywhere. The law says the president appoints the INEC chairman. Have they changed the law? There is nothing that can be done except the law is changed. If the law is not changed, the president will continue to appoint the INEC chairman. That is the position of the law”. (Daily Independent)
