By Abiola Olawale
A former two-term President of Nigeria as well as a former military Head of State, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has advocated for the sacking of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu and other top officials of the electoral body.
Obasanjo, who made this call at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum at Yale University in the United States, said the sack of Yakubu and other officials in INEC is necessary for the reform of the electoral process in Nigeria.
According to the former president, the electoral body’s failure to utilise two main technological tools; the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV), during the 2023 presidential election, despite the promises made by Yakubu is enough reason for the overhaul of the INEC.
Obasanjo described the 2023 general election as a “travesty”, adding that the reform of the electoral system is a key agenda for the country.
He also called for shorter tenures for INEC officials and a more rigorous vetting process to prevent the appointment of partisan individuals.
He said: “As a matter of urgency, we must ensure the INEC Chairperson and their staff are thoroughly vetted. The vetting exercise should produce dispassionate, non-partisan actors with impeccable reputations.
“Nigeria must ensure the appointment of new credible INEC leadership at the federal, state, local government, and municipal – city, town, and village – levels, with short tenures to prevent undesirable political influence and corruption, and to re-establish trust in the electoral system by its citizens
“The INEC Chairperson must not only be absolutely above board but must also be transparently independent and incorruptible.
“The BVAS and IReV are two technological innovations that, before 2023, were celebrated for their potential to enhance the accuracy and transparency of our election results, eliminate the threat of election rigging, and boost public trust in electoral outcomes.
“These technologies were touted by the INEC chairman himself. In the end, these technologies did not fail. INEC wilfully failed to use or implement them, which resulted in widespread voting irregularities. It was a case of inviting the fox into the henhouse.”
It would be recalled that several individuals, particularly supporters of the Labour Party (LP) in the last general election have been criticising INEC over what they called the failure of the IReV platform during the presidential election, which the electoral body blamed on technical glitch.
The argument on the IReV was also central to post-election litigation, but these cases were dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal and the Supreme Court.
The New Diplomat also reports that Yakubu was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and was reappointed in 2020 for another five-year tenure. His tenure is expected to expire next year.
Yakubu made history by becoming the first person to serve as INEC chairman for two terms.
