By Laide Akinboade

ABUJA—The Senate has challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC, to ensure that it conducted a free and fair election in 2011.

Deputy Senate President and Chairman Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendment, Senator Ike Ekeremandu, stated this yesterday, while declaring open the flag-off of voter education campaign for the elections.

He said INEC had already been given the necessary constitutional backing to conduct a free and fair election for Nigerians, stressing that if it failed, it would have only itself to blame.

The theme for the voter Education Campaign that is organised by National Orientation Agency is Vote Matters.

According to him, “the National Assembly has provided sufficient independence for INEC in terms of finances and administration, so they are not answerable to any person. If they fail, they have only themselves to blame.

“We have made provision in the law on how election petition should be conducted.

As I speak with you, there are still election petitions started in 2007 that are still in court.”

In 2003 when I got to the Senate, I met a senator who came to the Senate since 1999, his election was challenged.

“The election petition was on until 2003 election. And he won the 2003 election again in the Senate. A month or two after we had been in the Senate, the tribunal gave its verdict that he did not win the 1999 election and the man had already finished his tenure anyway.

“We do not want that kind of thing to repeat itself again, so we have provided that once election takes place, you must file election petition within 21 days and the tribunal must finish that petition within 180 days and if there is any appeal arising from the judgment, it must be finished within 60 days.”

He stressed the importance of creating awareness among Nigerians, especially the importance of each vote.

“The event is very important to all Nigerians and the nation in general. We have labored in the past two years to provide the necessary framework and legal structures that will ensure a free and fair election.

And if we do all those and the people do not know their rights and responsibilities and what we have done to ensure that Nigeria have a credible election then we have wasted our time.

“So, it is important for us that the event is taking place so that Nigerians will know how much their votes count. We try as much as possible to deal with the issue of internal democracy in parties, we have provided under Section 87, of the constitution, how parties will conduct their primaries.

“That is not supposed to be the thing but because our political parties have refused to imbibe internal democracy. We decided to hold them down by legislation so that they will do the correct thing. So we have specified how primaries should be conducted and how INEC should monitor this and if they fail to abide by that any candidate that is presented will not be acceptable.”

He said it is imperative for the Federal Government to establish Electoral Offences Commission that will deal with all electoral offences and fraud in the country.

Ekweremandu noted: “One important legislation which we have not sufficiently address is the issue of the Electoral Offences Commission. We need to setup Electoral Offences Commission that will deal will electoral offenses because what we have been experiencing is that people commit electoral fraud and they go scot free because the hands of police are tight, they have so many things in their hands. “Once they commit electoral offenses, before you know it, people
are released and nothing happens and once they know nothing happens they go back to the same crime. So, we need to work on this legislation so that there will be a special court to try those who commit electoral offences and fraud.

“Such bill should make it mandatory for people to vote in the country, we do not have culture of voting in the country, we need to use the instrument of law to persuade people to vote. We need to get our people to vote.

“We need to make it compulsory that once you register to vote then you must vote. what happens most of the time is that they sit down in their various houses watching television expecting miracle to happen instead of them to go out and vote so we need to find a way of making our people not only to register but to vote as well and I think we can make it compulsory under the law.”

Chairman INEC, Prof. Attairu Jega reiterated the commitment of INEC to conduct a free and fair election in 2011, and urged all Nigerians to ensure that they cooperated with the agency.

“INEC recognizes the ability of NOA to help reach out to all Nigerians. I assure you that INEC will do its best and all other relevant agencies to undertake a robust education programme for all Nigerians and to ensure the registration of voters. And I want to say that this process belongs to every Nigerians, we should not depend on INEC alone.

“All hand must be on deck to ensure that all votes that would be cast by every Nigerian count and want to assure you of a credible election in 2011,” he stated.

Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq, said as the nation was preparing for its general election, it was imperative to enlighten Nigerians on the importance of their votes and electing credible leaders.

He noted that the international communities were expecting a lot from Nigeria in conducting a free and fair election, adding that every one that was eligible to vote must vote.

The minister urged Nigerians to lend a hand in strengthening democracy by ensuring and insisting that all eligible votes count in the next general elections as well as other future elections.