By Omeiza Ajayi

The Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has for several months been in the eye of the storm. Not for what it did, but for what it did not do – its inability to “conclude” most of the elections on first ballot. While many Nigerians are anxious to always have the commission declare election results at the end of the conduct of same, INEC on its part has often said it is better to be slow and right, than to be fast and wrong.

INEC boss, Mahmood Yakubu

The penchant of some had often been to put the blame entirely on INEC but since the commission began to defend itself, saying it is only obeying the electoral law by cancelling elections where there is violence, some are now of the opinion that politicians may be the ones to blame. However, there are those who also insist that part of the blame is in the Electoral Act, especially with regards to the imbalance in the application of technology. Other factors are election day processes instituted by INEC and low voter turnout on election day.

Some legal practitioners have also opined that INEC’s insistence on relying on registered voters instead of voters who have collected their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) is another factor. Here, there might be a need to review the INEC guidelines on elections. Unfortunately, the guidelines are derived from the electoral law. Yet, INEC’s insistence on being fastidious only serves to further muddy the waters.

Some analysts have argued that electronic voting is part of the solution to the menace of inconclusive elections, but those who are opposed to this have often reminded Nigerians that, unlike Namibia, where there is a total practice of e-voting, Nigeria is not yet ripe for such.

Some groups have argued that equally important to the electoral outcome, is the series of diverse interpretations provided to INEC by executive representatives including the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF). It is alleged, rightly or wrongly, that the AGF tells INEC when and where to declare elections inconclusive.

“This comes as a shock because at no point in the leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega, did INEC require the legal guidance of the AGF to take operational electoral decisions. Is the Senate unmindful of the dangerous consequences of such a development, where electoral stakeholders are given the perception that the executive tele-guides the Election Management Body? Is this outcome related to the suggestion by some people that the INEC National Board as currently constituted does not enjoy the competency of any legally trained hands amongst its current National Commissioners?”, Tokunboh Adewale of the League of Democratic Electoral Practices (LDEP), a diaspora group, queried. To the group, the result of the lack of proper constitution of INEC has been the wave of inconclusive elections across the country.

The inconclusive nature of recent elections conducted by INEC is now a source of concern to many Nigerians who are sharply divided as to the role of the commission in staving off such occurrences. The concern is whether Edo, Ondo and the 2019 general elections could go the way of Kogi, Rivers or Imo.

While a former governor of Akwa Ibom state, Obong Victor Attah, as well as a gubernatorial aspirant in Ondo state and former president of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Rotimi Akeredolu, said the political class is to blame, two elder statesmen, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai and Balarabe Musa, a former governor of old Kaduna State say INEC lacks the competence to creditably discharge its mandate.

Blame the Political Class -Attah, Akeredolu

Attah said elections are only inconclusive because politicians do not want the exercise to hold. “What we have to look at is why elections are inconclusive. I remember, somebody recently blamed the judiciary but are they truly to blame? Elections are inconclusive because politicians do not allow elections to be held and then they expect INEC to announce results. Any inconclusive election should be blamed on politicians not INEC. Politicians must allow elections to be held so that results can be announced. So, blame the politicians and not INEC because if elections are held peacefully, INEC will announce results”, he said.

On whether there is a nexus between the non-complement of a full INEC board of commissioners and inconclusive elections, the former governor said INEC cannot invent what does not exist. He said; “It cannot be the reason as to why elections are inconclusive. They (INEC) cannot invent what is not there. However, it is wrong that till now we have not constituted INEC properly; that we saddle few people with the responsibility of several people is not good but it is not because of that that we have inconclusive elections”.

On his part, Akeredolu said people should stop blaming INEC for cases of inconclusive elections recorded in the recent time. “I can assure you of one thing; this inconclusive election has been a thing of concern to everybody but the question must be asked, who is to blame? I think the blame is for all of us and I want to believe that mainly the blame is for the politicians because when INEC makes some efforts to put in place all its preparations towards the elections, politicians will go ahead and put impediments on INEC’s path.

“I have said it before that the present INEC chairman, I want to believe, that he should be on the same page with what Jega did when he was there but what has happened is that when we go into elections, we politicians prevent elections from being held in some areas. It is not INEC; when INEC staff are there to go there and you have riot and a lot of fight here and there, so what do you want INEC to do? INEC will say we will not take our personnel there because they stand a risk of being killed and there is nothing anybody can do about that.

“So, I want to believe that you have seen the inconclusive elections you have seen because where you have areas which voters in the register are enough to tilt the balance and no election was held there because of violence and because of other reasons, politicians are to blame but I do not have any fear the election in Ondo state, I can assure you, the results would be declared the following day.”

It’s a question of incompetence  -Musa

However, former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, exonerated the political class, saying INEC as presently constituted, lacks the professional competence to conclude elections as scheduled. He said if there were doubts as to the capacity of the former INEC boss, Prof. Attahiru Jega to deliver on his mandate, the doubts have even now increased due to the incompetence of the current chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu. He said it is either a question of incompetence or a conspiracy with some gladiators to truncate the political process.

“Certainly, it is INEC because there is no sufficient reason INEC can give to convince people that the conduct of election is inconclusive. Everyone believes now that it is a question of incompetence or worse, conspiracy with some gladiators. “How can INEC be conducting inconclusive elections with all the material resources at its disposal? An inconclusive election can only be as a result of incompetence and conspiracy.

“Well, we have a lot of doubts. If we had doubts during Jega’s tenure, and had some hope when Jega was succeeded, the position now is that the doubt has however increased with the present leadership of INEC and this is for two reasons. One, INEC continuously commits contempt of court. Two, we cannot understand why we are having inconclusive elections. INEC as presently constituted, in spite of the hope we had that it would be a better INEC, is worse than Jega.

“As it is today, courts have given orders to INEC to re-admit about seven political parties that INEC earlier deregistered but INEC is not implementing the order.  On December 17, a federal high court reinstated the Peoples Redemption Party PRP and three others with an order that INEC should treat them equally with other parties, but INEC is not inviting them for anything; INEC is not even inviting them to participate in bye-elections and of course PRP has taken them to court”, he said.

On the conduct of elections so far under President Muhammadu Buhari, the ex-governor said it is not the fault of the president that Nigeria has inconclusive elections. “Apparently, it is not his fault. We still have parties who are in power in the states and they operate in such a way that any party in power in the states is always declared winner of their local government elections. This was the case in Sokoto state recently and in so many other states”.

INEC encouraging inconclusive elections -Yakassai

In his reaction, elder statesman, Dr Tanko Yakassai said the situation has now cast dark clouds on INEC’s image as a foremost electoral umpire. “I am not happy that because of the incident of one INEC office being burnt, that the whole rerun in Rivers was cancelled. In Nigeria, we have ingenious people both in positive and negative manner. I hope INEC is aware that what they did in Rivers – because of an incident in one local government, they now cancelled the whole exercise even in areas that were peaceful, they are indirectly urging the trouble-makers to make it impossible for us to have elections in the future because a party that knows it would lose elections, all it needs to do is to cause mayhem in certain places. I fear if we continue this way, there will be trouble in the general elections.

“The series of inconclusive elections is not a good commentary on the leadership of INEC and I think they have a duty to correct the bad image that this thing is causing to the organization. We have been having elections since 1999 and we have never had this situation where consecutively, you have too many inconclusive elections. INEC should see this as highly-embarrassing to them”, he said.

On the forthcoming elections in Edo and Ondo, he said; “I hope we will not have that (inconclusion). If it happens, it would do an incalculable damage to the reputation of INEC. I appeal to them to do everything they can to get it right”.

On assessing the lack or proper constitution of INEC he said; “Well, I do not know but it (inconclusive elections) should not happen. Certainly, if an organization is understaffed, it would hamper its   ability to deliver”. I am not blaming the Buhari administration for inconclusive elections but it is unfortunate that it is happening under him. I do not blame the current administration, but it is affecting its image.

Stop Defending Rigged Polls

On its part, an election-transparency advocacy movement, the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group, has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to stop appearing before election tribunals to defend poll results they know are rigged. Executive Director of the group, Dr Chima Amadi, said since INEC lacks the powers to invalidate results announced under duress or by compromised electoral officers in the field, the commission should decline legal representation when such results are contested at the tribunals.

As a way out of inconclusive elections, the group said, “INEC should initiate a process, where since it lacks power to cancel elections where results are already announced by an officer either because they are compromised or under threat that it should brief its lawyers to refrain from defending the result of the election at the tribunal. INEC should be able to come to Court and patriotically say they do not stand by the result of the election”.

While noting that it is a disgrace that politicians have to be made to sign accord guaranteeing peaceful elections, the group which has observed several elections in the country also urged INEC to deepen public engagement.

Blame Buhari, NASS, INEC

On its part, the League of Democratic Electoral Practices (LDEP) a network of Nigerians in the Diaspora said it has noted with troubling dismay the executive recklessness and nonchalance that characterizes issues relating to compliance with electoral practices since the inception of the current administration in Nigeria. It also lamented that the national assembly has yielded its responsibility to stem such breaches of statutes, conventions, laws and norms of electoral practices by the Senate, particularly its Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to the secretary of the group, Dr Tokunboh Adewale, “These breaches bother on structural and process issues, which if left unattended will definitely affect the process and outcome indicators which determine the performance of INEC in elections. As of today structurally, INEC has a deficient National Board with only 7 instead of 13 members as required by Law, and a deficient National leadership structure of only 16 out of 37 required Resident Electoral Commissioners as the constitutional statute commands.

“Specifically, a Federal High Court (FHC) had ruled that the Board of INEC must be a minimum of13 members who must have quorum of five members to take decisions relating to the conduct of elections. Appointing the quorum number required of a board by any stretch of the imagination, can never be the legal interpretation of appointing the prescribed full membership of such a board”.

On process and outcome breaches, the group said it is apparent to all Nigerians “that since the half-constituted INEC National Board, with by far more deficient Resident Electoral Commissioners came on board, the default position of electoral outcomes have become ‘inconclusive elections’. The Senate may not have taken this issue to account but it must be stated that in terms of cost-effectiveness, this means that most elections will come at twice or about twice the usual cost, because human and material resources will be used to conclude such blemished elections”.

It’s not our fault -INEC

INEC has however said elections would continue to be inconclusive if politicians continue to perpetrate violence just to disenfranchise eligible voters. Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzi said while the commission is deeply committed to strengthening the electoral process, it would not kowtow to the whims of some politicians who wants it to only implement the electoral law in part. “It is quite obvious. The law is very clear. The duty of INEC is to conduct elections. They want us to conclude elections even where eligible voters were not allowed to vote. It is an anathema to democracy.

“Elections are now highly-competitive and you also have two dominant political parties who are vigorously competing. Even if we declare the elections conclusive as they want, the courts would go ahead to invalidate them and then we start the process all over again”, he said. On the lack of a full complement of the INEC board, Uzi expressed hope that the situation would change soon.

“Let me put it this way; where 13 people are given a job and seven people are doing it, they would be stretched, but we are doing our best and we hope the appointive authority are also taking their time to appoint the right people as soon as possible. We are as committed as any commission saddled with such responsibility could be”, he pledged.