For an institution that lost much of its credibility after the avoidable foibles of the last General Election, the new initiative of the Professor Mahmood Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to pursue peace-building is indeed remarkable.

Addressing stakeholders in the forthcoming Edo State governorship election last Thursday, Prof Yakubu said the commission had set September 12 for the signing of a peace accord among the candidates for that election.

The election is set to be held on September 21.

For Professor Yakubu, the ability to arrange a peace pact a week or so before the election is considered an achievement.

“You may notice that unlike the previous peace accords signed a few days to the election, INEC decided to do this early this time around,” Yakubu told newsmen following the meeting with the stakeholders.

The idea of signing peace accords ahead of Nigerian elections follows the blood that flowed in many Northern States in 2011 when NYSC corps members among many other election officials and political actors were killed in their hundreds after that year’s presidential election.

The peace initiative conceived by Father Matthew Kukah with General Abubakar Abdulsalami as arrowhead bore fruit in 2015 when President Goodluck Jonathan followed through with his mantra that his election was not worth the blood of a single Nigerian.

His concession of victory to General Muhammadu Buhari was an unprecedented act of statesmanship that has rarely been emulated since.

The 2015 General Election, despite what many saw as some deficiencies, is, however, generally regarded as the best election of the Fourth Republic since the 1999 elections that gave birth to the present dispensation.

The Yakubu management had promised to build upon the legacies of the Professor Attahiru Jega-led administration that preceded it.

The promise to up the ante through scaling up technology was, however, swallowed up by glitches that the commission till today has not been able to explain.

So, instead of confessing its failures of 2023, INEC has shockingly moved on. Indeed, despite holding an elaborate review of that election penultimate July, the commission failed to open up on the fundamental issues that robbed the polls of the desired credibility.

Instead of a confession and repentance, the commission has continued to soldier on as if it honoured its vow of making the last General Election the most credible and acceptable poll in the history of the country.

Following the 2023 election, INEC has now resorted to arranging peace accords with election participants seemingly sending out a confusing message to political actors as to its essence in the polity.

An election is a contest of ideas and personalities in which INEC is the referee. It is a peaceful fight and INEC’s duty as a dutiful referee is to apply sanctions whether red or yellow cards where contenders fail to play by the rules.

This correspondent submits that it is not their duty to arrange peace accords but to apply sanctions!

Remarkably, the peace accords entered into before the 2023 General Election and the state elections that followed did not really bring any meaningful impact during many of the elections. Opposition elements have not had any good news to tell after the elections.

In Kogi, Imo, and Bayelsa States incumbents have swept through with agonizing tales from oppositionists with INEC in almost all cases keeping mum in the face of brutalization of opposition party agents by state actors. In some of the states, voters’ turnout were almost 100% and INEC to the dismay of all went on to defend the results in the face of brutal suppression of voters’ turnout.

The saddening tale of INEC agents keeping mum and not defending the integrity of the system is one of the most incredible foibles of the present INEC that has left many astounded. Voters have been beaten up at the polling stations by proxies of those who signed the peace accords that Professor Yakubu is arranging without as much as a hoot from the commission.

So, with the commission now arranging for another peace accord by the political actors in Edo State one is left to wonder as to whether INEC has left its primary duty of conducting free and fair polls to preaching peace that the commission itself is not willing to articulate during judicial arbitration of elections.

One is looking forward to a commission that brings truth and transparency to the table and does not pontificate on peace. As Othman Dan Fodio said, conscience is an open wound, only truth can heal it.

It is the truth without glitches that one expects from Professor Yakubu’s INEC.