By Willy Eya
Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu has called for immediate establishment of Electoral Offences Tribunal to deal with offenders.
He regretted that elections at every level in the country have become a war, saying the nation must find a way to tackle impunity in the electoral system.
Speaking to newsmen yesterday in Lagos, he decried the spate of violence during elections and revealed that over 12 offices of the commission were burnt down by hoodlums in recent elections by INEC.
“One of the things we have to do is to put our heads together and find ways and means by which our elections and civil processes are concluded on first ballot and on condition that they are violence-free.” He said the solution lies in the implementation of earlier recommendations by the Muhammed Uwais, and Ahmed Lemu committees on electoral offenders.
The INEC boss said the commission is already pushing very hard to ensure the implementation of the recommendations, as that would curtail violence and impunity in the electoral system.
“The solution is in the recommendations on electoral offenders by the Uwais committee that are not implemented but we are pushing very hard to ensure that these solutions are implemented. Uwais made a lot of recommendations, including the electoral offences Commission and Tribunal.
Nothing has been done about the Uwais report. Three years later, we were confronted by post election violence in 2011.
“Another committee was chaired by Ahmed Lemu. The Lemu committee made the same recommendations as Uwais committee. The recommendations were accepted and a white paper issued,” he said.
He regretted that the commission is saddled with all manner of responsibilities, some of which are beyond the commission to handle. He said: “Election security cannot be the responsibility of the commission. Somebody has to secure the environment for us and that is the responsibility of the security agencies. There are quite a number of reforms in that regard that we need to pursue. We can successfully pursue them ahead of the 2019 elections. At the end of the day, what we want is to make sure that the votes count and that what Nigerians decide determines ultimately who wins”.
Prof Yakubu explained that the process of conducting free and fair election requires openness but noted that, “unfortunately, in Nigeria, the more open the commission is, the more the political actors try to understand what the commission is trying to do how they can subvert the process”.
He also explained that the reasons for the inconclusive polls in the country were because elections are getting better, votes now count, political parties are becoming stronger and winning by landslide fast disappearing.
“We now have two strong political parties, in almost all cases, fielding equally strong candidates and the stakes are becoming increasingly higher. By that reason, winning by landslide is fast disappearing because we no longer have a dominant political party.