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| Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman. |
Nigeria's electoral body INEC, has since the appointment of professor Mahmood Yakubu as its chairman, been described as a compromised body designed to serve the interest of those in government especially the president.
Tasked with the responsibility of building from lessons learned from his predecessor, Prof. Attahiru Jega, Mahmood has since his appointment as INEC boss, failed to live up to expectation, thus, further dragging the reputation of INEC as an unbiased umpire, down the hill.
Mahmood's inability to restore confidence on the nation's electoral process by overseeing the conduct of credible elections under his watch, has seen himself labeled as one of the worst INEC chairman since 1999, much worse than previous record holder Prof. Maurice Iwu.
Following a shambolic presidential election conducted about ten months ago, Nigerians were at least, hoping Mr Mahmood would do damage control by ensuring the recent governorship elections held in Kogi and Bayelsa States were free and fair, but it only got a lot more worse.
The election which was described as 'Presidency financed, Thugs decide, police support, and INEC declares,' was according to critics and election observers, a final nail in the coffin following INEC's refusal to heed to calls for cancelation despite glaring evidence of electoral misconducts such as thuggery, violence, inducements, inflation of vote figures, and even loss of lives.
However, despite previously denying claims of irregularities in the last governorship elections held in Kogi and Bayelsa States, the electoral body has now admit to rising cases of violence and vote buying in the nation’s electoral process.
National Commissioner and Chairman of The Electoral Institute (TEI) of INEC, Prince Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, made the admission yesterday in Abuja at the formal presentation of the Bayelsa and Kogi states election observation reports organised by the NESSACTION, one of the accredited election observers.
According to him, vote buying and violence were great challenges of the Kogi and Bayelsa elections and that it was the duty of everyone to find a way of removing violence from the electoral system.
“The new trend of violence in elections was becoming worrisome and INEC would not close its eyes and pretend not to see it. Another aspect which is glaring is the issue of vote exchange; violence and the twin brother vote buying are becoming a primary trend in the electoral process in the country,” Soyebi said.
How this admission changes anything, remains to be seen. But it's clear that INEC was fully aware of the aforementioned irregularities in the last elections, but deliberately turns a blind eye in obedience to a higher power. This then begs the question of what the 'I' in INEC really stands for.
