Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for the appointment of a credible leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission at all levels for electoral integrity.
He made the call at the weekend via a recorded video address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.
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He stated that Nigerians must ensure that the INEC chairman and his staff were thoroughly vetted, adding that the vetting exercise should yield dispassionate, non-partisan, actors with impeccable reputations.
He said, “As a matter of urgency, we must make sure the INEC chairperson and his or her staff are thoroughly vetted. The vetting exercise should yield dispassionate, non-partisan, actors with impeccable reputations.
“Nigeria must ensure the appointment of new credible INEC leadership at the federal, state, local government and municipal – city, town, and village levels – with short tenures – to prevent undesirable political influence and corruption, and re-establish trust in the electoral systems by its citizens.
“The INEC chairperson must not only be absolutely above board, he must also be transparently independent and incorruptible.”
Describing the 2023 elections in Nigeria as “a travesty”, Obasanjo stated that following the problem-prone exercise, electoral system reform is now among the top targets for change in Nigeria.
He insisted that Nigeria must find a way to prevent electoral interference at every level and protecting elections from foreign as well as local malevolent actors.
At the local level, Obasanjo stated that Nigeria should implement and enforce clearly defined financial regulations for political campaigns to ensure compliance with financial regulations.
Besides, he called for the intensification of activities to prepare and secure the voting infrastructure – such as safeguarding the technology used to collate, transmit, verify, and disperse election results.
“Prior to elections, we should have a transparent exercise (witnessed by international observers) where so called ‘penetration testing of the election system and infrastructure’ is conducted for all to witness and verify.
“Nigeria must ensure the physical security of the commissions and voters. Our security apparatus must be professionally trained to protect our citizens during elections not to be participants in electoral malfeasance.
“INEC must ensure that it institutes ballot security to prevent tinkering or unauthorised access – manually or by cybercriminals. Ballot security also means the secure storage and transport of ballots to collation centres to prevent any form of interference,” he emphasised.
Obasanjo said INEC failed to implement the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and INEC Election Result Viewing Portal during the 2023.
“These technologies were touted by the INEC chairman himself. In the end, these technologies did not fail. INEC wilfully failed to use or implement them which resulted in widespread voting irregularities. It was a case of inviting the fox into the hen house,” the former president stated.
He stated that Nigeria must put in place post-election audits and transparent processes that builds trust and comfort for all stakeholders and voters.
“Politicians corruptly getting themselves declared as winner in an election where votes do not matter and asking winner declared loser to go to court where justice cannot be assured is the easiest and best way to kill electoral democracy,” he said.