In order to restore electoral integrity, Obasanjo demands new leadership for INEC
For the sake of election integrity, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has demanded that the Independent National election Commission be managed by a reputable individual at every level.
He made the plea over the weekend during a videotaped speech at Yale University’s Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum in New Haven, Connecticut, in the United States.
According to him, Nigerians need to make sure that the INEC chairman and his team have undergone a rigorous screening process. The vetting process should produce impartial, nonpartisan individuals with stellar reputations.
“We need to make sure the INEC chairperson and his or her staff are thoroughly vetted as a matter of urgency,” he stated. Actors with excellent reputations who are impartial and nonpartisan should be the result of the screening process.
“In order to prevent undesired political influence and corruption and to restore citizens’ faith in the electoral systems, Nigeria must make sure that new, credible INEC leadership is appointed at the federal, state, local government, and municipal levels—city, town, and village—with brief tenures.
“The INEC chairperson must be transparently independent, incorruptible, and completely above the law.”
Obasanjo called the 2023 Nigerian elections “a travesty” and said that after the troubled process, reforming the country’s electoral system is now one of the main goals for change.
He emphasized that Nigeria must figure out how to shield elections from both domestic and international malicious actors and stop electoral meddling at all levels.
Obasanjo said that in order to guarantee adherence to financial restrictions, Nigeria should establish and enforce precisely specified finance regulations for political campaigns at the local level.
In addition, he demanded that efforts be stepped up to prepare and secure the voting infrastructure, including protecting the technology that is used to compile, transmit, validate, and distribute election results.
International observers should observe a transparent exercise before elections where “penetration testing of the election system and infrastructure” is carried out for everyone to view and confirm.
“Nigeria must guarantee the voters’ and commissions’ physical safety. In order to safeguard our citizens during elections and prevent them from engaging in electoral fraud, our security forces need to be adequately trained.
“INEC must make sure that ballot security is implemented to stop tampering or unauthorized access, whether done by hand or by cybercriminals. He emphasized that in order to prevent any kind of intervention, ballot security also entails the safe storage and transportation of ballots to collation centers.
According to Obasanjo, INEC did not successfully execute the INEC Election Result Viewing Portal and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System in 2023.
The INEC chairman personally praised these innovations. These innovations ultimately succeeded. Due to INEC’s deliberate failure to adopt or apply them, there were several irregularities in the voting process. The former president said, “It was like inviting the fox into the hen house.”
According to him, Nigeria has to implement transparent procedures and post-election audits that increase confidence and comfort among all voters and stakeholders.
“The easiest and best way to kill electoral democracy is for politicians to corruptly get themselves declared the winner in an election where votes are meaningless and then ask the declared loser to go to court where justice cannot be guaranteed,” he stated.
