in Abuja

Civil Society Organisations have raised the alarm over alleged plan to replace the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, and six Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) with loyal party members when their tenure expires by November.

The stakeholders made this known yesterday in Abuja at the Conference of Thought Leaders on Civic Space, Poverty and Elections in Nigeria, organised by Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) in collaboration with African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD).

The political move, which had been set in motion, the stakeholders said, would be actualised in six months time when Yakubu and the six RECs would have served out their statutory terms.

The stakeholders, however, warned against a repeat of what happened in the 1964 and the 1965 federal elections, which  put the country on the edge due to a deliberate attempt to tamper with and influence the federal electoral culture at the time to the extent that three or four members of the NEC had to resign.

While delivering his keynote address, Professor of Political Science at the University of Lagos and former commissioner in the National Election Commission (NEC), Prof. Adele Jinadu, said the CSOs must be vigilant to oppose and prevent appointment of loyal party members in the electoral body.

“I’m saying this now, because I can clearly see attempts to invade INEC. You don’t want to say it, forgive me, but those of us who have our ears on the ground, we know that the process is going on now, and we have seen images of it already.

“When party members were nominated as RECs and within one day, they were all confirmed. Pressures are being mounted so that the process for registering new parties will be used against those who want to start to use them to form a new government.

“I think the role of civil society is very important. There has to be a lot of vigorous resistance against that kind of thing.In the next six months, by November, the present leadership of INEC will have to step aside. I think we need to be vigilant and prevent that from happening.

“If you look at our history, the 1964-65 federal elections put us on the precipice because there was a deliberate attempt to tamper with and influence the federal electoral culture at the time to the extent that three or four members of the NEC had to resign.

“And we also know that in 1983, FEDECO was also deeply embedded in it and there was a disagreement about the name of FEDECO. So what I’m simply saying is that we should avoid a situation where we put partisan politicians on the INEC.

“The only way we can prevent that is to make sure that if and when that happens and we know those who are partisan politicians who are going to be INEC Commissioners.”