…It’s Not Only About Laws But Also Implementation, Says IPAC  

LAGOS – Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party gov­ernorship candidate for Lagos State in the 2023 general elections, has writ­ten off National Chairman of the Independent National Elec­toral Commission (INEC) over the recommendations he made recently on ways to improve future electoral exercises in the country.

Rhodes-Vivour pointed out that Yakubu lacks credibility and should be ignored, recalling that the nation’s number one elec­toral officer failed to comply with even the existing electoral laws when he presided over the 2023 elections.

He said: “Mahommod Yakubu has lost credibility in relation to being an electoral umpire.

“He made us believe that elec­tronic transmission was going to happen. He said that electronic transmission was sacrosanct in the process of electioneering. All of us went to the field in the be­lief that there would be electronic transmission.

“Afterwards, we were told that wasn’t what the law says, and all kinds of things that went against the guideline that Yakubu put for­ward.

“I know that people believe that Nigerians have short mem­ories. I don’t think we’ll quickly forget the poorly conducted elec­tion of 2023.”

Recall that the INEC Chair­man, Yakubu, revealed on Mon­day that the commission had come up with 142 recommenda­tions to improve future electoral processes.

Yakubu disclosed this at the opening of a two-day Induction Retreat for Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Lagos.

According to Rhodes-Vivour, “Yakubu’s leadership of INEC has to be questioned. There must be consequences to the numerous electoral malpractices that hap­pened in that election.

“The fact that so much mon­ey was taken and was spent by INEC to ensure electronic trans­mission and that didn’t happen – someone must answer for that. It’s not enough to say there was a problem on the server.”

He added: “Saying he wants to deepen our electronic process, based on antecedents, that was just talk. When we come to the field we’ll discover none of that would be implemented.

“That is the problem with our country. Something bad hap­pened, there was no accountabil­ity, no consequence, and in one year we pretend as if it didn’t hap­pen, and we continue to deceive ourselves and move forward.

“Former President Jonathan deepened our democracy with the initiatives that he put in there.

“Late President Yar Adua came on and admitted that the election process that brought him in was fraudulent and that he was going to deepen it. He was committed to it.

“We saw real commitment and that is not the situation that we are in. It’s very difficult for me to take anything from Yakubu se­riously.”

Similarly, Yabagi Sani, Na­tional Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) and im­mediate past National Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Commit­tee (IPAC), drew the attention of Yakubu to the failure of electoral officers and politicians to adhere to subsisting electoral laws.

He told Sunday Independent at the weekend that elections are not determined by rules and regulations alone but also will­ingness to play according to the rules of the game.

Yabagi noted that to get it right, those who are charged with the responsibility of supervising elections in Nigeria must have the right mindset, stressing that the laws may not be the problem but the implementation.

He was also speaking in re­sponse to the 142 recommenda­tions made recently by Yakubu for improvement on the electoral process

Yabagi said: “By and large our elections are the opposite of what the laws say in the conduct of elections.

“So, it is not so much about laws, but the mindset of those who are going to operate these laws, and those that are going to enforce the laws.

“Enforcement of the law is very poor in our country. You may have the most fantastic and useful laws but where it comes to implementation that is where you have the problems.

“INEC as a regulatory agency, definitely it is in its place to say from experience these are the things that should be done in im­proving the law, having operated the act as it is today. “

He added, “It’s not that we have weaker or bad laws when you compare with countries in Europe, America or Asia, but it’s because over there people are governed by the rule of law, and people obey the laws of the land.

“In Nigeria we’re yet to get there where people will obey the laws, they always obey the personalities more than the in­stitutions. So, this is where the problem lies.

“Yes, INEC recommendations could be very good and coming from INEC because they’re the people operating the act itself.

“They can say from their ex­perience these are the things they believe should be done, which is okay but what I’m trying to say is that if we obey the laws, it’ll be okay because they’re the experts, the ones administering the elec­toral act.

“After trying many elections, they say these are the pitfalls, and these are our suggestions from our experience. But the question is: who is going to enforce it?”

On the speculation in some quarters that the chairman should be changed considering what happened in the 2023 gener­al elections, he said, “Removing the chairman of INEC is not the solution. There are fundamental issues that we have to deal with first. One of the fundamental issues is the appointment of the INEC chairman.

“It’s not about Mahmood Yakubu, if you put anybody there politicians will influence him. If we don’t change the manner by which we appoint the chairman, nothing will change.

“Anybody that you put there will also behave the same way. Let us go back to the basics and follow some of the recommen­dations that have been made in the past, like the Uwais Report, Nnamani’s Report, the EU Re­ports and others.”