Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has called for the dismissal of the Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, and officials of the commission at all levels as part of a reform of the electoral process in Nigeria.
Mr Obasanjo made the call in a paper he presented at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum, Yale University, in the United States. The annual lecture honours the late Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe.
He delivered the address, titled “Leadership Failure and State Capture in Nigeria”, in a pre-recorded speech played at the event.
In his speech, Mr Obasanjo described the 2023 general election as a “travesty”, adding that the reform of the electoral system is a key agenda for the country.
The former president also called for shorter tenures for INEC officials and a more rigorous vetting process to prevent the appointment of partisan individuals.
“As a matter of urgency, we must ensure the INEC Chairperson and their staff are thoroughly vetted. The vetting exercise should produce 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 to re-establish trust in the electoral system by its citizens,” he said.
He argued that “The INEC Chairperson must not only be absolutely above board but must also be transparently independent and incorruptible.”
Mr Obasanjo said the commission willfully failed to utilise two main technological tools at its disposal—the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV)—during the 2023 presidential election, despite the promises made by Mr Yakubu.
“The BVAS and IReV are two technological innovations that, prior to 2023, were celebrated for their potential to enhance the accuracy and transparency of our election results, eliminate the threat of election rigging, and boost public trust in electoral outcomes.
“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 henhouse,” he said.
INEC’s credibility battle
INEC faced criticism after the last general elections, particularly over the failure of the IReV platform during the presidential election, which INEC blamed on a technical glitch.
The IReV platform was central to post-election litigation, but these cases were dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal and the Supreme Court.
PREMIUM TIMES also published a special report showing how Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, won the election in Rivers State based on IReV reports, while INEC declared President Bola Tinubu the winner of the state.
Mr Obasanjo backed Mr Obi during the last presidential election and, during the collation of results, called for the cancellation of some results that did not pass the “credibility and transparency test”. His call for the then-president to halt the collation was widely criticised by many.
INEC has also faced criticism over its conduct during the Edo State off-cycle governorship election.
Concerns have also been raised about the appointment of partisan individuals to leadership roles within INEC.
PREMIUM TIMES previously reported instances of partisan individuals being appointed as Resident Electoral Commissioners. In the most recent appointments by Mr Tinubu, four nominees were found to have partisan affiliations, particularly to Mr Tinubu’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
While Mr Obasanjo made strong arguments for electoral reform, his record in overseeing elections during his presidency is not impeccable.
The 2003 and 2007 elections under his tenure were widely regarded by local and international observers as some of the worst in Nigerian history.
The winner of the 2007 presidential election, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, acknowledged that the election was flawed and initiated electoral reforms, although these were not completed before he died in 2010. His successor, Goodluck Jonathan, continued the reform process.
Mr Yakubu’s tenure
Mr Yakubu was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and was reappointed in 2020 for another five-year tenure. His tenure is expected to expire next year.
PREMIUM TIMES contacted the spokesperson for INEC, Sam Olumekun, to get the commission’s reaction to the call by the former president, but he did not answer his calls or respond to a text message sent to his phone.
Africa is too big to fail—Iheka
In his remarks, the head of the Yale Africa Initiative, Cajetan Iheka, said some of the questions Mr Achebe raised in his book The Trouble with Nigeria are still relevant today.
He argued that intellectuals must go beyond asking questions and begin to provide answers.
“Ours is thus an intellectual exercise but also a socio-political project. As we deliberate, let us heed Achebe’s demand that we take a hard and unsentimental look at the crucial question of leadership and political power. But we must also do so with civility and respect—the kind of civility and respect that Achebe modelled and commanded with his grace and dignity.
“To that end, how do we discuss and tackle leadership in Africa without involving those who have had the privilege of leading and those who aspire to lead? We are thus grateful to their excellencies and other distinguished guests who have travelled to engage with us today,” he added.
Obi, Otti, Ezekwesili in attendance
Aside from Mr Obasanjo, other Nigerians present at the event included Peter Obi, the Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, and former Minister Oby Ezekwesili.
Mr Obi participated in two different panel sessions: a discussion on “Leadership and Democracy in Africa” and “Intergenerational Panel: Young People and the Future of Leadership in Africa”.
