REMI OLATUNBURA, Ondo State Commissioner for Adult, Technical and Vocational Education, and member of the Political Parties and Electoral Matters Committee at the National Conference, tells Assistant Editor (North), CHUKS EHIRIM, why his committee thinks the appointment of INEC helmsman should be taken away from the presidency and left to the NJC, among others
Punishing electoral offenders
REMI OLATUNBURA
It was part of the issue we deliberated upon. We feel that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) itself should be unbundled. If INEC is unbundled, then of course the commission will have the responsibility of ensuring that electoral offenders are brought to justice.
We also have to create tribunals; a special tribunal or court to try electoral offences. If we allow the culture of impunity to continue to pervade the electoral processes, we are not going to get it right. If individuals snatch ballot papers and go scot-free, we will never get it right, and if they are not brought to justice, we will never get out of it.
Even in the course of registration, if you do multiple registration, you should be brought to justice. We must enthrone a system that is transparent, a system that is foolproof, a system that is credible. Otherwise, our electoral process, our election results, will not be respected.
The problem we have with our electoral system today is that the processes are not credible. The processes are very opaque. It starts with issues as simple as the national identity cards project. In this country today, particularly in the North East, people straddle between Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. We don’t know who is a Nigerian and who is not.
The country has been subjected to various attacks from neighbouring countries, by people who are not even Nigerians. Even in Nigeria here, we don’t have the process of identifying those people because we cannot count ourselves. We must have a national identity card project that is functional, so that we would be able to cross-check our voter register with that national identity card.
Independence of INEC
It is only in Nigeria that we have to forcefully put “independent” as part of the name of the electoral body, so that we can pretend to members of the public that the body is independent, whereas in reality, it is not.
What we are doing here is that, one, in terms of funding, INEC should be an autonomous institution. It should not be subjected to the vagaries of decision-making at the Federal Executive Council (FEC). INEC should belong to the bodies that can draw from the first line charge.
You deduct money from the revenue of the federal government and then give INEC the portion meant for it, without the strictures of the politics of FEC. But we subscribe to the view that because INEC is also a component of the larger economy, the political economy of Nigeria, it must also subject its budget to the processes of the National Assembly; that it must be part of the appropriation law. We cannot create an institution which will have a budget that is not also appropriated.
So, independence, of course, is in terms of appointments. The matter is still hanging. It is going to be an explosive issue because we are of the view that we must take away that issue from the presidency and give it to the NJC (National Judicial Council). It is an element of independence.
Appointment of INEC secretary
We are going to recommend that the appointment of INEC chairman and members of the election management body must be by the NJC.
NJC is a body constituted by judges who have gone through promotions over the years; some of them 27, 30 years on the bench. They are not politicians. Let them select individuals with political neutrality and credibility and have the requisite knowledge to be able to handle the responsibilities of INEC.
We know that (Professor Attahiru) Jega is a credible person, but he is working with some elements that are lacking in matters of credibility. He cannot do it alone. Jega cannot be chairman of INEC and be adhoc staff of the commission.
Beating the gun on 2015 elections
It is part of the issues that we have slated for discussion. Let every candidate have, at least, one year for campaigns. If a man wants to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he should have one clear year to go round Nigeria. People must know who wants to be their president. If you cannot speak one-on-one with the person who wants to be your president, you must be able to, in a gathering, in a rally, see the man, identify him, let him present his manifesto and then you will be able to assess him and evaluate his programmes before you can decide whether or not to vote for him.
We must guard against this fire brigade approach of lifting ban when election is almost concluded administratively. It will not go well with us in this country. We will never make progress until we allow enough time for candidates to campaign around their constituencies.
Consensus among committee members
Most of them will buy into it because our committee is composed of civil society people in good number and other organisations. We have people from the academia – Professor Kimse Okoko, Professor Mimiko and other individuals. It is a mixture. You have some of us who are lawyers. Then you have some few politicians – politicians who are credible, two former presidents of the Senate of the Federal Republic who have established a lot of credibility in the polity. We have Ken Nnamani who, on his own, virtually stopped a dictatorial president from getting a third term. We are home and dry with these individuals. We are lucky to have these individuals in this committee.
