…says all parties guilty of vote buying at 2023 polls
The former Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu said the National Assembly should be saddled with the responsibility of appointing the Chairman and Members of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to the Minister, this will make the electoral umpire truly independent without recourse to the biddings of executive and consequently eliminate electoral malpractices.
Wogu stated these at the monthly breakfast meeting organised by the New National Star Newspaper with the theme; “2023 General 3lections: A Post Mortem Analysis” held in Abuja on Tuesday.
He also said to eliminate vote buying, the option A4 voting pattern introduced in 1992 by former military President Ibrahim Babangida should be returned and there should be improvement on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices.
The chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) disclosed that all political parties were guilty of the electoral malpractice of vote buying at the just concluded 2023 general election.
“I made allusion to the election of 1992, Babangida came with a process of option A4. It might sound primitive but that is the only way you can eliminate vote buying because when people are queueing behind the candidate if you are taken money here and here, the next position you can queue is between the two candidates which is a void vote.
“That is the way of eliminating it but I don’t know at this electronic stage of Nigerians how that could fit in. Another thing that could fit in is improvement on the process of BVAS. That currency redesign, cashless society was to eliminate vote buying but was it 100% effective? It wasn’t because a lot of money exchanged hands, amongst the various parties, every party was guilty of such electoral malpractice.
“Another process is to begin to think about the process of the appointment of INEC chairman and members of the commission. Because if you leave the appointment in the hands of the executive or the president it will not do good for us.
“I believe that we should leave that appointment process in the hands of the National Assembly. If it is done so we will be able to have electoral umpire who will not believe that a sitting president might be there or a certain cabal,” he said.
Wogu also said there are no perfect elections any place in the world but there is always a room for improvement and agitation which not everyone must take it hook, line and sinker.
“It has been our history since 1960 up till now to have elections that people will always oppose. There were crises after the election of Abiola which to the mind of many people appears to be the best, free and fair elections in the history of the country which followed a particular options.
“But I will say this particular election has produced a winner in the person of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and it has been announced.
People have gone to court because they believe that the Electoral Act was not followed the way it should be followed.
“Some people went to court on various reasons but I am constrained, I will not go into it and I believe that subsequent speakers will not go into it because the matter is before the court and once a matter is before a court, the doctrine of sub-judice sets in.
“So if I go into the details of the election, I might offend that doctrine of law which is subjudice so we are waiting for the Election Tribunal at the various levels to come up with judicial pronouncements and the judicial pronouncements will either validate the announcements at different levels or not validating it and that will become part of our law,” he added.