Umpires or referees depend to a large extent on their credibility to be able to discharge their duties effectively .
Compared with the activities they oversee, they tend to be understaffed, overworked and underpaid – and yet vitally needed. Right now this is especially true of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, the tales of political malaise that have bedeviled the Commission since preparations began for next year’s general elections together with the newly amended Electoral Act that was passed by the National Assembly have placed a heavy burden on INEC to restore public confidence in the polity.
This is not because Prof Joash Ojo Amupitan(SAN), the INEC Chairman, is ill-qualified. He is a distinguished law lecturer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN). Nor is it because he has been compromised by having taken legal briefs from high-profile politicians in the past – poachers do in fact often make the best game-keepers. Nor yet is it because he is overly partisan. He may indeed have sympathy for the ruling APC (according to disclosures from his alleged X(formerly twitter) account, but so do millions of Nigerians have partisan inclinations towards one party or the other.
No, the reason INEC is losing the trust of Nigerians is that it has repeatedly shown such ineptitude which cannot be explained or rationalised by the average well-meaning citizen.
From all indications, the electoral body has not been able to provide a level playing field for all recognized parties.
For some obscure reason, it unilaterally adjusted the timelines provided in the Electoral Act in a way that seemed to put undue pressure on opposition parties.
The constitutionally approved timelines were moved forward by more than four months knowing full well that some parties may be unable to meet the new deadlines.
Thus while the APC was already conducting its congresses, others were still in courts where they were unable to receive timely judgments, let alone compile their membership registers.
Similarly INEC has dabbled into areas that are clearly outside its jurisdiction in an attempt supposedly to destabilise the opposition.
An example was when the Appeal Court ruled that factions of the ADC maintain “status quo” while the substantive issues before it were being resolved.
INEC’s interpretation of this was that the two factions had to be de-registered at once – a decision that the judiciary couldn’t have contemplated.
The Electoral umpire is also quick to deregister factions of political parties that seem to enjoy more popular support especially when court judgements do not favour them, while turning a blind eye when the less popular factions suffer similar fates. A case in point is the PDP and the Supreme Court’s double- edged decision which affected Samuel Anyanwu’s position as well as the David Mark led faction.
Recently, an aide to the FCT Minister was said to have been interrogated by the police over the unlawful leak of voters information obtained from INEC database ostensibly through inside sources.
The controversy began after the said aide shared screenshots on social media showing details linked to a Nollywood actor turned- politician Emeka Ike, raising questions about the security of data of opposition politicians.
All of these point to an attempt to fracture the opposition and the electoral umpire is quickly losing its credibility and trust.
To ward off the risk of a compromised general election in 2027, a strong and honourable electoral umpire is needed more than ever. INEC must therefore turn a new leaf immediately to avoid negative public perceptions that can derail this democracy.
By Kalada Koko.
Koko contributed this piece from Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
