Abigail Erhiagboje
A former chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Peter Ameh has called for the unbundling of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) into two separate bodies with each having specific roles for effectiveness.
Mr Ameh, who made the call in an interview with Channel TV stated that INEC is overloaded with many responsibilities that make it unable to function effectively.
He said: “INEC is overburdened. INEC is carrying too much load on its head. INEC is responsible for the registration of political parties. INEC is responsible for the monitoring of political parties’ internal activities, you know, for engaging the political parties…INEC is responsible for taking legal actions against those who have conducted themselves, you know, against the rule of law during the conduct of our elections. INEC is also responsible for trying to conduct elections itself.”
The ex-IPAC chairman called for the creation of a Political Party Regulation and Management Commission (PPRMC) and Electoral Violence Commission (EVC) that deals with electoral violence. According to him, there is no electoral prosecution that INEC has successfully carried out over the years of conducting elections in the country.
INEC, he said, should be delegated the duty of only conducting elections, while the PPRMC should be responsible for the registration, management, and monitoring of how political parties function in line with regulations contained in the Electoral Act. He further suggested that EVC should specifically deal with parties and individuals who manipulate the electoral system by stealing votes and creating violence that affects the lives of people.
He further stressed the importance of carrying out an encompassing review of INEC activities to assign specific duties that can suit its name as the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Ameh also called for a review of the process of appointing an INEC chairman to give the citizens the power to do so instead of the president. According to him, any president contesting an election is automatically contesting with other candidates from different political parties and is playing at a higher level from other them because he is the one that appoints, and the appointing authorities are always the same.
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According to him, “We can’t take democracy from America or from anywhere and then act in line with those people. Their decisions were already strong. Their decisions had taken so many years to establish. So, we must redefine democratic processes, democratic functions in line with the attitude of our politicians and then make sure that it works in a way that the interest of our people is at the topnotch level of whatever decision we are taking”.
“That’s why we need to make sure whoever will be responsible for appointing the INEC chairman must be the people, in the sense that we can let the National Judicial Council (NJC) put out a notice for the Nigerian public.”
On the process for the appointment of INEC chairman, Mr Ameh advised that a notice should be put out to the public after which at least five persons should be shortlisted amongst candidates who submit applications and then the applications should be taken to the National Assembly.
He also said there should be a clause for the INEC chairman to be removed. All these processes, according to him, would be first handled by the NJC and then the NA, who will review and then cast a vote where one of the candidates will be elected and then made to resume as the chairman of the Commission.
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