The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, has come under heavy criticism for his insensitive comments on conduct of the just concluded Presidential election in Ghana, which ex-president John Mahama won.
Yakubu, had attributed the success recorded in the general election to innovations and political stability of Ghana.
Having monitored the election, Prof. Yakubu had observed the consistency of political party structures and voter loyalty as key factors responsible for the electoral success in Ghana.
However, erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party (nPDP) and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze has berated Prof. Yakubu for eulogising the conduct of Ghana’s Presidential election, maintaining that Yakubu’s statement was self serving, idiotic and to say the least, hypocritical.
In a statement made available to the media, Chief Eze said it disturbs every sane mind to learn that Yakubu chose to tow the path of going down history lane as the most dangerous tool deployed to undermine Nigeria’s nascent democracy through brazen display of electoral fraud and manipulations.
Eze said majority of the elections conducted by the commission under Yakubu fall short of the minimum required standard for elections in a democracy.
Eze noted that not minding he is an APC Chieftain, the electoral commission under Yakubu’s watch, has turned itself into an extension of the ruling government, which has continued to deploy state forces and resources to push opposition parties and dissenting voices into redundancy which is not in tandem with genuine democratic environment that supports plural political parties practice
For such a questionable character who is at the forefront of the project to thwart the will of majority if Nigerians at the polls to turn around to commend Ghana’s electoral process, is height of crass hypocrisy, sheer idiocy and totally misguided.
Chief Eze commended Ghana’s electoral umpire for extending an invitation to Yakubu to observe how election is done creditably.
He knocked the INEC chairman for stating that Ghana’s electoral body learnt from Nigeria, describing such inference as false, misleading and a mockery of the wisdom and integrity of Ghanaians and their decent electoral system.
Eze maintained that under Prof. Yakubu, INEC has nothing to offer to the outside world except asking aggrieved candidates and political parties to go to Court to ventilate their grievances.
Nigeria is in the present sad situation because of the way Yakubu chose to conduct the 2023 general elections and other off circle elections that followed, causing Nigerians to lose hope in the entire electoral process.
Therefore, Yakubu’s commendation is an embarrassment to Nigerians before the international community, because he is at the helm of affairs of one of the most corrupt institutions in Nigeria. For a man who through his ineptitude, bad leadership style and bias, has ruined Nigeria’s democratic process by conducting fraudulent elections to hail Ghana’s Presidential election smacks of insensitivity and morally debasing.
As a result of the dangerous precedent being laid by INEC under the Chairmanship of Prof. Yakubu, Nigeria’s political future has become bleak and the corporate existence of the country further threatened due to the charade being conducted in the name election.
It is sad and unfortunate that rather than work assiduously to imprint his name on the sands of time as one of Nigeria’s greatest electoral umpires, Prof. Yakubu has allowed himself to be used as a destructive tool and clog in the wheels of Nigeria’s democratic system.
It is on record that most of the elections conducted in Nigeria under Prof. Yakubu’s watch are shambolic, regrettable, shameful and a product of cash and carry policy.
Under Prof. Yakubu’s leadership, INEC has become an extension of the ruling APC, as the commission discretely hobnobs with undemocratic forces in ensuring the decimation of opposition political parties.
Therefore, it is totally unacceptable, devilish, unpatriotic and misleading for Yakubu to sing praises of Ghana’s electoral process while he has continued to goof in Nigeria.
The inability of the INEC Chairman, Yakubu, to ensure free and fair elections in the country, has led to widespread disenchantment and mistrust amongst Nigerians; and by extension, bad leadership, because the best candidates outside government in power are rigged out during elections.
Without mincing words, Nigeria’s electoral woes will continue unabated due to the involvement of the likes of Prof. Yakubu, who is perceived to be partisan and bias towards the ruling party.
Going by the widespread condemnation of Nigeria’s general election due to protracted fraudulent malpractices, Nigerians expect the INEC Chairman to be transparently independent, incorruptible and absolutely above board in character and action, rather than being partisan and turning himself into a malevolent state actor.
The APC Chieftain lambasted the INEC boss for deliberately failing to use the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) and election viewing portal (IReV) technologies during the 2023 presidential election, which INEC had assured Nigerians that the Commission would use in the election. The BVAS and IReV have the potential to enhance the accuracy and transparency of the country’s general election results, as it will checkmate the threat of election rigging, and boost public trust in electoral outcomes.
Yet, after hoping these technological innovations, Yakubu, decided to abandon the devices, manipulated the devices during the Presidential election and coined out the heinous phrase, “technical glitch” to back his atrocious actions.
Going by the fraudulent exercise Nigerians witnessed in 2023 in the name of an election, I must not fail to tell Yakubu that he only succeeded in engraving his name in golden letters in history records as one of the greatest enemies of democracy globally, having conducted the worst general elections in Africa’s history.
Eze reiterated that should no steps be taken to get Yakubu and his cohorts out from the commission, Nigeria will never witness any credible election.
In order to conduct a free, fair and credible election come 2027, the APC chieftain suggested that Nigerians must rise to prevail on the National Assembly to ensure that INEC is legally required to produce a credible template it intends to use for any election, a year before time, if not, the 2027 elections will be another jamboree and waste of time and colossal resources as Yakabu’s timetable will be repeating the scenario of 2023.
“What is needed is to insert a legal requirement to force INEC to display its plan to the public for scrutiny before it can use it for elections. This way, the courts can be used to force INEC to make changes to its porous method and thus give Nigeria a credible election system.”
With what President Tinubu has marshalled out comprising the Judiciary through Nyesom Wike, ensuring crisis in all the major opposition political parties and with a directionless INEC, if the political leaders fail to join forces ahead of next election, then we should forget having any credible election come 2027.
Eze joined the world to commend the Ghana’s electoral umpire for her boldness in overseeing a transparent use of ballots to transfer power by declaring Ghana’s ex-president John Mahama, the country’s president-elect after his main opponent, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, conceded defeat.
The VP confirmed that he had called his opponent, Mahama — the National Democratic Congress candidate and former president — to congratulate him, saying in a statement, “The people of Ghana have spoken and they have voted for change at this time. We respect this with all humility.”
Eze prays the entire world to come to the rescue of Nigeria and save the country from imminent doom based on manipulated electoral processes, being superintendent by Nigeria’s uno numero enemy of democracy, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
