The National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Rauf Aregbesola, has proposed that political parties should be allowed to nominate individuals to head the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Naijaonpoint reports that Aregbesola made the call on Monday during a panel discussion in Abuja tagged “Innovation in Electoral Technology 2015–2025.”
According to him, only political parties with at least five members in the National Assembly should be empowered to nominate INEC leaders, who would then operate on an equal basis.
According to Aregbesola, “The issues involved in Nigerian elections are not as simple as we are putting them. From the appointment of the chief electoral officer, that’s the chairman of INEC, and all the commissioners to all the issues involved, we know we know.
“We pretend as if we don’t know, we know they don’t even inspire confidence. So we must start from there. We must start from how do we appoint people who should pretend this process in the first instance.
“And I would say outright, we must review that to inspire confidence. And now, what is my suggestion? It’s so simple.
“Let parties with at least five members in the National Assembly nominate people that will be at the helm of affairs in INEC on equal basis.
“It’s as simple as that. That solves all the issues. If the parties now depict themselves to allow one of them to run away with it, fine.
“A situation where the principal beneficiary of manipulation nominates who she has INEC has sincerely dictated what will happen.
“There is no issue about that. We’ll be grandstanding in deceit. We’ll keep on pretending that technology is as good as the possible technology.”
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