Nigeria Content Online

It appears that
the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) under the
leadership of Attahiru Jega, has quietly started an in house
investigation into the conduct of some of its employees who are
suspected of aiding the fraud in the Ekiti State governorship election
re-run.

According to
reports, the commission has set up a three-man panel to investigate, in
the first place, the conduct of Ayoka Adebayo, the resident Electoral
Commissioner in Ondo State at the time of the elections. INEC is
believed to also be investigating the conduct of other electoral
officers particularly in areas where elections results have been
overturned or cancelled. The body is reported to have started, what is
believed to be the first phase of a house cleaning exercise to ensure
it does not go into next year’s polls with officers of questionable
integrity.

INEC certainly has
its work cut out. Recent electoral verdicts in Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, Edo
and Anambra States are an indication of wide spread problems during the
last elections, and it is right that INEC is trying to do what it can
to weed out staff with tainted credibility.

We at NEXT commend
INEC for this quietly taken but ultimately critical decision. It is
good that INEC set a precedent as we limber up for elections next year.
It is proper that INEC staff found to have colluded with election
riggers be booted out and not be given another chance to steal people’s
votes. It is also commendable that INEC is undertaking this
housekeeping exercise without making a song and dance about it. Far too
many times, public institutions announce grand plans, which ultimately
fail to materialize.

However, INEC’s
actions alone cannot guarantee the end of rigging, so we are also
recommending that the Judicial Commission borrow a leaf from INEC and
look into punishing members of the bench who are found guilty of
colluding with riggers. Earlier election tribunals had mixed results
and in some cases appeared to have sided with riggers. It is important
that if any wrongdoing took place, it be sanctioned.

The only way to know for sure is if the Judicial Commission begins a house cleaning exercise just like INEC.

But again, even
that will not be enough to push the final nail in the coffin of
riggers. We at NEXT believe we must also find means of sanctioning
those who benefit from rigged elections. It is not enough to hold
electoral officers and members of the judiciary to account, the
politicians who get into office as a result of fraudulent elections
must also be penalised.

So far the
National Assembly has refused to criminalise rigging. There are no
provisions in the new Electoral Act or the new Constitution for
punishing the principal beneficiaries of rigged elections. In other
words, we do not have a mechanism for indicting those who are most
likely to initiate the process of rigging. We at NEXT believe that the
law should be crafted along the same lines as the law dealing with
theft where both thieves and receivers of stolen goods, get punished.

The National
Assembly is still in the process of making amendments to the
Constitution. It is not too late for it to do right by Nigeria by
ensuring that this class of cheats gets their just desserts. We
recommend a ban from elective office for five years, for first time
offenders and a life ban for repeat offenders. This should be in
addition to efforts made to recover any benefits, monetary and
otherwise, the person has enjoyed as a result of sitting in a public
office illegally.

As long as
beneficiaries can walk away from rigged elections with no penalty, they
will continue to use their immense resources to tempt not only poorly
paid civil servants and electoral officers, but young disenfranchised
youths who they turn into political thugs. Our only hope of dealing a
deadly blow to electoral fraud and rigging is if everyone who takes
part in rigging faces severe sanctions.