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The Federal Executive Council yesterday urged Nigerians to give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the benefit of the doubt and provide the body with all the support it needs to make the National Assembly election a success.
The Minister of Information and Communication, Labaran Maku, who briefed journalists after the weekly executive meeting which was chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan, said no sacrifice is too much to bear for the success of the elections.
He also said the federal government has not sought to have control over INEC’s budget and planning, but has provided everything the commission requires for a successful conduct of the elections.
“As you do know, INEC is independent of the executive arm of government, because INEC is an ombudsman,” he said. “We have done everything possible to remove the last vestiges of any control of the federal executive on INEC. So, INEC is an independent body, with its own budget, with its own planning. It deploys its own resources. What we have done, especially since last year, is to make available to INEC every requirement, every financial requirement that INEC has asked for the successful conduct of the general elections.”
The commission had postponed the National Assembly election, which was to take place last Saturday, by one week due, to logistic problems, including the late arrival of the ballot papers to be used for the elections.
Mr. Maku said although there were several concerns last weekend on the subsequently postponed election and the deployment of logistics in some places, he believes the electoral body will deliver.
“I believe that, with this postponement, INEC is handling all those issues that were raised by observers, politicians and actors concerning the level of preparations that we saw last week,” he said.
He also said the Presidency hopes that the postponement of the election will give the electoral body ample opportunity to address all the lapses which called for the postponement.
“It is our hope and belief that, come this week, INEC will now have the opportunity of using the postponement to address all the issues, especially the question of having adequate vehicles to transport materials from distribution centres to polling centres, and back to collation centres,” he said.
“It is very important because if those logistics arrangements are inadequate, then they create room for individuals to go in and help, and that help indeed can tamper with the security of materials and the outcome of elections. It is our belief that all of us as stakeholders, the media, the political class and members of the public, would be working along with INEC in terms of support, in terms of prayers, in terms of monitoring and indeed in suggestions, so that most of these problems would be addressed in the forthcoming rescheduled elections.”
Mr. Maku could, however, not confirm the possible postponement of the elections in some states as he said the only authority that can take decisions in terms of the postponement of elections is INEC.
“INEC has not informed the government and the public if there are some states where elections might not hold. So the only authority that can answer this question properly is INEC,” he said.