A former National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olabode George, has called for a complete overhaul of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Speaking in an interview with Saturday Tribune, George described Nigeria’s electoral process as shambolic and a disgrace.
While reacting to the crisis rocking the Lagos State House of Assembly, the PDP chieftain lamented the issue of godfatherism plaguing Lagos State political space.
He stated that there is no way we can talk about solving political problems without referring to the procedure by which we elect State Assembly lawmakers, senators, House of Representatives members, governors and the president.
According to him, our electoral process should be completely overhauled if we want peace and development in this country.
George said: “If you look at this party called APC, apart from Ganduje parading himself as chairman, who is the National Secretary of APC? Who is the National Organising Secretary of the APC? Where is their Exco? The only thing we heard recently was that they held a general assembly, is that the way to run a political party? So I am looking at it from the angle that because all these shenanigans must be explained to the electorate, the electorate holds the power to elect or sack you at the election time based on your performances and based on their perception of your management style. And you can see it is an emperor that owns that party. All those boys by their various constituencies, how did they get elected? Did the decisions to elect them come from their constituencies or it was just from one desk? Godfatherism is their major definition of a political party. If the big boss doesn’t say you are free to go, you can’t go. So the decision is not with the constituency and the people. The real owners of governance are the people; that is the essence of democracy. They elect who they want and when you don’t perform, by next election they throw you out.
“But you see the mess we call INEC? I am now trying to explain the fallout, the lackluster approaches to solve political problems in this country. There is no way we can talk about it without referring to the procedure by which we elect State Assembly lawmakers, senators, House of Representatives members, governors and the president. It is shambolic, it’s a complete disgrace, it should be completely overhauled if we want peace and development in this country. we have to completely overhaul this INEC, the personalities there, because they bought the system, they bought the equipment, the computers so that all these interlopers who write things by hand and manipulate the process can be completely flushed out. Once you vote, the results go to the BVAS and then the results would come out.
“The last time they told us it was glitch that caused the problem. So it is not just what is being displayed at the Lagos State House of Assembly, no. It is deeper than that. It has now opened our eyes to the lackluster approach to managing this country. It is not working, and if we continue with that mess without getting to clean out the INEC and the procedure, we are just joking. It would get worse.”
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