IS INEC UNDER BUHARI BECOMING A SHADOW OF ITSELF?

That President Muhammadu Buhari has admitted failure in the three elections conducted under his watch only confirms Sunday Vanguard’s insistence that the era of free, fair and credible elections may have gone for good.   And whereas the drumbeats of war, which came from both the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were enough to elicit the type of outcome witnessed in the Rivers State re-run elections, the less than efficient activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, introduced a dangerous dimension, to further inflame an already combustible situation.   This report will show that the President’s condescending disposition towards INEC, is partly responsible for the shambles being witnessed, just as it would point out why, if these inconclusive elections are anything to go by, the APC Federal Government may be suggesting to Nigerians that it is not interested in free, fair and credible elections.     Read the facts as they speak for themselves.

By Jide Ajani

IS INEC UNDER BUHARI BECOMING A SHADOW OF ITSELF?

Any lingering doubt that INEC is becoming a distant shadow  of the  organization under Jega faded as INEC again conducted another inconclusive elections in Rivers State.

These make the third inconclusive elections conducted by the Commission under the Buhari regime. This trend,   since  the  exit of the  Jonathan  administration era  of  peaceful  conduct of credible elections – exceptional in its own way, since the return of democracy in 1999 –  has created doubts in the minds of Nigerians on the commitment of the Buhari regime to free, fair and credible elections.

Many Nigerians and members of the international election observer-groups are  intensely  concerned that free, fair and credible elections that were  witnessed  in  2011 and more so in  2015  – and,  that was almost being taken for granted – are gradually regressing  under the Buhari government,  with all that the situation portends for the future of Nigeria’s democracy.

In  particular,  fears are  being expressed  – while  significant doubt is being created in the minds of Nigerians as the 2019 general  elections approach – that  the APC government is not committed to democracy and the rule of law,  given  the shoddy and condescending way the current regime has related with INEC.

This is why the Buhari regime must sit up and  make  amends to the degeneration of  INEC or face  possible  infamy in 2019.