Senator Ikechukwu Obiorah has tabled a bill before the National Assembly seeking to remove the president and governors from appointing members of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs).
Obiorah argues that electoral bodies should be appointed by a neutral institution. He believes this will restore public trust and help Nigeria escape chronic poverty.
The bill is already before both chambers of the legislature. If passed, it would reshape the way elections are organised in the country.
In his published work, The Philosophy of Elections and Nigeria’s Fake Democracy, Obiorah wrote that flawed elections lie at the root of Nigeria’s poverty.
He insisted that stolen mandates have robbed citizens of leaders chosen by their free will.
“Since Independence, 90 percent of all elections, parliamentary, presidential, National Assembly, governorship, House of Assembly, Local Government Council elections, have been brazenly stolen or rigged or perverted or altogether thwarted or nullified,” he said.
The senator, a lawyer and author who represented Anambra South from 2007 to 2011, said this explains the nation’s underdevelopment. “In other words, Nigerians have never really and voluntarily chosen their leaders, nor have Nigerians ever been governed with their proper consent and participation.”
Across the world, credible democracies entrust electoral commissions to independent panels insulated from politics. Ghana, South Africa, and India follow such models, helping them achieve greater public confidence, from where the legitimacy to govern and introduce reforms flows.
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