…As Commission seeks Electoral Offences Commission
By Haruna Salami
The Senate has screened and confirmed the appointment of Prof. Joash Amupitan as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
This was as a result of a motion moved by the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central) that the Senate do consider the request of President Bola Tinubu for the confirmation of nomination of Prof. Joash Amupitan for appointment as Chairman INEC in accordance with Section 154 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
The senators asked the new INEC chairman questions on how to conduct credible elections, whether INEC should conduct local government polls, the independence of the commission, etc.
Prof. Amupitan, while answering the questions canvassed for Electoral Offences Commission to deal with those who commit electoral offences.
Before the questions began to come in, the Senate President Godswill Akpabio informed his colleagues that the DSS, the Police and other security agencies have conducted the necessary security checks on the nominee and there was no problem. He also lauded his very “intimidating resume”.
As the questions and answers progressed, Akpabio offered Prof. Amupitan to sit down and take notes and possibly take some water while the senators asked their questions and stand to answer at intervals.
The concern of the senators from the questions asked mainly have to do with the need to conduct a credible election where the loser will congratulate the winner without resorting to litigation, just what has happened in Ghana recently.
After satisfactory answers to questions posed to him, Senator Akpabio asked the INEC chairman to take a bow and leave.
The Senate then returned from Committee of the Whole to plenary where Akpabio put the question that those who support the confirmation of Prof. Joash Amupitan as INEC chairman should say “aye”, it was a resounding “aye” across party lines.
The Senate President then thanked his colleagues “for the painstaking manner in which they handle exercise”, which he described as “very orderly”, adding that their questions and compartment met the aspirations of all Nigerians.
Akpabio also congratulated President Tinubu for presenting a nominee that had no single dissenting voice and has been unanimously approved by all and sundry in the federal republic of Nigeria through their representatives in the Senate.
“I wish Professor Amupitan well and pray that the services will improve the electoral process, lead to more transparency and ensure that every vote counts and that the winners are truly the ones that are announced. I also want to congratulate the people of the workers and staff of INEC who are having a man that is most likely going to bring about changes in order to improve our electoral process, adding that “all hands must be on deck for Nigeria to have a better image in all electoral processes”.
According to him, many of law makers have been victims of electoral practices in the past which was why they were able to ask the right questions and “we hope that he has a lot of take aways to assist him in the work that he will do and one of the things that bother us and he tends to also agree with us is the issue of the local government elections. This winner carries it all, if you are in a state that is run by a governor of a certain political party, he can even abandon his party and get nominees from another political party and when the results are announced it becomes a carry go. That cannot improve the electoral process.
“So, I want to charge the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the National Assembly as a whole to find a solution so we can have a more transparent local government elections and in any case now that we have all agreed that there must be financial independence for local governments, it’s also important that we have electoral independence for the local government administrators.