Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the last general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo has said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be rescued from desperate power seekers.
Adebayo, who stated this in a chat with newsmen, also lamented the recent appointment into the commission. Opposition parties and civil society organisations expressed reservations over the recent appointment of Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC).
However, the former presidential candidate regretted that people are more interested in getting power for their own self-preservation and use rather than for democracy.
He said, “Even people who co-run institutions like INEC and the rest of it, they are just there for the job. Look at the recent appointments recently made by our president, which was cleared by the Senate.”
You will see that there are politicians, people, who have shown desperation looking for power. These are the people who are called to adjudicate elections for people.
“It’s like a boxer who has a record of cheating and bad behaviour, and you make him a referee. Or a soccer player who has a bad record of doping cheating and fixing matches, you can’t make such a person to be FIFA official. Those are the things causing problems for us. It is not as if democracy is too difficult to grow on our soil. It’s just that desperation is all around. Now, in INEC, we need to rescue that institution from the appearance of actual cases of desperate people who see it as money making venture who go in there to turn off system and not make them work, who can even come to you as politicians to say that they have 55 way approach not make this thing work. If you pay us, we will do it for you.
“So , we must ensure INEC works. While we are still alive, we must have a government we believe in such that you can have a guarantee that when you contest an election, you can lose and win with the firm belief that the system has been fair and done according to the law. Election is a business for some people because that is where they make their money. Even when you go into litigation, some people turn it into business,” he said.
