SCREENING OF PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEES AS INEC COMMISSIONERS:  TIME FOR NIGERIAN SENATE TO ACT, BY WINNIE KODILONYE

“The nomination of the INEC commissioners-to-be, was the prerogative of President Buhari just like other nominations which have passed through the same Senate over time but the body language of the senate leadership with respect to the INEC nominees suggests a grandstanding that overtly or covertly impugns  the integrity of Mr. President who is the leader of the same ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on which platform the Senate President, his deputy and some other principal officers were elected.”

It is on record that in October, 2020 President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded some names to the Senate as his nominees to fill the vacant positions of Commissioners with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The Upper legislative chamber was to do the necessary screening and confirmation or otherwise as required by law. The nominees included Prof. Mohammed Sani, Prof. Kunle Ajayi,  Mr. Seidu Ahmed and Ms. Lauretta Onochie. They represent Katsina, Ekiti, Jigawa and Delta States respectively.

Five months down the line, the Senate is yet to act on the nomination letter for inexplicable reasons that have kept some Nigerians wondering what the lawmakers are waiting for; while the same Senators acted with the ‘speed of light’ in some other cases like the confirmation of the former Service Chiefs nominated for non-career ambassadorial positions and that of the new Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

This delay in screening the nominees for National Commissioners for INEC, has left INEC working on half throttle with only six commissioners. An INEC staff, who spoke anonymously is worried that the six existing National Commissioners are struggling with the job of twelve people. This means that certain areas have been left without representation in INEC, a situation that is unconstitutional.

INEC National has asked the states INEC commissioners to give inventory if the election materials in their custody, in readiness for the 2023 General election with six national commissioners, still missing….

With the urgency given by the Senate and down-playing of criticisms and opposition from some Nigerians particularly against the nomination of the former Service Chiefs, one had seen party loyalty at play and confidence in the President’s ability to make choices he personally considers good beyond some mundane considerations.  Ironically; one begins to see the same lawmakers as having the tendency to display indifference in certain nominations even though, all the nominations are from the same President of the same ruling party which has majority in the hallowed chambers.

The nomination of the INEC commissioners-to-be, was the prerogative of President Buhari just like other nominations which have passed through the same Senate over time but the body language of the senate leadership with respect to the INEC nominees suggests a grandstanding that overtly or covertly impugns  the integrity of Mr. President who is the leader of the same ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on which platform the Senate President, his deputy and some other principal officers were elected.

From available media reports, is the senate leadership relying on opposing comments against the nomination of Ms. Onochie as an alibi for its undue delay in the screening of the nominees five months after the letter was submitted by the President?  The voices of Opposition from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), human rights lawyers, civil society groups, were strident in the criticisms against Onochie not on anything criminal nor against any law of Nigeria, but on a warped feeling that, because she is committed to her job as the President’s Special Assistant, such commitment would translate to some sort of partisanship in her position as INEC commissioner if confirmed.

As unscientific as this assumption could be, I dare posit that Onochie has not done anything different from the usual expectation from an appointee who has sworn to be loyal to his/her principal.  It is an outstanding privilege and honour that Mr. President could see in her the potentials of serving in a higher capacity with commitment and integrity just like he did in the case of the service chiefs who in spite of the criticisms from many Nigerians, got the nod to continue rendering service to their father land in another capacity.

The feeling or assumption in some quarters that Onochie would show partisanship in the discharge of her duties as INEC commissioner if confirmed can only be juxtaposed with the belief that she possibly does not understand what her statutory functions as INEC officer would be. This is certainly not true.  I hasten to say that opposition against her nomination purely on the ground of subjective conclusions ostensibly packaged by those who detest her absolute loyalty to President Buhari, her boss, is like putting the cart before the horse.

This is reasonably so, because if there was no security report against her person precedent to her nomination by the President among many thousands of Nigerians who are qualified for such position, one begins to wonder the solid grounds upon which the Senate may have been swayed to delay the confirmation even when its Committee on INEC has not done its screening and other things that would lead to confirmation or otherwise at the plenary.

What has stalled actions with respect to the confirmation of the six national Commissioners and one State Commissioner, is still within the realm of conjecture as the Senate leadership seems not to have taken a known position on the issue.  Although, it has left Nigerians to speculate on the issue, recent media reports clearly suggests that while some senators would be willing to give timely attention to the presidential nominations, certain interests in the Red Chambers are already playing gods, thereby leaving Nigerians in confusion as to where the matter is headed.

Sometime in January, 2021, the Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Kabiru Gaya in an interview with the Saturday SUN newspaper said that the nomination letter had not come to his committee to screen the nominees, just as he declared that once the report was read on the floor of the Senate, it would be submitted or referred to the Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission.

This position of the Committee Chairman, came on the heels of statements in the media credited to those opposed to Onochie’s nomination which some described as unconstitutional.  The unconstitutionality of the nomination, is however yet to be proved beyond the rhetoric of those who clandestinely work to undermine the prerogative of the President in matters of nomination for national assignment.

Much as the Senate is yet to officially take a position on the nomination, let it be advised that its leadership should not be swayed by the rhetoric of the oppositions particularly outside the legislative space and those within the Senate whose only justification is possibly that those nominated by Mr. President, are not people they can easily influence. If there are petitions as to why their nominations should not be confirmed, such petitions ought to be the responsibility of the Senate Committee on INEC to scrutinize and pass judgment.

If the statement of the Committee Chairman that his committee as at January, 2021 when the interview was granted had not received the nomination letter from the President, it therefore means that the Senate leadership may have some vested interest that stands in contradistinction to President Buhari’s interest who in any case is the leader of the ruling party to which the Senate leaders belong.

That the Senate could sit on presidential nominations sent in over five months ago does not speak well of the relationship that ought to exist between the leadership of the upper legislative house and the Presidency.  From the foot dragging posture of the leadership as clearly evident in the non-forwarding of the nomination letter to the Senate Committee on INEC, months after the presidential submission of the letter; lends much credence to the feeling in some quarters that the Senate leadership and its sympathizers are bent on frustrating the presidential prerogatives in nominating personalities the President and Commander-in-Chief has considered fit and capable of holding particular positions.

If one may ask, what does the Senate leadership stand to gain by endlessly delaying the nomination of the Six INEC commissioners-to-be?  While the legislative body has the constitutional responsibility of over-seeing the actions of the executive in certain respects, let such right not be taken too far as to undermine the integrity of a man millions of Nigerians had voted for, to represent their interest.  The President reserves the right to make choices he considers suitable for any national assignment because he is the one to be held accountable in the fullness of time. It would therefore, certainly mean an implied legislative antagonism to the President’s right of whom to nominate for a particular job in so far as he has not breached any extant laws of the land in doing so.

Let me therefore, conclude by saying that as time is fast ticking away with the 2023 general elections approaching gradually, the Senate leadership should give time to the nomination and sort things out to enable the vacant positions be filled and save the INEC management the challenge of over-burdening the other personnel with the tasks of carrying out the responsibilities that ordinarily would be assigned to the positions that are currently vacant.  The timely and unbiased action of the Senate leadership in the circumstance would also, save its imagine from the belief of being misguided by possibly a few privileged elements in the Senate and outside of it, all in opposition to Mr. President’s position and integrity.

Most importantly, Nigerians are watching too.