Afenifere: There won’t be credible polls if president appoints party members as INEC officials

Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, says Nigerians will not witness credible elections if the “president still has the power to appoint party members as managers of elections”.

In a communique issued at the end of a meeting on Tuesday, Afenifere said the 1999 constitution (as amended) gives the president too much power in appointing officials of the electoral body.

The Afenifere faction led by Ayo Adebanjo, its leader, asked President Bola Tinubu to set the country on the path of true federalism.

“Afenifere noted the recurrent rituals of hues and cry for electoral reforms after every national election and stated that Nigerians will continue to be afflicted with electoral brigandage under a constitution which overconcentrates powers at the centre and wherein the President of the Federation openly appoints his party members and lackeys as officials of a supposedly independent electoral commission and managers of elections,” the communique reads.

“It cannot be overemphasised that such a scenario will continue to set our people against one another in the evident unrestrained cutthroat competition for power.”

In October, Tinubu asked the senate to confirm 10 nominees as resident electoral commissioners (RECs).

Umoren, an ally of Senate President Godswill Akpabio, was among 10 nominees the president recommended for confirmation.

In November, the upper legislative chamber confirmed the nominees despite petitions against some of them.

The group also asked the federal government to “summon the courage to match and reconcile the resolutions of the 2014 national conference and the reports of the APC (El-Rufai) Committee on Federalism for the holistic restructuring of the federation which shall be enacted into a new constitution”.

Afenifere said it is time for “Tinubu to step forward with the requisite political determination to live for history and mobilize Nigerians to truly enact for ourselves an autochonous federal constitution”.

On the state of the economy, Afenifere lamented the “economic anguish” being experienced by Nigerians owing to the hike in prices of goods and services.

The Yoruba socio-political group said the period of three months between the declaration of presidential election results and inauguration was enough for the government to roll out its economic policies.

“Afenifere decried current excuses of the state of the economy inherited by this government from its predecessor of the same political party and opined that the period of 3 months between the declaration of the President in February and inauguration at the end of May was sufficient to lay the foundations for the economy policies of the new administration which soothing effects should be now felt by the people,” the group said.

“Afenifere noted that the free-fall of the Naira in the foreign exchange market is having its toll on all aspects of the people’s life including prohibitive costs of pharmaceutical products which are largely imported and with dire consequences for the health of ordinary Nigerians who could not afford overseas treatment like their leaders.

“Afenifere opined that without stabilising the Naira the much sought foreign direct investment will continue to be a mirage.”