Ganduje: Politicians pose major problem to conduct of elections in Nigeria

Abdullahi Ganduje, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says politicians are the “biggest problem” to the conduct of elections in the country.

Ganduje spoke on Wednesday when he hosted a delegation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led by Hawa Habibu, director of election and party monitoring.

The INEC delegation was on a verification exercise.

The APC chairman said though insecurity poses a major threat to the conduct of elections, politicians also do.

“It is important for INEC to undertake the exercise so that they can obtain the viability of political parties for the sake of planning and records and in conformity with the law,” he said.

“I know one of the biggest problems of INEC in conducting elections is insecurity. Everyone will say INEC, but it is the politicians.

“So in order to understand the rules and regulations of election, in order to understand what is required to be a civilized politician, our institutions will be educating our people from time to time, so that they can abide by the rules and it will be digital.

“We have also directed that all our party offices ranging from ward, local government, zone, and states, basically the officers must be available.”

The former governor of Kano said the ruling party is working to establish the National Institute for Progressive Studies (NIPS) to teach members the “basics of democracy”.

On his part, Habibu said the delegation came to ensure that the APC complies with the basic requirements expected of a political party.

“We are here on an annual verification of political parties. It is a constitutional mandate of the commission,” she said.

“We are supposed to find out and issue notices where political parties are not in compliance with the constitutional provisions as to the number, structure of the party in terms of the office in Abuja, auditing of their finances and other issues.”