INEC chair expresses readiness to conduct LG elections across Nigeria

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said its officers are ready to conduct the local government elections if granted legal backing.

The Chairperson of the Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this when he appeared before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Electoral Matters on Thursday.

Mr Yakubu said the Commission has a convincing record that shows it can conduct the local government election.

“So if this responsibility for the conduct of local government elections is transferred to INEC, can INEC cope? The answer is yes, INEC can cope. What are we? By definition, INEC is the Independent National Electoral Commission.

“Our track report actually proves that we can do it,” he said.

The Supreme Court, in a landmark judgement, recently affirmed the financial autonomy of Nigeria’s 774 local governments.

All 36 states have independent election commissions that organise local government elections.

However, elections for the area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are conducted by the INEC.

Mr Yakubu said the Commission would conduct the local government election across the country since it had successfully conducted area council elections for the FCT.

“Right now, we do national elections, we do state elections, we do local government elections. A national electoral commission may be expected to implement only the presidential and National Assembly. We also do governorship elections, we do state assembly elections, and we do area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory.

“Take the case of the Federal Capital Territory. I would like to say one or two things about the FTC local government elections. There are six area councils of the FCT. So there are six chairmen of area councils. There are 62 wards in the FCT. Each ward has a councillor for the election of councils. This is one part of the country where INEC has conducted local government elections.

“No single political party has ever won elections in all the constituencies in the FCT, not one. In fact, what is interesting now is that out of the six chairmen of the FCT, actually the council and the constituencies are evenly split between the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, which won three councils each,” he said.

Budget releases

Mr Yakubu, while analysing the budget performance of the Commission, explained that the Ministry of Finance released N23.3 billion to the Commission out of the N40 billion appropriated for it in the budget.

“Every month, they give us one-twelfth of the budget for the year. And for the last seven months, since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Finance has been releasing the sum of N23.3 billion to the Commission, which is one-twelfth of the N40 billion as of yesterday (24 July).

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“The monthly releases to the Commission this year is now N23.3 billion out of N40 billion. That is 58.3 per cent. What is outstanding is N16.6 billion amounted to 41.67 per cent not released,” he explained.