Olabode George, former vice president of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), called for a comprehensive reform of the Independent National Election Commission (INEC).
George described Nigeria’s election process as rude and shameful in an interview with the Saturday Tribune.
The PDP chief responded to the crisis that shocked the Lagos State Capitol, lamenting the issue that plagued the godfathers who plagued Lagos’ national political space.
He said we cannot talk about solving political issues without mentioning the process of our election of state legislators, senators, House members, governors and presidents.
According to him, if we want peace and development in this country, our electoral process should be completely and thoroughly reformed.
George said:If you look at this political party called APC, except for Ganduje who declares himself the chairman, who is the APC state secretary? Who is the APC’s national organization secretary? Where is their exco? The only thing we’ve heard lately is that they have a convention, is that the way to hold political parties? So, I look at it from one perspective, because all these pranks have to be explained to voters, so voters have the power to elect or fire you at election time based on your performance and based on their perception of management style. You will see it is the emperor who owns the party. All these boys pass through various constituencies, how are they elected? Will the decision to elect them come from their constituency or from a table? The Godfather is their primary definition of a political party. If the boss doesn’t say you can leave freely, you can’t go. Therefore, the decision is not related to the constituency and the people. The real owner of governance is the people; that is the essence of democracy. They choose the person they want and when you don’t perform, the next election will abandon you.
“But do you see the chaos we call INEC? I’m trying to explain the consequences now, which is a tedious way to solve the political problems of this country. Without mentioning the process of our election of state legislators, senators, house members, governors and presidents, we can’t talk about it. It’s mean, it’s a complete shame, and if we want peace and development in this country, it should be completely overhauled. We have to completely reform this INEC, i.e. the personality there because they bought the system, purchased equipment, computers so that all these intruders can write things by hand and manipulate the process completely flushed. After the vote, the results will be transferred to the BVA and then the results will come.
“They told us last time that was causing the problem was the malfunction. So, it wasn’t just what the Lagos State Capitol showed. It was deeper than that. Now, it opened its eyes to the tedious way to manage this country. It didn’t work properly, and if we kept keeping the mess without cleaning up the INEC and the procedures, we were just kidding. It would get worse.”
