Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has deplored monetisation of Nigeria’s electoral process.

This is even as his predecessor, Prof. Attahiru Jega, warned the commission against altering the election timetable, saying doing so, would amount to electoral disaster.

The duo spoke yesterday in Abuja at a one-day stakeholders’ colloquium on “Emerging issues that would shape the 2023 general elections in Nigeria,” organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

Yakubu said the act of swaying delegates with money during primaries was a thing of concern to the electoral umpire. An addition to this, the INEC chair noted, is the increasing insecurity and dissemination of fake news across the federation. He, however, assured Nigerians that the electoral body would work with anti-graft agencies to redress the situation.

Yakubu said the commission had finalised guidelines for next year’s polls, adding that some 430 million ballot papers will be printed for the assignment.

On his part, Jega, while acknowledging positive changes in INEC over the years, he, conversely, observed that the political class had made a lot of efforts to undermine integrity of elections.

The Bayero University, Kano (BUK) ex-vice chancellor, who lauded the electoral umpire for resisting pressure from political parties to alter the election timetable, reiterated that the schedule was a product of careful contemplation in deference to the Electoral Act 2022.

According to him, adjusting the timetable is a recipe for electoral disaster, “because once you shift one timeframe, it affects virtually all the others.”

Also speaking, a Senior Fellow at the CDD, Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim, decried what he termed “extensive growth of banditry within the political class.” He said elections would remain a complicated issue in as much a significant percentage of the political class “are crooks and criminals.”

National Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yabagi Yusuf Sani, yet, defended the high cost of nomination fees, rationalising that political parties needed funds to print posters, pay workers and organise campaigns.

On her part, CDD Director, Idayat Hassan, said Nigeria “is faced with harsh realities where parts of the country are embroiled in different forms of conflict and violence.”

She said these threats have serious implication for the conduct of elections – both in terms of safety of election materials, personnel – and even voters, adding that they also have the potential to affect voter turnout and legitimacy of the results.

Director of Programmes, YIAGA Africa, Cynthia Mbamalu, lamented that ‘political bandits’ have made elections to be for highest bidders.