Afenifere disapproves FG’s proposed NILGEC

•Berates INEC over Edo guber poll
•Ndume differs with Afenifere on state police
•Says electoral process deliberately complicated for manipulation

Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has expressed disapproval of the plan by the Federal Government to establish the National Independent Local Government Electoral Commission (NILGEC) to conduct local council elections in the country.

While describing the proposal as a ploy to further push the country into a unitary state, the mainstream Yoruba group stressed that it would stifle democracy.

Afenifere also made a strong case for state police.

However, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) disagreed with the Yoruba group on state police. He also raised concerns about the electoral process in the country, which he said was deliberately complicated to facilitate manipulation.

Afenifere, in a communiqué issued after its monthly meeting at the residence of Ayo Adebanjo at IsanyaOgbo, Ogun State, stated that NILGEC would suffer the same fate as the federal electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which it said was not independent of the Federal Government.

The frontline Yoruba group, during the meeting, presided over by its deputy leader, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, berated INEC over the outcome of the recent governorship election in Edo State and joined its voice with that of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that alleged the process was compromised and marred with irregularities.

The communiqué reads, “Afenifere notes the introduction of a bill to establish NILGEC for the conduct of local council elections and considers the idea as nothing but a monumental multiplication of INEC’s inefficiencies at 774 degrees.

“The idea of a federal agency to conduct local council elections is a veritable weapon in furtherance of the undisguised policy of complete capture and absolute unitarianism of the Federal Government, a policy that has attained its crescendo under the present administration.”

Afenifere further expressed confusion over the high price of fuel in the country, questioning the efficacy of local production in providing relief to consumers, particularly considering the Dangote Refinery commencing local production.

The group reiterated its longstanding call for establishing state police to tackle internal security challenges, arguing that the current federal police structure is inadequate in addressing local security concerns.

It added: “Afenifere reiterates that the Nigerian security architecture of a single police command is antithetical to the ideal, reality and practice of federalism, particularly in the case of Nigeria with its large population and vast territory.”

This unfortunate situation has continued to deepen the deplorable state of internal security, engendering an abysmal incapacity of the police and putting pressure on the armed forces to the extent that the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) had to ensure the deployment of members of the armed forces on routine police and civil assignments, including coverage of peaceful protests and election duties.

“Centralising the enforcement and control of both federal and state laws robs the nation of the efficiency and efficacy of division of responsibilities. It cannot be overemphasised that the basic way forward out of this intractable internal insecurity is the introduction of state police.”

NDUME, a former Senate Majority Leader, made the remarks, yesterday, during an interactive session with journalists in Kano after attending the Senate retreat on constitution review.

“I support local council autonomy and the idea of INEC conducting local council polls. One issue being discussed in the National Assembly is the creation of NILGEC, and I am not in support of it,” Ndume said.

He questioned the need to create a new body solely for conducting elections every four years, arguing that the existing INEC was underutilised and could handle the responsibility.

He also expressed frustration with the complexity of Nigeria’s electoral process, which he believes is designed to encourage manipulation.

“The elections in Nigeria are deliberately complicated to allow for manipulation. Why don’t we make laws that ensure the votes count? Why not enable citizens to elect someone from their phones? Why not allow INEC to monitor elections through technology and create a situation room? Google can tell you your location in real time, so why can’t we leverage technology for our elections?” he asked.

Ndume identified the underlying problem with Nigeria’s electoral system as a lack of sincerity and fear of God among political leaders.

He dismissed the idea of amending the Constitution to create state police.

“I don’t support state police. Right now, we have less than 400,000 police officers nationwide, and you are clamouring for the creation of state police; why don’t you increase the number, train, equip, arm and motivate them?

“We are about 230 million Nigerians, and we have less than 400,000 police, less than 200,000 armed forces personnel and all our security agencies and paramilitary are barely one million. We don’t have an army or police reserve, and you are saying we should have a state police,” he added.

He argued that in many states seeking the creation of state police, civil servants were not paid properly.