ADC crisis: INEC populated by card-carrying members of APC – Marafa

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

Zamfara State coordinator for the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Organisation in the 2023 election, Senator Kabiru Marafa, has alleged that the majority of those appointed into the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, are card-carrying members of the ruling party, contrary to the position of the law.

Senator Marafa, who represented Zamfara Central Senatorial District, also claimed that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is doing everything possible to ensure there is no contest in the 2027 presidential election despite boasting of having about 31 state governors.

Speaking in an interview with Vanguard, Senator Marafa said any attempt to turn Nigeria into a one-party state will not work.

He described as unfortunate and laughable the position of INEC on the leadership of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, accusing the electoral umpire of partisanship instead of being neutral as expected by law.

Fielding questions on his impression of the political situation in the country ahead of the 2027 elections, Senator Marafa said: “The situation is confused, and I think politicians today didn’t learn any lessons over the years.

“Nigeria is too big a country to be muzzled the way the present players are trying to do. That is the fact of the matter. And I am afraid unless those that have the advantage today learn from the past, only God knows how He is going to respond to the situation.

“You cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, railroad a country of nearly 300 million people into just one political party. It just cannot work. Many people that are stronger than the players today, that are wiser than the players today, that are more kindhearted than the players today, that are more experienced than the players today, tried to do something not even as close as to what the players of today are trying to do, and they failed. And I can assure you this one too—they are going to fail by the special grace of God.”

Asked whether he has confidence in INEC, the Zamfara State politician, who once aspired to be governor of the state, said he does not have confidence in the electoral umpire.

He said: “How can I have confidence in INEC? I don’t know the kind of people… We make laws that are fantastic, that can stand the test of time or that can be measured by international standards, but by our own act of commission or omission, we try to shortcut ourselves.

“The law establishing INEC provides that anybody that is to be appointed into the umpire must be neutral, non-partisan. But what we have today—everybody knows that it is card-carrying members of political parties that are being appointed into positions of authority in INEC. Everybody knows, it’s common knowledge.

“So how do you expect them to be neutral? They will not—they are card-carrying members. And everybody is watching, and the law provides that for you to be like Resident Electoral Commissioner, Federal Commissioner, Chairman, and what have you, you have to be neutral, non-partisan.

“But it is card-carrying members of political parties that are being appointed into INEC, and the result is what you are seeing today—when an INEC, led by a distinguished scholar and distinguished lawyer, would give an interpretation that even a layman like me would not. Just being a lawmaker for eight years prepares me to give a better interpretation of what the law says.

“Just simply because you are asked to revert to status quo, then you say you are not going to recognise anybody. So does that make sense? It doesn’t. Before the case was instituted in the court of first instance, there was something. So if you are asked to revert to status quo, where do you get back to?

“There has never been a time when ADC was devoid of leadership. There has always been leadership in ADC. So now, how do you interpret this one? Was there any time ADC had no leadership at all? So how did you descend into it? Or how did you land into that position? How?

“I am not a lawyer, but I don’t need anybody to interpret that to me. When you say revert to status quo, you revert to a certain point where you feel maybe this was the beginning of this, but now this is where we were.

“So now this position—has there been anything like this in the leadership of ADC? So clearly you can see that the supposed umpire is biased. They are heading into something. Where was he, the chairman, when APC was messing up?

“Do you remember the days of the governor of Yobe State when he was appointed the sole administrator? When clearly his appointment was at variance with the extant laws at the time. The law says when you are an executive governor, you cannot take another appointment. But a sitting governor was appointed sole administrator of APC, and it is the same executive that midwifed all what you are seeing today, and nobody did anything. So why is he doing it differently now?

“It is quite unfortunate; it’s quite laughable that a party that boasts of 31 governors, or 32 governors, unlimited number of ministers, heads of agencies, and everything, doesn’t want to go into election with opponents.

“All APC is trying to do is just to go into election unopposed. Look at the timetable they now released—does it make sense to them or to anybody? How can you say that you want to finish primaries and everything in May, then you have June, July, August, September, October, November, December, then you are going to hold the election in January? What are you going to do with all that time?”

Asked the name of the political party the INEC officials belong to, he said that they are in the ruling party.

“Go and find out—you are a journalist; carry out investigative journalism. But the bottom line is, regardless of their political parties, they are going to dance to the music of he that appoints them. That is what we have been seeing in Nigeria.

“So it doesn’t matter which political party they are holding its card; the bottom line is they are all singing the music of the ruling party.”

Warning that the country cannot be turned into a one-party system, Senator Marafa said: “In all these things, anybody that tried to play God, God always has a way of showing human beings that God is God and human beings are human beings. And you cannot play God and succeed. You can’t.”