The Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has applauded the contribution of the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reforming the nation’s electoral system through the massive introduction of technology.
Speaking at a colloquium on 10 years of leadership of Prof Mahmood Yakubu as INEC Chairman yesterday in Abuja, National Chairman, of IPAC, Alhaji Yusuf Dantalle said in view of the massive reform by the Commission under Prof Yakubu, it was difficult to have multiple voting during the elections. He said: “In the past, votes were manufactured, results were announced and you have 20 something million, 30 something million.
What INEC under Professor Yakubu did was to first clean the voter’s register using technology and now, you cannot have more than one person on the register.” Justifying his claim, Dantalle said: “We saw an election where a sitting governor lost his election to the Senate. It happened in Enugu, it happened in Benue, it happened in Kebbi where sitting governors couldn’t win because votes counted.
We saw a Peter Obi who does not have councillors anywhere, no local government chairman defeating the incumbent president in Lagos because votes counted.” The IPAC Chairman said as the chief electoral umpire, Prof Yakubu “made political parties to own the system of uploading the names of their candidates. Initially, the parties were not doing that.
INEC also realised that they were still replacing the names of prospective candidates who are winners of primary elections.” He explained that in the implementation of the technological innovations, he said political parties were allowed to introduce whoever they want from their parties to be trained by INEC so that they would conversant with the use of such technologies.
On registration of political parties he said the process which is ongoing is delayed because of the stringent measures introduced by the commission which has made it practically impossible for one person to register a political party.
Delivering his lecture titled: ‘INEC under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’, Keynote Speaker, Prof Emmanuel Aiyede of the University of Ibadan applauded the former INEC chairman for introducing technology into the nation’s electoral system.
Executive Director, Centre for Transparency Advocacy, Faith Nwadishi, said the gathering was organised to reflect on a defining era in Nigeria’s democratic journey, adding that the colloquium is not merely to celebrate tenure, but to reflect, review, and recommend — to identify what has worked, where challenges remain, and how we can collectively strengthen the electoral process going forward.
