Allow INEC to run its affairs

President Bola Tinubu recently flagged off the construction of a new extension of the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The new building  is expected to address the acute shortage of office space the commission is facing at its current headquarters. According to INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, the current headquarters, inaugurated in […]

President Bola Tinubu recently flagged off the construction of a new extension of the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The new building  is expected to address the acute shortage of office space the commission is facing at its current headquarters.

According to INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, the current headquarters, inaugurated in 1997, was originally designed for eight commission members, 10 departments, and 500 staff but it currently has 13 full-time members, 22 departments.

He said for a long time, the commission has been grappling with inadequate office accommodation.

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“Our present national headquarters is severely congested. Commissioned in December 1997, it was originally planned to cater for eight commission members (a chairman and seven full-time national commissioners), 10 departments/directorates and 500 staff members.

“Since then, the activities of the commission have become more extensive and the staff strength at the headquarters has more than doubled. Today, there are 13 full-time commission members (a chairman and 12 national commissioners), 22 Departments/Directorates and 1,048 staff.

“Consequently, every facility is overstretched from offices to meeting rooms for the commission’s 15 standing committees and other activities, including regular engagements with stakeholders,” he said.

He noted that efforts to secure a permanent solution had been ongoing for 10 years before the FCT intervened in 2024 to support the project.

For us at Daily Trust, this is where we feel that the executive is overreaching itself in getting involved in the activities of an institution that is expected to be independent and fair to all. The interference in the running of INEC in any form by the executive can be deemed to be an interference with its independence which is guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution. That is the reason that a provision was made for INEC to derive its financing from the first line charge.

Section 151 (3) of the Electoral Act provides that “The Independent National Electoral Commission shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other authority or person in all its operations.’’ This clearly shows that the law wants the commission to be independent from anyone in order to preserve its neutrality.

It is sad that the executive, especially the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, has been making effort to interfere in the official tasks of other arms of the government. We recall that the minister just recently built official houses for judges, while at the same time taking the responsibility for the construction of houses for the principal officers of the National Assembly. These actions are clear violation of the principle of separation of power enshrined in our constitution.

Although Professor Yakubu had tried to justify the action of the minister when he said that since 1991, the FCDA had provided office accommodation to the commission, but  we believe that that is not the appropriate way to go if we want to genuinely strengthen our democracy.

With the advent of the election season in the next few months, the executive will do well to ensure that it does not get involved in anything that would put the independence of INEC into question.

President Bola Tinubu had at the ceremony declared the project as a symbol of democratic resilience and institutional dignity and signified the strength of Nigeria’s democracy and “the future of our electoral integrity.”

According to him, “Today’s ceremony is not merely about bricks and mortar. It is about the strength of our democracy, the independence of our institutions, and the future of our electoral integrity.

“INEC has been and remains the backbone of Nigeria’s democratic journey. Its role in conducting free, fair, and credible elections is central to the trust our people place in their government and our democratic processes.’’

We believe that the best way to ensure Nigerians believe in what the President said is to ensure that INEC carries all its activities independent of any other arm of government.  We, therefore, urge the President to immediately direct the handing over of the construction of the project to INEC so that the commission can exercise its independence.

We welcome the decision by  the House of Representatives to take full control of the development and management of the National Assembly’s infrastructure and property from the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA)  with the introduction of a bill to that effect.

We agree with the submission of chairman of the House Services Committee, Amos Daniel, who said that the bill was a landmark step in asserting the National Assembly’s institutional autonomy and correcting what he called a “critical anomaly” in Nigeria’s democratic framework.

“There must come a time in the evolution of every democratic institution when certain arrangements are reviewed in order to better reflect the principles of institutional independence and efficient governance. That time, for our legislature, is now,” he said.

We also urge other arms of government to follow suit to ensure a genuine separation of power as provided by our constitution.