We Keep Having Flawed Elections Cause Nobody Puts INEC In Check – Kwankwaso’s Ally, Idahosa
The 2023 Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Bishop Isaac Idahosa, has called for strict accountability measures against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and public officials over electoral failures.
Speaking on The Morning Brief, a Channels Television programme on Wednesday, Idahosa stressed that the lack of consequences for misconduct in the electoral process has allowed irregularities to persist.
“We don’t punish anybody for what they do; there are no consequences, so they keep repeating it,” he said.
“INEC does this, and nobody puts them in check, so it happens again. Once there are no consequences for actions or inactions, the cycle continues because there is no accountability.”
OSUN DEFENDER recalls that NEC introduced the Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and the Bimodal Voter Registration System (BVAS) for the 2023 general elections. However, many politicians questioned their effectiveness, with INEC citing technical glitches as the reason for operational failures.
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In the election, Idahosa and his principal, Rabiu Kwankwaso, finished fourth with 1,496,687 votes. Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won with 8,794,726 votes, followed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 6,984,520 votes and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) with 6,101,533 votes.
The results were contested up to the Supreme Court, but the apex court ruled that the failure to upload results on IReV was not sufficient grounds to nullify the election.
Idahosa also decried how some individuals in government have become more powerful than institutions, thereby weakening governance.
“Money politicking has taken over the system,” he added.
To enhance transparency, the NNPP chieftain proposed that all elections—presidential, gubernatorial, and legislative—should be conducted on the same day.
“I would suggest that all elections be held on the same day. That will help curb a lot of irregularities. It will cut costs and ensure more credible results. But when you have elections spread over one or two weeks after the presidential poll, a lot can happen, including bandwagon effects,” he said.
Hafsoh Isiaq is a graduate of Linguistics. An avid writer committed to creative, high-quality research and news reportage. She has considerable experience in writing and reporting across a variety of platforms including print and online.
