Dr. Mutiu Agboke is the Independent National Electoral Commissions, INEC, Resident Electoral Officer, REC, recently posted to Ondo State to oversee the affairs of the commission in the Sunshine State. In this interview with WEEKEND HOPE’s OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU and SADE ADEWALE, he gives insight to the workings of the commission, the preparedness of the commission for the upcoming 2027 general election and the two off-season governorship elections in Ekiti – June 2026 – and Osun – August 2026 – states. He also shares information about the internal workings of the commission, among other salient issues on the conduct of elections in the country.
EXCERPTS:
Let me welcome you to Ondo State, the Sunshine State, formally on behalf of the Ondo State Printing and Publishing Corporation, OSPPC.
Thank you. It is a great pleasure to be here and I look forward to a fulfilling stay and experience in the state.
We are now in the season preceding the general election and we know that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, would have been preparing for this season and the coming election. How prepared is the commission for the forthcoming off season and the 2027 general elections?
Thank you. It is my pleasure to welcome you also. The fact most people don’t accept is that after the conduct of the election, the commission does not go to sleep. It is generally an assumption – a wrong one for that matter – that after the election, the commission has nothing doing.
People erroneously believe that election is the main thing and once we conduct it, everything ends there. It is not correct, because there are electoral activities that go round the year. What do I mean? At the completion of one exercise is the beginning of the preparation for the next one.
Do not forget again that in the middle of this, in other words, in the middle of completing or concluding one election and looking forward to the next one, is also pockets of stand-alone elections.
So in the middle of all of this, so many activities are ongoing and that is to say that with the conclusion of the 2023 election, the 2027 preparation commenced a long time ago. And of course, it goes with everything that INEC has to do.
What are these other activities that occupy the time of the commission?
There is the issue of voter education, the issue of engagement with the stakeholders, the continuous orientation and re-orientation of our staff.
Do not forget that today that there are so many technological developments in human activities and INEC is an organisation of reality.
In Nigeria, INEC is the organisation that has a very strong platform for inclusivity. INEC has also created a kind of AI department at the headquarters.
In other words, we go with what happens in the human world. So we intensify the education and re-education of our staff. Virtually in most of the states, you see continuous capacity building engagement with our staff. And capacity building deliberately is meant to add to the intellectual strength of our staff, making them to know what they think they know. We make them know it more to also ensure that beyond what they think they know, there are other things they should know. So we do all this at regular intervals.
Apart from that, the commission is using this period also to look at what are the other variables, the variables that are likely to change the temperature of the election. And in doing that, what the commission does is to look at strategic plan, strategic plan of action. All this we put together and take it towards the 2027.Now, as I speak to you, the major basic off-season elections we are going into are the Ekiti and Osun States governorship elections and the Ondo South senatorial bye-election. And do not forget, like I told you, that it is an all-round activity. As the commission is planning for those elections, it also includes preparation for 2027.
More so, Osun State’s governorship election is the last one before the general election. So it is a continuous preparation. And like I told you, in so many states, I am aware that stock has been taken with a view to knowing what are the contents of our stocks.
What do we have? What don’t we have? What do we need to procure more? And things like that. So it is a work in progress.
One major issue that INEC always have with political organisations is registration of political parties. One political party was registered based on a court order, which stakeholders felt that INEC should have challenged, but didn’t do. Now, another organization that applied for registration but didn’t get registered has gone to court to challenge that. At the end of the day, INEC is blamed for all of these. What exactly is causing all these issues?
Nothing is causing anything. The major reason behind all of these is because we have turned the commission into a chess board. And many stakeholders, especially politicians, believed that anything you dump at the door step of the commission must fly.
First of all, let me educate us a bit. A court order is a court order. By Section 6 sub Section 6 of the 1999 Constitution, every individual has the right to approach the court of law.
In other words, like people saying court is the one declaring the winner of the election, INEC is not doing the job. That is not correct. People don’t understand the jurisprudence of the election.
When an election is conducted and results are announced and you feel aggrieved and dissatisfied with the outcome of the election. And you have evidence to present to the court or the petition tribunal that no, the person INEC declared did not win, you bring it up. It is within your rights to so do.
Section 6c says nobody can stop you. But because there is total ignorance, people say the court is declaring. No, if you are able to establish that the commission was wrong in declaring the result it declared, then bring it on.
For example, I will be here, election will be conducted on the field. Do I need to know anything that happen anywhere? No.
When an order of the court is given, and that is where I am going, the responsibility of a statutory body like INEC is to obey the court order. To your question, why didn’t INEC challenge it? To achieve what? To prove what? Like my former chairman would say, INEC does not have any political party. We are not for anybody and we are also for everybody – apology to the late President Muhammadu Buhari. So if the court says ‘INEC, go and do this, we do it’ and if you look at our history, there are certain judgments that we do appeal against, but there are some, if you look at their nature, the question you should ask yourself is: in appealing this judgements, what is your interest? So in the issue of registration, if the court says, party A is the one you register, we obey. So the one that has gone to court, it is also within its right to go to court to challenge whatever it thinks is infringing on fundamental human rights. So that is the way it works. INEC doesn’t just jump.
For you to understand properly, our legal department is made up of a sizable number of learned Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs. Learned senior advocates with clear-headed understanding of the principles of law and electioneering. So it is not that we do things out of our own our volition.
Don’t forget, INEC is a creation of the law. INEC must be properly guided by various legislations. And that is why all our activities are surrounded by law. Because anything you do, there are certain things you have to do with this specific time. There are some things we tell the political party, if you do not submit so-and-so thing at so-and-so time, you are out. Look at all of them now, they are rushing because they are time-bound. So these are the things that happen in the activities of the country.
The Federal High Court in Abuja said INEC should not monitor the African Democratic Congress, ADC, congresses and all of that judgement is still subsistence. In another development, the Supreme Court said ADC should go back to the High Court for the initial suit that they appealed up to the apex court. How is the commission going to manouvre its way out of these legal logjams?
Don’t forget that I just told you our legal strength. Let me tell you, our former chairman, Yakubu Mahmood was not a lawyer, but before he finished his tenure, he was more of a lawyer than anybody within the commission because he understood the intricacies of this work. Now to talk of having a Professor of law and a SAN at the helms of affairs of the commission tells a lot. Not only that, I told you, we have learned senior advocates at the legal department of the commission.
To respond to your question, as I speak to you, the commission has not released any official statement. So let’s wait for that official statement. They will know the direction to go.
With the different elections coming up in two other states, the Ondo South senatorial bye-election and the upcoming 2027 general elections, what advice do you have for political parties and the electorate?
To be honest with you, I am more interested in the electorate than the political parties. Do you know why? Because the strength of the election lies with the electorate. When the masses are allowed to express their desires through the ballot, it gives them the power.
That is why you talk about sovereignty. If you look at the constitution, Section 1 sub-section 1 talks about sovereignty of the constitution. The word ‘we’ in the constitution is the electorate, the people.
So the people are the key here. Political parties are just platforms for you to express your political desire.
Now, my advice. One, political parties should run their activities in line with the Electoral Act, INEC timetable and guidelines and regulations. Any party or parties that will not follow INEC regulations will see the consequences.
For the electorate and the people, I only want to assure them and the assurance we give is nothing but to tell them that their sacrifice of coming out to cast their votes will not go in vain. In every election, your vote must count. It is not money that should count; it is not violence that should count.
Somebody may tell you somewhere and say ‘no, go and vote, that is your headache, we know how to do the result.’ All these narratives of negativity should be discouraged.
The people should be emboldened to be able to want to come out and be proud as a voter. So my advice: shun the tendency to sell your PVC, because in the Electoral Act, for the seller and the buyer, there are consequences.
Secondly, do not allow yourself to be used as an element of distortion of the process. You will distort the process if what you do or what your friends do or anybody does is to carry placards or arms and ammunition on election day and start destroying voting centers. So violence should not be part of this process at all.
The weapon of mass rejection or acceptance is the ballot of the electorate which determines whether a candidate or party is accepted or rejected. Use your vote to accept or reject anybody who claims to be a better representative. Because people dance to the gallery; they make mouths, they say a lot of things. But just wait. Do not fight. That is why democracy is very interesting. Wait. The next election is coming. Do not collect anything from anybody. Remain who you are and go and cast your vote. I want to say by INEC standard, nothing will determine who wins an election except the vote of the electorate.
And we do not cajole the masses about this. It is the reality and we work towards it.
So if the electorate will do their part, the political parties will also do their part, I will advise that our security agencies should also be upstanding in terms of ensuring that they observe and protect the sacredness of the process and the ballot. If all these are done, we will have a better outing in 2027.
In 2023, there were clamours for the e-transmission of election results, which came again during the Electoral Act amendment process. Recall also, that in 2023, INEC server was hacked over 150 times within 24 hours after the presidential election. How prepared is INEC for the forthcoming election, if it goes by e-transmission of election result to guide against hacks?
You are mixing two things. When you talk of e-transmission of results, in your own understanding, in your own world view, you are talking of e-transmission of collation of the results.
That is what you are thinking. But INEC is saying that is not what we are saying. What we are saying is the iRev you want to use to monitor the results, is meant for you to view the results.
The iRev is not for collation. The controversy surrounding the e-transmission of election result is definitely contained in Section 60 of the Electoral Act. Once those provisions are there, it doesn’t matter.
What we want you to do now is to allow the commission to play out the first outing in Ekiti, Ondo South and then the next outing in Osun and the last outing – the 2027 general election. I think it is when the matter starts arising that all these questions can come. 2023 has come and gone.
But what I would assure you is that the INEC is taking the security of all of our gadgets, hardwares and softwares very seriously. Call it server, call it any other thing. The technical department of the ICT, they have been doing a very good job.
I can assure you the commission will not rest on its oars by making sure that the process is free, fair, credible and acceptable to all stakeholders.
You have actually paid your dues and garnered a lot of experience in the commission, having served as REC in various states. How have these experiences helped you so far in your job? How will it come to play in your present post as Ondo REC?
If you think I have the experience, then, it means I have sufficient knowledge and understanding of how the job is done. That is number one. Number two, with the number of experiences I have gotten, as a lawyer, it has emboldened me to understand better the electoral climate.
The electoral climate in terms of when we were outside, I was a product of the civil society community. What I used to know and believe in those days and periods is different from I know when I got into the commission.
As a lawyer, I have seen it. I know it. It is different from what I used to know. Once I leave the commission, I go back to my practice as a lawyer.
On how to do it in Ondo State, Ondo is a familiar terrain, I was here in 2017 and with all the experiences I have garnered, I don’t think I should have any problem.
When people are talking, I think I can talk from an informed point of view to be able to express what the real understanding of the electoral climate is all about. That is what I think the benefits are. But for the work here, I can confidently tell you that I am on a good platform and a good standing.
The commission has reviewed, displayed and accepted complaints arising from the display of voter register and all that, what is the next step?
Yes, we have completed the second phase with the end of the claims and objections. Now we are ready for the third and the last phase.
Officially, it has kick-started on May 11. That is when the third and last phase kicked off. Now, my appeal to the people of Ondo State is that they should come out enmasse and participate in the ongoing third and last phase. A lot of them have not registered. A lot of them still require their voting rights to be moved from one location to another. A lot of them