President Bola Tinubu has sent the names of three nominees to the National Assembly for screening and confirmation as Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The nominees include Abdulrazak Tukur from Katsina State as National Commissioner representing the North West zone, Prof. Sunday Aja Nwambam from Ebonyi State as National Commissioner representing the South East zone and Prof. Saseyi Ibiyemi as Resident Electoral Commissioner representing Ondo State.
President Tinubu’s nomination of a National Commissioner for INEC from Katsina State has raised questions about equitable representation at INEC. Since its creation in 1998, INEC has always had its 12-membership number split equally among the six geo-political zones – two representing each zone and then a National Chairman who heads the Commission. And then, the two from each zone are always split in such a manner as to ensure rotation among the States in the zone. The President appears to have however, breached this practice by appointing a new National Commissioner for the North West zone, increasing the North West representation to three instead of two. It is unclear at this time why he has done so. What is also unclear is that the INEC presently has only one National Commissioner from the South East after a vacancy occurred when Festus Okoye’s tenure ended in July 2023.
Although the President appears to have made a fresh nomination for National Commissioner from the South East yesterday, November 19, it is unclear whether he is unilaterally increasing the numbers of National Commissioners that is constitutionally allowed. However, there are speculations that one of the National Commissioners from the North West may be resigning or be under pressure to resign, ahead of the end of his tenure. This has not been publicly disclosed and the said National Commissioner is still functioning in the position. The said Commissioner is from Katsina which is also the State of the new National Commissioner nominee from the North West, so that even if it were to be that the serving National Commissioner from Katsina State plans to resign or is being pressured to resign from the Commission, the nomination of another Commissioner from the same State would appear to contravene the practice of rotating National Commissioners among the States in the geo-political zone.
It will be recalled that the Senate Committee on INEC in the 9th National Assembly outrightly stated that it was “… unable to recommend Ms. Lauretta Onochie for confirmation as a National Electoral Commissioner…”. The Committee based its decision on one of the petitions that it received against Onochie’s nomination, being that she is from Delta State, the same State as a serving National Commissioner representing the South-South zone, May Agbamuche. The Committee stated that confirming her nomination will be a violation of the Federal Character Principle in section 14(3) of the Nigerian Constitution.
It is important to note that the Committee declined to recommend Onochie’s confirmation because she is from the same State as a serving National Commissioner, even though there was a vacancy for a second slot for a National Commissioner from the South-South zone. In the present situation, not only is there no vacancy for the North West zone, but the nominee is from the same State (Katsina) as a serving National Commissioner for the zone. In the light of the precedent created by the Senate Committee on INEC in the 9th National Assembly on a similar matter, it is expected that the Committee would reject Tukur’s nomination or the President should withdraw same, in order not to violate the Federal Character Principle.