Buhari plots to weaken INEC’s autonomy, nominates partisan Lauretta Onochie for National Commissioner

President Muhammadu Buhari may be plotting to weaken the autonomy of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), appointing a card-carrying member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a national commissioner of the commission. There has been uproar when the president wrote the National Assembly to screen and confirm partisan Lauretta Onochie, Special Assistant on Social Media to the president as a national Commissioner in INEC, in addition to three other nominees.

Stakeholders in the Nigerian project anticipate that the federal lawmakers should stand for the independence of the INEC in considering the president’s request.