INEC needs to review its structure ahead of next elections – Arthur-Worrey

A former Commissioner of Lands in Lagos, Fola Arthur-Worrey has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission to review its restructure in ensuring that the next election kicks off as scheduled.

Arthur-Worrey, who retired as a Permanent Secretary in the Lagos state Ministry of justice, said many Nigerians were disenfranchised as a result of the shift in date by the electoral body in the last presidential and national assembly elections.

In an exclusive interview with National Daily on Friday, Arthur-Worrey said there should be a total overhauling of the process as it has failed Nigerians woefully in the past.

“It’s a failure of methodology, and we must change them to move forward. Secondly, there’s too much use of discretion in institutional decision making, rather than policy driven decision making. You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome,” he said.

“INEC is using an administrative philosophy rather than the managerial philosophy, and these are two elements of their conduct of election. One is the administrative where they are exercising the powers that thy have to conduct poll and announce results and the other is managerial. They don’t seem to have understood the distinction between the two.”

“The question now is would logistical failure affect the outcome of the election? Yes, I would say they do and that was something the US state department noted that delay in the poll disenfranchise many Nigerians, and you know people would keep saying it is free election, they tried their best but what about India that has over a billion people. They conduct election, and they do it within time, you hardly hear of delay”

He recounted his experiences in 1983 when he was an electoral officer responsible for 15 polling units. “Then we had contingency plans and officers take responsibilities. I think people need to see a kind of spirit of seriousness in our officials, commitment that would give them the sense that they are the primary beneficiary of the election.”

Arthur-Worrey also queried the decision of INEC to rely on the NURTW as its primary logistics partner.  “In next elections, INEC needs to look at who they partner, for me the NURTW drivers are unruly and you can’t rely on them.