PDP Chieftain Segun Showunmi has dismissed concerns that President Bola Tinubu’s appointment of a new INEC Chairman will automatically determine the outcome of future elections, citing former President Goodluck Jonathan’s experience as evidence.
Speaking during an interview with News Central TV, Showunmi referenced how Jonathan lost the 2015 election despite appointing Professor Attahiru Jega as INEC Chairman. “The one who brought Jega, Jega did his election and he won, he kept Jega there and he still lost,” he said.
The PDP chieftain criticized the assumption that whoever appoints the electoral chief controls election outcomes. “Who pays the piper dictates the tune’ is a very lazy axiom in this circumstance of appointing the INEC Chairman. It’s like saying because the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the primus inter pares among all the other judges, that means that nobody can go to the Supreme Court and get judgment. It’s a complex process,” Showunmi explained.
Showunmi defended the president’s constitutional authority to select the INEC Chairman. “The crafters of our constitution have vested that power in the president. Now, what are the ways? He can tell the Council of State, ‘Oh, I’m thinking of this person,’ only for advice. I mean, it’s not the obligation to listen to the advice,” he stated.
The PDP chieftain outlined the appointment process and its built-in checks. “When he (Tinubu) brings anybody he wants, whenever he decides to. He’s not going to bring somebody that is totally not even able to do the job or doesn’t have the brains for the job. He’s still going to send it to the National Assembly. You all have your representatives there from your local government and all that. You see, let us not be silly in thinking that democracy only works because it favors an outcome I predict or I desire,” he said.Continue, Full, Reading>>>>
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