Two weeks after Nigeria’s Supreme Court granted local governments the freedom to manage their own finances, Mahmood Yakubu, the head of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced that INEC is ready to handle local government elections if given the legal responsibility.
Yakubu shared this information when he spoke to a Joint National Assembly Committee on Electoral Matters. He was there to discuss the budget for the upcoming elections in Ondo and Edo states. While talking about this, he brought up concerns about the funding for by-elections across the country.
Currently, state governments are in charge of local government elections, often resulting in the ruling parties winning all the local council positions, which has been criticized by opposition parties. Yakubu mentioned that INEC, which smoothly manages elections in the 62 wards of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) along with national and state elections, could also manage elections in all 774 local government areas if certain electoral laws are changed.
For the Edo governorship election on September 21, 2024, and the Ondo governorship election on November 16, 2024, Yakubu urged Nigerians to recognize the significant technological advancements INEC has made. He assured that the issues with the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal during the 2023 presidential election had been resolved, and the commission had learned from those challenges.
Yakubu also clarified that funding for off-cycle elections is not a concern, as the executive branch has promised to release funds for the seven upcoming by-elections. He urged lawmakers to quickly pass the Electoral Offenders Bill, which would give INEC the power and resources to arrest and investigate electoral offenses thoroughly, thus reducing election-related misconduct.
