The Akwa Ibom Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Mike Igini has announced that the court of law should not be made to answer political questions. This he said, given the current issues of the country’s electoral system and political processes where corrupt politicians will always seek the intervention of the Court on the political issues that would and can be answered through the truthful conduct of their primaries and adherence to the electoral laws.
Mr. Igini who described the parties and elections cases at the Court, as the untruthfulness of the politicians towards the electoral process, said the laws governing the elections and procedures of elections are often clear.
Giving a lecture on the topic, “2023 Elections: The Use of the Electoral Act 2022 as a Guide For Capacity Building and Effective Reporting”, the Akwa Ibom Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Igini acknowledged that the National Assembly that passed the 2022 Electoral Act shut the doors of the election process against themselves by excluding themselves through the giving of power to the State governors to control the party process on the just concluded primaries.
The INEC Commissioner explained that the National Assembly that passed the law didn’t understand the law passed. He stressed that under the Act, no party in Nigeria can change a candidate that emerges from the valid party primaries. Mr. Igini asserted that “politicians don’t read” and that some of the cases in court shows lack of knowledge of the reading the 2022 Electoral Act as passed by the National Assembly.
The INEC REC charged journalists to avail themselves to the knowledge of the law before writing the proceedings as these will help even the lawyers to find the law, noting that journalists were in a position to correct the lawyers.
The Akwa Ibom REC reminded the journalists in the state that democracy was birthed through the blood of journalists who stood their ground, and journalists should not allow the sacrifices of those heroes to be in vain.
Mr. Igini urged the journalists to see themselves as a means of sustaining Nigeria’s democracy because politicians do not see elections as a means to produce meaningful development for the people. That democracy must be protected through education influenced by the media.
In his response, the State Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Akwa Ibom State, Comrade Amos Etuk, expressed gladness to the REC nothing that it was the first time INEC ever have one-on-one interaction with the media on the process in the state. “You have given us the knowledge to expand to the electorate for the survival of democracy and the development of our country”.
The media Boss in Akwa Ibom made it clear that journalists in the state will feature actively in voting and monitoring the elections as active participants in the growth of democracy in Nigeria. He pleaded for more such seminars to serve as an impactful tool for the people of the State.
