Politicians Praise INEC When Election Favour Them And Do Otherwise When It Is Against Them -Chairman

• Mahmmod says INEC will continue performing its statutory role.
• Speaks on reactions of politicians who win and lose elections.

The Independent National Electoral Commissioner (INEC) has said it will continue to play its role electioneering.

This was stated by the chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Monday at a meeting with editors in Lagos.

The chief electoral officer noted that politicians who praise INEC when elections favour them turn around to cast aspersion on the commission when things do not go their way.

While stating that the commission would keep on playing its role as an umpire, Yakubu said the commission chose to engage journalists in order to have their input on the steps that INEC needs to take to strengthen the electoral process.

READ: We Have Improved in Its Performace With Each Elections – INEC Chairman

“We will continue to do our best but our concern is where the trust is reduced by people who will say the best thing that ever happened to Nigeria since 1914 is INEC when they win an election but when they don’t win, they say it’s the worst thing that happened since Lord Lugard,.

“There is a story I love to tell. I am just in love with this story. There was a time that we conducted a gubernatorial election, I won’t tell you the state. I monitored it from Abuja via live television. One of the candidates lamented after casting his vote. The smart card reader couldn’t pick his biometric immediately.

“He tried the second time, he tried the third time, it won’t work. He was eventually accredited and he voted. He came with his wife; his wife had no problem whatsoever but immediately after voting, he turned to the cameramen and started abusing INEC.

“He said ‘this INEC will crash our democracy’… he complained about the card readers not working. He said and I quote, ‘We are creating the impression that we are a nation of scammers’. We never responded; we continued with our job. We concluded the election and perhaps to his surprise, he was declared the winner.

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“So when the certificate of return was presented to him, I watched the live coverage on television again. Immediately he collected the certificate and grabbed the microphone, one of the first things he said was that the best thing that ever happened to our election is the card reader. So, when someone wins an election, our election management board is the best. When someone loses an election, our election management board is the worst thing that ever happened to the country.”