UPDATED: Count Me Out Of INEC Chairmanship Except… - Ishola Williams

PHOTO: RETIRED MAJOR ISHOLA WILLIAMS.

San Francisco March 22, (THEWILL) – One of the candidates being considered to replace Professor Maurice Iwu as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission when his tenure expires, Retired Major General Ishola Williams on Monday in an email statement to an internet forum, Our CountryNigeria (linkserv), said he would not take the job except ‘certain conditions are met.’

General Williams was reacting to media reports, which listed him alongside Olisa Agbakoba, Professor Attahiru Jega and Dr. Jubrin Ibrahim as top favourites for the job when the tenure of Maurice Iwu expires in June this year.

He said, "Please count me out because I can only take such a job if certain conditions are met and Nigerians and political parties have to be ready for attitudinal change.

"It is not the business of INEC to conduct state governors and state legislatures elections but the state electoral bodies, etc. If we want true federalism, our electoral and security systems must reflect this.

"We do not need the huge bureaucracy that the Electoral Reform Committee has proposed. Let one of the members of the reforms committee implement the recommendations.

"Finally, with all the hues and cry of Anambra elections, it was technically a failure that must not be repeated.

Speaking in a conference call to THEWILL from Monrovia, Liberia, General Williams said he was yet to receive communications from the Presidency and described reports linking him to the job as just speculations.

Urged to comment on INEC and the electoral process, he said the chairmanship of the commission ‘is a very important job’ but flawed the current process where politicians and the ruling party exert undue influence on the commission’s chairman to influence polls in their favour. He said it would be difficult for a principled and upright person to succeed at the commission because the Chairman lacks powers to restructure the commission including appointing its state commissioners.

Williams also called for a change in the electoral system by canvassing for a truly decentralized electoral system where local and state governments would be allowed to have their own independent electoral commissions that is independent of the federal body. He disagreed with the Electoral Reform Commission headed by Justice Mohammed Uwais for not including the provision in their recommendations.