The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has charged politicians to always learn to accept failure and success in an election rather than blaming their failure solely on the electoral umpire.
INEC Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Obo Effanga, who gave the charge on Friday in Benin during a Post-election meeting/interactive session with journalists, said that is the only way the nation’s democracy can grow.
“Our politicians, when they win elections in certain quarters, they begin to rejoice but when they lost in other area, they begin to complain and blaming INEC”.
“Whenever politicians win, they will say it was “victory for democracy and a reflection of how the people voted for them” but when they didn’t win , they would always try to find reasons to blame everyone apart from themselves”.
Effanga stressed the need for Nigerians to act rightly and criticize politicians behind electoral violence during elections in the country.
According to him, the people who disrupt elections do not commit it on their own accord but are always sponsored by politicians
“And If people disrupt elections, they didn’t just do it their own, somebody recruited them to do that. Who are the people recruiting them to do that?
“The same people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the process which are the politicians. We need to call these people out.
“The quality of what we do is a reflection of us as a people because the people who conducted the elections were Nigerians, contesters were Nigerians, those who disrupted the elections were Nigerians.
“The people who shot voters during elections and the people who reported the elections were Nigerians. So, it is for us as Nigerians to decide and act the right way at all times”, he posited
Effanga said the commission will all times acted in the best possible way, as it had no interest in any of the political parties or candidates.
He noted that the duties and powers of the REC do not include counting, tabulation of votes, recording of results, announcement of results, or declaration of winners but that of the returning officer.
The REC however lauded the media for effective coverage of the 2023 general election in the State.
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