The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has said that the nation’s electoral umpire might practically be unable to perform any duties this year other than paying staff salaries with its 2025 budget estimates.
The commission was handed an envelope of N40 billion for its operations this year.
In 2024, INEC required N80bn for its operations, but it was given the same N40 billion, an envelope that was simply repeated this year.
Yakubu spoke when he appeared before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committees on INEC/Electoral Matters, on Friday.
He disclosed that the commission would need N126 billion to fund its services this year as the N40 billion envelope for 2025 could only take care of personnel costs.
Yakubu expressed concern that with just N40 billion, it implied that there was no provision for some elections fixed for 2025 and others to be planned ahead of 2026. For example, Yakubu said the budget did not cover the Anambra governorship poll coming up later in the year.
He also told the lawmakers that the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections which would hold in 2026, were not captured in the proposed budget.
The INEC boss noted that planning for them must start in 2025, stressing that without funds, there was no magic that INEC could perform, giving worries about potential constitutional crises ahead.
Yakubu said, “Something has to be done as the N40 billion does not cover elections to be conducted in 2025. For example, there is no provision yet for Anambra governorship election.
“No provision for Area Council election elections in FCT for 2026, which must be planned in 2025. We have Ekiti and Osun coming up in 2026, which must be planned this year. The primaries for these elections must be conducted in 2025,” INEC chairman stated.
He also spoke on the urgency to start early preparations for the 2027 general elections, starting with Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).
“There is the issue of migrating voters among polling units to as near parity as possible. We will like to do the redistribution of voters in 2025,” Yakubu added.
Other activities of the commission Yakubu said had no budgetary allocations, included the replacement of BEVAS machines, ballot boxes, voting cubicles lost in Owerri, Benue and Delta states as well as renovation of INEC offices that were set ablaze in several locations in the country.
Yakubu also addressed senators and members of the House on the financial burden placed on Nigeria and the commission to frequently conduct by-elections that were mostly not national elections.
He disclosed that at the moment, there were pending by-elections to be conducted in Adamawa, Kaduna, Jigawa, Kano, Rivers, Edo, Anambra and Niger states.
In 2023, he said the commission conducted nine other by-elections, an indication that in one and a half years, INEC would have conducted 21 by-elections for these vacancies.
“This nation is spending too much on elections. We have to find a way to deal with this issue.
“In the US, it’s not every time a vacancy exists that an election is conducted. A simple nomination can be made to replace the vacancy”, he further noted.
Yakubu lamented that though INEC was a national electoral commission, it had been saddled with conducting more state by-elections than national or governorship elections.
He called for a joint funding of election budgets by the federal government and the 36 states to reduce the burden on the federal government.
“States are not contributing to election funding.So, we are going to propose that a percentage of funds to be taken from the Federation Account to be spent on these elections,” Yakubu recommended.
According to him, INEC had prepared a document containing 142 proposals, including constitutional amendments on the way forward on how to address current electoral challenges, eight of which dealt with the activities of the National Assembly.
The session was jointly chaired by Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun-Alli and Hon. Tayo Balogun, did not dispute Yakubu’s concerns.
Senator Ireti Kingibe, reacting to the presentation of Yakubu, said, “INEC has to be funded. We must get the funding for INEC.”
The committees later discharged Yakubu and his team to go into an executive session and consider the issues raised by the electoral umpire.