The House of Representatives warned on Sunday that it would be impossible for the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct the 2015 general elections if urgent steps were not taken to address the commission’s financial predicament.
Its Committee on Electoral Matters said in Abuja that INEC had no money to conduct the poll, adding that time was running out on the commission to get some of its programmes for the election on track.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Jerry Manwe, told newsmen that INEC needed an estimated N120billion to plan and conduct the poll.
Manwe added that the commission’s budget proposal for 2014, which it could have used to prepare for the elections, was N120bn.
“Out of the N120bn that INEC proposed, only N45bn was given to the commission by government.
“It means that the commission is short of a huge difference of N75bn”, Manwe stated.
The committee chairman noted that funding challenges could mar elections, expressing concern that, while everyone was already looking forward to the poll, questions were not asked about the financial capacity of INEC to deliver.
He added that, following a series of interface with the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and independent investigations conducted by the committee, the committee came to the conclusion that a supplementary budget for INEC could be the only way out.
Manwe spoke further, “As the Committee on Electoral Matters, our work is to alert the relevant authorities on our findings and the implications for the 2015 elections.
“We have alerted the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office of the Federation; we as a committee, we cannot initiate a supplementary budget for INEC.
“As it stands, INEC has no money to conduct the elections. If they are not able to get supplementary appropriation, there will be serious problems.”
However, Manwe said he was hopeful that the Federal Government would address the issue with a supplementary budget in the weeks ahead.
“We are waiting to see what happens as we enter July, but it is important to say that, this is the situation for now”, he added.
It will be recalled that on June 9, Jega had appeared before the House Committee on Reform of Government Institutions and gave the assurance that preparations for the polls were on course.
“We give assurance that preparations by INEC for the 2015 general elections are proceeding in earnest”, he stated.
But, he also admitted that the commission’s immediate challenges included “insecurity; funding; attitude of the political class; apathetic and inactive citizenry; delay in amendment to the legal framework; completion of the review of electoral constituencies and polling units.”
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