Lauretta Onochie, the INEC’s Federal Commissioner candidate, confessed on Thursday that she was a member of the governing All Progressive Congress (APC) before the 2019 general elections.
President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Onochie as a Federal Commissioner to represent Nigeria’s South-South Zone.
The opposition parties have spoken out against Onochie’s candidacy, as she served as President Buhari’s SSA during his first term.
Apart from charges of partisan politics, it was also pointed out that Onochie who is from Delta State, is ineligible for that position since there is a serving Federal Commissioner in INEC who is also from the same state, contradicting the Nigerian constitution’s Federal Character concept.
The jubilation that greeted President Buhari’s election has largely faded, replaced with concerns about his government’s mediocrity and bias.
When faced with ambiguity, we detest doing nothing, therefore when a new or unknown occurrence occurs, we want to act – even if it puts the condition in risk.
It’s why an average Nigerian Police picks up all and sundry in the vicinity of a robbery scene, even though it’s reasonable to think the perpetrators won’t be there.
It’s why, rather than waiting for additional prognosis, a lot of Nigerian physicians give medicine even when they’re not sure what’s wrong. As a result of doctors’ premature diagnoses, individuals have died. Even if it makes things worse, at least they’re trying, right?
That is why, despite the early excitement, a number of this administration’s projects fail spectacularly. They fail because the government replaces logic with nepotism. The incentives are incorrectly focused on project execution rather than project outcomes. As a result, Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s (rtd) government is more prone to succumb to the action bias and do something rather than nothing, even if that something is ineffective or worsens the situation.
When they do succumb to this bias and prejudice, it implies foregoing due diligence procedures such as cost-benefit analysis, risk management, cost management, and outcome assurance. The monorail project proposed by Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, might be an example of this. The cost of the monorail was considerably too high in comparison to the distance traveled. This bias and photo-op style of governance is rife in this current administration.
Several political analysts have speculated that, Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege (who desires to run for Governor of Delta State), is hell-bent on making Lauretta Onochie INEC Commissioner despite public outcry & resistance by many senators in the face of clear constitutional provisions that INEC appointees must be impartial.
Watching Lauretta Onochie being screened by the Senate as an INEC Commisioner nominee was distasteful, offensive and nauseating to say the least. If we allow this to stand, we should not bother participating for any election in 2023.
