The 2023 Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Bishop Isaac Idahosa, has called for appropriate sanctions against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and public officials responsible for electoral shortcomings.
Idahosa, a close associate of former Kano governor and 2023 NNPP presidential candidate Rabiu Kwankwaso, emphasized that without accountability for actions falling below acceptable standards, such misconduct is likely to continue.
“We don’t punish anybody for what he does; there are no consequences, so he keeps on repeating it,” the cleric said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme on Wednesday.
“INEC does this, and nobody puts them to check, and then it repeats it. Once there are no consequences for your actions or inactions, then a repeat will occur because there is no accountability.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) introduced the Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and Bimodal Voter Registration Systems (BVAS) for the 2023 general elections. However, the efficiency of these technologies was widely criticized, with INEC attributing their shortcomings to technical glitches.
In the election, Rabiu Kwankwaso, along with his running mate Bishop Isaac Idahosa, secured fourth place with 1,496,687 votes. Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) emerged victorious with 8,794,726 votes, followed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) with 6,101,533 votes.
The election results faced legal challenges up to the Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled that the absence of results on IReV was not sufficient grounds to nullify the poll.
Bishop Idahosa expressed concern over individuals in government wielding excessive power, undermining institutional authority and governance. He also decried the influence of “money politics” on the system. The NNPP chieftain proposed that all elections be conducted on the same day to enhance transparency.
He said, “I will want to suggest where all elections are done on the same day. That will help curb a whole lot of things – presidential, senatorial, gubernatorial, all on the same day. It will cut costs and will get the desirable results. But when you have this in a span of one or two weeks after the presidential, a whole lot can go, bandwagon can go.”
‘I’m Still Close To Kwankwaso’
Idahosa also said he is still close to Kwankwaso and that the former Kano governor remained the leader of the NNPP.
“To begin with, I’m still very close to my principal; he was here last week – the 8th of February when I celebrated my 60th birthday. So we are still very in touch, we are very close. No crisis in our party, he’s still our national leader, His Excellency Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
“We don’t have factions; those so-called factions have been expelled from the party. There is no room to emphasise factions in our party – we just got one party headed and being led by His Excellency, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso,” he said.