 Another refree serving on Nigeria's electoral process for over four years, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Benway State, Nentawe Yelwata, has resigned from the Dependent International Electoral Commission, INEC, and immediately joined partisan politics. Now Yitwada was appointed REC in July of 2017 and posted to Benway State. He has participated in the conduct of the elections in Benway, Anambra, Oshun, Rivers and Cross River states. Now, when contacted on Wednesday, the former REC confirmed that he stepped down from INEC for personal reasons and that he had joined partisan politics for joining us to discuss this. And why all of a sudden we are having this conversation is Gide Olugun, he's a legal practitioner. Thank you very much, Mr. Olugun, for joining us. Thank you. It's a pleasure. Yeah, the question in everybody's mind is why is it such a crime for an INEC official or public servant of his standing to cross over to, you know, the political side and want to, you know, be part of the rumble, even though he was once a referee, now he wants to be a player? Actually, there's no crime in that. If you want to go by the provisions of the law, in fact, I believe he has done horribly well by resigning before joining active politics. It should have been more of a concern if he decided to join as an active staff of INEC. And if you look at the law setting up INEC, the Independent National Electoral Commission Decree 17, now an Act of National Assembly 1998, you know, it's envisaged a situation like this and had a provision in section 17 of that decree stating that notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any law, the person who holds or has held office as a member of the Commission under the decree after a period of five years, after even leaving, will not be qualified to hold an elective office, you know. And this provision has been expunged from the law I made reference to. And if we have no law now prohibiting a staff that leaves INEC to join active politics, then we need to push the ball to the National Assembly. If the fact that he has now walked with the same commission that we handled elections and it's likely to understudy the game so well to have advantage over other candidates, then the National Assembly should find a way of reinstating the provisions in our laws or another one that we prevent this occurrence. And he is not the first person that has taken this step. I recall that in Cross River State, Franklin Breye, the resident Electoral Commission in Cross River in August 2019 also resigned in a bid to join the governorship race in Biasa State. So the lawmakers are expected because we look at section four of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 as amended is to place that the National Assembly shall make law of the peace order and good government of Nigeria. So when issues like this come up, if you search for paramount concern, then we need to come up with laws that regulate it. As we speak now, no law prohibits him from joining active politics. Well, a lot of people frown at it. And one of the reasons why we hear the National Assembly even came up with that act to try to put a stop or put a gap between the time when an INEC official steps out of office or resigns and the time he starts running in for an office was because they felt that it was somewhat not necessarily moral. And I asked myself, is it an issue of morality as long as we have the law that we're looking at? And these people, I mean, of course, the people that we have as our politicians have the right to one day wake up and say, well, I want to run for office. Even the Aved Nigerian who's in the private sector can wake up and say, well, I want to resign from my job and run for office because my people need me. But what exactly is wrong with the INEC official who obviously knows the modus operandi of getting elections done. And of course, maybe having free and credible elections running for an office. Is that not trying to make a change? So should we be talking about the morality of this at all in the first instance? Interestingly, you may say it is a morally wrong step to take. But we are not talking about morals here. We are talking about legal issues. So by virtue of the law, he has not contravened any law. And like I mentioned earlier, if it's that important to the government, we have three arms of government, we have the legislative arm that can come up with laws to regulate this type of practice. But as we speak now, it's just like if somebody leaves an NPC or somebody leaves immigration and decides to join active politics. I mean, I've said it that he has even done honorably by resigning. Recall at a time that the president was, you know, let's just, let's, let's, let's face it as it is right now that the National Assembly should take a deep look into this development. Like I said, this is not the first time this is becoming prominent because right now we are in the season of declaration for you know, running the race. And he has resigned and his, his experiences in INEC does not guarantee him victory at the port. He still has to go and confront the stakeholders within the party. He has expressed intention to join the All Progressive Congress APC. And then, you know, there are people who have been laboring and sacrificing in APC. And then he may have to really network to find his way. He has to pass through the primaries to even imagine as the candidate for the governorship race. So there are still a lot of hurdles ahead of him. And if he has chosen to go into active politics, I think his experience in INEC should aid him. But I don't see how that is going to give him any undue advantage in the sense that the party structure will still have to determine who will be fielded for the vacant offices that he will survive for, and this time around the governorship of the two states. Do you think that maybe I'm just wondering that the opera maybe might not necessarily be about the fact that he resigned and then immediately declared his intention, but where his intention is, or where he's gone to, the political party that he's gone to. Could that be also the reason why people are frowning at this? Maybe if he joined just another party, probably wouldn't have been a problem. I'm just curious. He could have joined any party and no law says he cannot be investigated. So if he is investigated and found to have awarded unnecessary people to APC as a party, he looked forward to cutting in the future. Then we may spring up case in that respect. But right now there are no allegations. I mean, he's been the, except we want some people now want to claim that he rigged the election that produced the president governor in play two state. If that is not the case, I mean, he's free under the constitution if he mixed the requirements to contest for office. And like I said, his experience as a resident electoral commissioner, we only support his maneuvers within the party, you know, to be able to navigate effectively. And he should also be closely monitored that if he clinches the ticket to fly, he doesn't get undue favor from the same body that we regulate the elections. By and large, the global picture here is that the National Assembly should be on ground to monitor the polls like this because laws are made for the people. And as events unfold, we try to manage our laws to suit the purpose. I mean, we still have the case of the the victory of Governor Wike in river states that discovered that even the federal government collecting value added times from states is not constitutional. And the matter, if it's in the Supreme Court, but the stakeholders are seeking political solution rather than legal solution. So laws should be made to cover these polls. Like I mentioned earlier, there was a law to that effect that was expunged. You know, the section 17 of the INEG decree of 1998, now an act of the National Assembly. So if it was expunged, it's either you introduce it or you don't. And then you just feel comfortable with the decision he has taken. But like I said, if there are infractions he has committed in office, then the loss of the land can go after him. Just like we are debating this issue of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill that is hanging now, the issue of primary or direct primaries and indirect primaries. You know, somebody may come up later and begin to cry foul that, you know, both assistants now, insider parties decide to adopt direct primaries or indirect primaries. And some can even go for consensus candidates. So if he is influential enough to clinch the ticket, we proceed to contest. I'm just curious, I'm curious as to why, like you said, if a particular act or an amendment is important to us, we should continue to put pressure on the National Assembly to push for laws that we think one way or the other will plug loopholes that would continuously creep up in our constitution. And you made mention of the Electoral Act, which is still hanging. And for this particular, you know, act for the Electoral Act that was, I think it was the principal act, that's what it was called. After a while it looks like the people who were pushing for it just let it go and that was the end of it. But then now people are crying wolf about this particular situation. So where is that, you know, continuous pressure or the tenacity that we need to make sure that our lawmakers do the beating of the people as opposed to what they want to do, which will be in their own interests? You know, I really don't know the level of pressure with each amount on them. They made promises before going in there. The Constitution already gives them a mandate in Section 4 to make laws for the peace order and good government of Nigeria. I mean, talking about the Electoral Act amendment bill that is hanging, a lot of us engage the media space, analyzing the pros and cons and prompting the fact that direct primaries may make the engagement reflect more the democratic energy expected, which is participatory. But then for some interest within the power bloc, you may not fly. And I recall mentioning that even when the president vetoes the bill from the National Assembly, it's just an individual. We have one and nine Senate Senators, there are 60 House of Res members considering the National Assembly. The National Assembly also has power under the Constitution of Nigeria to veto the president. So are we now going to beat them up to do the needful? At the point we read that the House of Senate was able to put together about 73 signatures, more than the two tone required to veto the president. But the Senate hasn't come out to actually say that that is a truth because they've been tight-lipped about everything for so long. So we really can't even verify if it's a rumor, if it's actually a fact. I mean, every single person is tight-lipped. But on the issue of you saying that we really don't have to, but then there are many people who are on that, the floor of the National Assembly, whether it be the upper or the lower house, they need an extra nod because we do respect most of them. They do not really know why they're there. That's what we say. When you have a purpose, if you don't fully appreciate that purpose, then abuse is inevitable. So are they there for the people? If they are there for the people, it should be easy for them to make laws that will sanitize the environment. Or if you benchmark what we have in the country now with the mandates they are expected to exercise, you look at insecurity. I mean, is the insecurity in Nigeria so bad that the National Assembly could have shut down the National Assembly and compelled the executive arm to give us security in this land? That's a big question that Gideologo is asking. Is poverty in the land, the inflation in the land, the unemployment rate in the land, are they grievous enough for the National Assembly to rise up? Because the role of the National Assembly is to facilitate the execution of laws that will sanitize the country and give us prosperity. Section 14, subsection 2 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 as amended says that the security and the welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. That is a law from the National Assembly is the executive arm executing it. And there are provisions for impeachment within the same constitution. So if it's so important to them, it will rise up to get things done. What pressure do you mount on them? One of the aspirations of the ensouled protesters was to ensure that we sanitize the brutality we have within that sector of our national life and you saw what happened. That's a conversation for another day. You know what, Barca Logan, we will bring you back. We will bring you back and talk about this issue of the National Assembly very soon. But unfortunately, our time is up and I want to thank you for being here. Barca Logan has been speaking with us on this issue. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, God bless Nigeria. All right. Well, thank you all for staying with us. Before we leave you with the comments of Nigerians on the lift of Twitter's suspension by the federal government, I have just a few words for you. It's not enough for us to go on social media and hide behind our avatars and talk smack about the government or criticize and cry foul. Do you have a PVC? Do you know what your ward is? Have you ever registered at a polling unit? There's still time so that you will not go back on social media in a few years' time and cry wolf. I'm Mary Anacone. Have a good evening. I think it's a nice decision. Though the decision in the first place was a bad one because it will affect Nigeria's freedom of communication. And two, it's going to affect revenue generation for the youth because we are in a social media age where everybody do most of their business online. So by doing the government that said they are creating an employment for people, putting a ban on Twitter, we create unemployment. So it's a nice decision for lifting the ban. One and two, outside, it's also a poor decision from the government in the first place. That is what I can say. Because of election, election is coming and you know in 2015 Twitter played a very important role in putting this government into power. Now election is around the corner. They are trying to use the same medium they used in 2015 to also maybe win the election or capture the youth. They know most youth are on Twitter and they want to also use that to say okay, we lift the ban because of Twitter has met their target. The reason why they are lifting this thing is because of election that is coming next year. Definitely there must be a fire that ignites a smoke somewhere for the government to call for the ban of the Twitter. But I'm suspecting something from the government. It's good that they lifted it. It's good for Nigerians. And as they lifted it, I'm happy about it.