Many had queried why INEC was not allowed to conduct delegates' election for the forthcoming National Conference. Thank God, we now have the answer as revealed by a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Conference, Mr. Tony I. Uranta. Mr. Uranta said money is at the centre of it.
His words:
But when government got our report, it went through it, and realised that the Electoral Act does not allow INEC, which is the only body empowered to carry out elections, to conduct elections outside of the political elections that have been designated to it; and that for it to now process this election, there would have to be alterations to the Electoral Act, which we were not sure could be carried out even in the next one year or two knowing how slow our National Assembly can be on critical issues.
You know how long it took for the Freedom of Information Bill to get passed. A bill that was sent in, in 1999 only got passed in 2007. Apart from that, government now asked INEC to budget what it will cost and INEC budgeted N25 billion.
Now if people are complaining of N7 billion budgeted for this conference, can you imagine what they would have been saying if we were to have a N32 billion?
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