Lauretta Onochie as INEC Commissioner is an expensive joke

Lauretta Onochie: INEC Commissioner Designate
 

It is believed that behind every neutrality is a hidden choice. It is also believed that eternal vigilance is the

price of liberty.

At a time when the government is winning plaudits for hearkening to the voice of reason in disbanding SARS, I suspect government wants to embark on another image laundering in nominating Presidential aide Lauretta Onochie as INEC Commissioner.

Every discerning mind knows that that appointment cannot pass the test of commonsense. The position of INEC Commissioner is supposed to be that of an arbiter who is supposed to be impartial.

In Law, one of the easiest ways of discrediting a judgement is to accuse the judge of bias.

How can a President that had described Nigerian Youths as lazy not open himself to attack from musician Ayodele Balogun alias Wizkid, who not long ago had a spat with Lauretta Onochie for defending the President against Ayodele Balogun, when he finds out that the same Person has been saddled with conducting impartial elections?

The path of honour for PMB is to replace his aide with a more impartial person, possibly a woman from the same geographical region as her.

Such people can be found in the academia. Lauretta Onochie can be given other jobs not requiring neutrality like a Minister or head of a parastatal.

I quite sympathize with Mr President for it is difficult to nominate a non partisan person for an appointment but he should take solace in the Oath of Office he took to be fair to all.

If an appointee having been duly confirmed turns hostile, the President is well within his rights to remove such an appointee, for the appointee cannot be for or against the President in discharging his or her duties.

For Lauretta Onochie the hue and cry against her nomination is normal. She should see it as the price of success. She can be nominated for other partisan positions so long as she retains the confidence of Mr. president. It is nothing personal.

She has nothing to be ashamed of except she allows her nomination to be torpedoed by the Senate, should the President go ahead with the nomination.

Should that happen, her reputation and her confidence would have been severely damaged. For now, things are still within her control.