Sanitizing the Electoral Process in Nigeria (2)

One conclusion that can be drawn from the large turnouts and enthusiastic presentations at the public sittings of the Electoral Review Committee (ERC) held across the federation over the last few weeks is that Nigerians are totally fed up with elections that are manipulated and outcomes that are at variance with the wishes of the people. The prevailing anxiety for a transparent electoral process is buoyed by widespread appreciation of the multifarous problems that engender electoral malfeasance: presenter after presenter catalogued the maladies in the electoral process and, with astonishing consistency, pointed out the way forward.

The topical issues about which the most strindent and repeated calls were made by state governments, political parties, professional bodies, traditional institutions, religious groups, trade unions, security agencies, NGOs, and individuals that appeared at the various venues of the ERC sittings included the issue of the autonomy of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and the appointment of it’s helmsman. Many presenters harped, quite rightly, on the need to take the institution saddled with the responsibility for the conduct of the election away from the influence of the executive arm of government. To do this, the general opinion was that the funding of INEC should be charged direct to the consolidated revenue fund. This would release the commission from the whims and caprices of an executive arm of government that is at all material times an interested party in electoral combats. Read more

Sanitizing the Electoral Process in Nigeria (1)

How to purge our electoral process in Nigeria of the structural flaws that have prevented it from achieving even modicum credibility is a great concern in the polity today. From 1959 to 2007, general elections in Nigeria have been characterized by malpractices and controversies. For this reason, early in his administration, President Umar Yar’Adua set up the Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) headed by retired Chief Justice of Nigeria, Muhammed Uwais. The ERC has been going round the country in the last few weeks in two teams collecting ideas on the way forward. While Team A has visited Maiduguri, Ibadan, Jos, Calabar, Sokoto, and Owerri, Team B has been to Lagos, Yola, Benin City, Ilorin, Enugu, and Kano. Both teams will end up at Abuja for the grand finale.

Through it’s public sittings, the ERC seeks to pool ideas and strategies aimed at breaking the vicious cycle of electoral disorder, to produce an electoral framework that will result in elections that are free of violence, bigotry, rigging, corruption and all other vices that are stultifying the growth of our nascent democracy, and possibly, to initiate a better and more profound legislation that will fast-track electoral best practices in our country. The envisioned reforms are targeted at strengthening our institutional capacity for conducting transparent elections inorder to restore intergrity to the process. Read more