BY GLORIA USMAN, ABUJA – The Presidency and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have been urged to work ahead of the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria by commencing work on electoral reforms.
International Observers that participated in the monitoring of the 2019 elections made the appeal at a Roundtable Meeting on Electoral Reform organinsed put together by the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room in collaboration with the Kofi Annan Foundation in Abuja on Wednesday.
The President, Kofi Annan Foundation, Mr Alan Doss in his remarks, said democracy is more than an election held every four years, stressing that for Nigeria to achieve a strong and sustainable democracy, early preparations is one of the best ways to achieve it.
In his words; “Electoral process should not only be free, fair and effective but also regarded as such, not just by a court of law but in the court of public opinion.”
“Transparent governance, independent institutions, popular participation and a free press are vital ingredients of a vibrant democracy. From our own experience at the foundation working with countries around the world, we know that electoral reform is tough and therefore is best undertaken early in the electoral cycle.
“Electoral reform is not the exclusive responsibility of the electoral commission, even though it plays a central role; there are many stakeholders involved. Ultimately, electoral reform, like all reforms, requires political will. With so many urgent issues requiring attention, electoral reform can easily slip off the political agenda.
“Nevertheless, what could be more important than ensuring the legitimacy of the very system upon which government rests?”
Doss therefore urged Nigeria to build momentum in favour of electoral reform, adding that the continued success of Nigeria’s democracy is a strategic priority for all Africa.
He also urged Nigeria to work on the challenges of the 2019 elections, adding that every electoral cycle exposed problems and concerns that needed to be addressed to sustain public confidence in the system.
In his own remarks, Ambassador Georg Steiner, Switzerland, said strong democracy is needed to continue a vibrant and multi-stakeholder engagement, adding that politics is too important to be left to politicians alone and therefore called for the need to engage all in order to strengthen democracy.
Steiner also said that democracy allowed transfer of power to happen peacefully through institutional mechanisms rather than through violent conflict, adding that credible and legitimate elections are the cornerstone of a true democracy.
He further said; “Nigeria had come a long way and enjoyed a very vibrant political culture, yet many challenges remained. Politics has been trivialised and used to create exacerbated fault lines at the expense of serving the higher interests of the nation.”
Steiner said that while no elections are perfect, the exercise remained the key foundation of democratic legitimacy, and advised that while the intensity of the recently concluded elections settled down, an inclusive and sustained dialogue should be engaged to address concerns and to constructively work toward necessary reforms.
In his own statement, the representative and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mohammed Chambas, expressed concern on low participation of women in politics in Nigeria in spite of the dynamic number of women in the country, saying that has scored Nigeria as one of the countries with low women participation.
Convener of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Mr Clement Nwankwo, said that the round-table was to share the knowledge gained from observing the elections and take lessons from it with a view to improving the electoral processes for better elections ahead.
