[FILE] Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials sort and count ballots during the vote counting process at a polling station in Kano on February 25, 2023, during Nigeria’s presidential and general election. (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON / AFP)
Ahead of the 2027 General Elections, Nigerians, yesterday, intensified calls for the amendment of the countrys electoral laws to ensure all court cases were resolved before winners were sworn in.
According to them, it will prevent constitutional crises stemming from post-election litigations and ensure that incumbents wont use public funds to prosecute election cases.
They also emphasised an urgent need to unbundle the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure effectiveness, transparency and credibility in future polls.
The stakeholders made the calls at the national multi-stakeholders forum jointly organised by Kimpact Development Initiative and National Democratic Institute in Abuja.
Executive Director of Kimpact, Bukola Idowu, who accused incumbents of abusing court processes with state funds, noted that not concluding election petitions before the inauguration was always a distraction to both the government and judiciary.
Idowu said while Nigerians lauded the 2023 polls as the best the country ever had, others described it as unsatisfactory.
He said: As you can see if you look at the timeline of the last election, the judiciary as it is today, spends two years on election issues, which is a distraction for them. Secondly, the election took place in February 2023, but the whole election was concluded in February 2024 by the Supreme Court, which is one year.
What this means is that for the governors, they were being distracted. So why are we having this kind of distraction in governance? It should not be so.
It is also difficult to remove a sitting governor or President. In addition, prosecuting electoral cases involves huge resources, so when you swear in someone, you are giving that person unhindered access to state resources. We have seen a lot of governors using state resources to go to court they contested as private persons. These are lots of things that would have been prevented if most of these cases are ended before swearing in.
General Secretary, Federal Capital Territory chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Joint Campus Council, Aina Oluwatomisin, who canvassed the involvement of students in electoral processes, said the 2023 General Elections had shown that INEC could do better in terms of the Biometric Voter Accreditation System, procedures and security concerns among others.
He said: Another major issue we have that also needs to be worked on is the enforcement of laws that are in place. Some are in place but the enforcement is low.
National President of Nigeria Union Of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo, maintained that for the country to be committed to democratic governance, there was the need to address issues around voter intimidation, violence, thuggery, disinformation and misinformation before, during and after elections.
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