A professor of political science, Prof. Dung Pam Sha, has identified non-transmission of election results as the major bane of the 2023 general elections, while tasking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to avoid such challenges in future elections.
Addressing a multi-stakeholder dialogue on rebuilding trust in the electoral process and elections in Kaduna on Thursday, organised by the International Press Center (IPC) with funding by the European Union under the EU-Support to democratic governance in Nigeria, the University of Jos Don said Nigerian youth have been attracted to participate in elections in the country especially by the not too young to run mantra but many of them were turned off by the non-transmission results of the general elections last year.
Prof. Sha, who spoke on “The Role of Critical Stakeholders in Rebuilding Trust on Electoral Institutions, the Electoral Process and Elections in Nigeria”, said trust has broken down at some level in Nigeria, as he cited trust of delivery; capacity to deliver, trust of engagement with citizens, trust of familiarity with framework, trust of integrity; transparency and accountability. “Nigeria has witnessed lots of problems with the electoral system.
“The roles played by stakeholders have created situations where trust has broken down. The action of the election management body by not handling the process well especially the transmission of results became major issue. The political parties lacking internal democracy leeds to lots of political challenges; imposing candidates on their party, how some of them captured their political party machinery. The roles of politicians who manipulated the processes at various levels either during primaries or during the general elections, vote buying, rigging.
“Everyone has problem what we need to do is to address these challenges. The Nigeria youths since 2015 have been active in the electoral process because of the campaign carried out for them to get into politics especially the not too young to run campaign that brought them to the political process. Some of them came into the process but lack of transmission of the 2023 general elections results dampened their enthusiasm. Electronic voting was introduced but that aspect failed us. We need to sustain the interest of the youth and believe that in the next election we would play by the rules and have a great election,” he said.
Chairman of the occasion and Director, Center for Democratic Development, Research and Training, Dr Abubakar Siddique Mohammed tasked the political class to clean up its act, correct past mistakes and avoid rigging, stating that the intervention of military in governance in 1966 and 1983 were due to rigging during elections, though he noted that Nigeria has outgrew military rule.
“Military in the past have taken over power in Nigeria when elections are rigged.
“When political leaders do not manage the political process very well the military intervene by taking over power. Though it’s no longer fashionable in Nigerian but the political leaders should not take that for granted considering the level of rigging, manipulation of results and irregularities that took place in the 2023 general elections. The electoral laws have been going through modification as people observed challenges.
“Many observations have been made during the last general elections, we should go back and look at those anomalies and correct them. INEC alone cannot manage an electoral process, you have the political parties, politicians, government, judiciary and people who all have roles to play. If you have an electoral process where leaders are determined to rig election, INEC cannot stop them. The judiciary has been broken, courts are politicized. Political parties should engage in internal party democracy,” he said.
Special Adviser to INEC Chairman, Prof. Muhammad Kuna, who spoke on behalf of INEC said, “each election comes with its own different challenges be it general elections or off-cycle elections. You have to ensure that there are security agencies to keep security. Security of personnel, security of materials, security of elections are vital. Everybody want to win and they want to win by any means including rigging, vote buying, ballot box snatching and so on. It’s not just the Commission that should provide political enlightenment but even political parties need to educate the voters.”
