…As PLAC foresees challenging election

By Olayinka Ajayi

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has appealed to the National Assembly to expedite the passage of proposed amendments to the 2022 electoral law.

Speaking on Monday during the joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Electoral Matters in conjunction with Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mahmood said it would help the commission for easy implementation ahead of 2027 general elections.

“Five years ago a similar retreat was organised here in Lagos in March 2020 involving INEC and the two committees of the National Assemblies on electoral matters. That effort among many other initiatives resulted in the repeal and reenactment of the Electoral act 2010 as amended. The result is the current electoral act 2022. For us in INEC, the coming together of lawmakers is for us to have field experience as practising politicians and the commission with the responsibility of organising, undertaking and supervising all elections in Nigeria except the local government elections. It is a positive development for electoral reform in Nigeria. We believe that a retreat such as this provides a focused engagement and insight into elections management beyond what can be achieved in a few hours of public hearing in a committee room of national assembly.

“One of the benefits of the last retreat and the consequential amendment to the Electoral act, a perennial problem to the conduct of election in Nigeria has been postponement of general election fixed. We are determined to change the embarrassing situation after a thorough review

“The voters register has been increased with 10million new voters.
“The solution was to amend the Electoral Act to provide for more time, between primaries and the nomination of candidates from one hand and date fixed for the election for the other. The commission had ample time to plan, and for the first time the 2023 general election was not postponed for an account of logistics or any other reason at all. For the first since the restoration of democracy in 1999, not a single sheet of paper for the general election was printed outside Nigeria.

“As we embark on another review of our Electoral laws, we will share with the lawmakers our field experience and draw attention to some of the proposed reforms and there implications for the management of elections. It is what makes retreat of this nature a unique opportunity to improve our Electoral process the foundation which is rooted in the legal framework.
“I appeal to the National Assemblies to expedite action to conclude the electoral legal reform speedily so that the commission will have enough time for implementation for any new laws.’

On his part, the executive director of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, PLAC, Mr. Clement Nwankwo while commending INEC for implementing Nigeria’s electoral legal framework, said, “Nigeria do have a very sound electoral framework, the national assembly has shown an interest to repeal and reenact the current electoral act 2022, the hope we have is that we will not continue to repeal and re-actment of elections laws for Nigeria after every election circle.

“With what INEC has done, we have seen huge improvements. The challenge is implementing the laws and the framework.

“As we go into 2027, the next election is going to be a challenging one. I am said so with a lot of sincerity as well. The 2027 election will be seriously contest and the pressure on INEC to deliver will be high as we move towards 2027.

“As we move towards the next election, it will be import that the election framework is firm and certain long before the election.

“If the National Assemblies can achieve the legal framework before the end of 2025 we will have a clean elections.”