The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has partnered with Yiaga Africa to build a consensus on electoral reform in Africa’s most populous nation.
This partnership with Yiaga Africa, Development Diaries understands, is part of NLC’s effort towards mobilising key stakeholders to ensure the quick passage of the 2010 Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Although the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Senator Kabir Gaya, had in July assured Nigerians that the Bill before the committee would be passed before the end of 2020, the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, emphasised on the need for quick passage of an improved electoral law.
Through this review, Nigeria intends to reduce the cost of elections, ensure the deployment of effective election technology and include stringent punishment for violators of electoral laws.
It is also part of the ongoing #FixElectionsNG campaign aimed at increasing citizens’ participation in the electoral process.
‘We want these reforms to come earlier before elections so that people will get used to those reforms or amendments to the act and I think this is the right time to canvass for that.
‘We have gotten the commitment of the national assembly to say that they are willing and ready to make sure that reform processes are driven much earlier.
‘They gave a commitment to the effect that by December, all set and done, we should be discussing the new electoral act’.
On his part, the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, urged the government to strengthen INEC’s financial capacity.
He said that the financial timeline for the release of funds to the commission was among other key issues to be addressed.
‘If you look at our 2019 election report, we have it on good record that a large chunk of funding for the 2019 election was not provided to INEC until about a few weeks to the election’, he said.
‘It is important to have legal stipulations on clear timelines of when funds should be released to INEC for the conduct of elections and this needs to be addressed immediately’.
Security during elections in Nigeria has been one key issue that needs to be addressed to ensure transparent and credible polls.
Itodo added, ‘The national assembly and the executives have an opportunity to write their names in gold and live a lasting legacy so as to fast track this process and ensure that the electoral amendment process is concluded by December so that INEC and political parties can prepare ahead of elections’.
Source: Yiaga Africa
Photo source: Yiaga Africa
