So after the elections

The occasion was the post 2019 Election Review Conference. The idea was to look at how all the stakeholders fared; from the electorate, security apparatchiks and the voters.  Our elections cannot be better than it is when politicians have hijacked the system and people’s power isn’t doing anything to retrieve it. Our elections cannot be any better when politics is business with high returns on investment. We cannot improve on the quality of our elections when the core of governance is neglected.

Persons are killed during elections, no compensation, no justice, the people’s vote not counting thus an increased voters’ apathy, so while we are building on a continuous electoral cycle, the symptomatic issues are eating deep into the entire fabric and may be just blow.

One major fact is that narratives pre-elections of security and insecurity, unmet expectations of ‘change’ still remain. Also the ignominy of roles by our security agencies still is an issue, weak compliance if at all any to political financing, campaigns and gender factors were too heavy for INEC to carry.

Key among their many recommendations was the power, manner of appointing the INEC Chairman for the sake of the integrity of the process. The president needs to hands off. For INEC key is the need for an automated Voters Registration, Digitization of the Electoral Process, Diaspora votes and Persons with Disabilities.

To ensure internal party disputes are better mitigated all parties should work to strengthen systems of internal democracy, publicly denounce members involved in hate speech or acts of violence.

Without flogging a dead horse, elections are not wars; the Police should be lead security agency, assertive, consistent and civil. Like INEC there is need to start preparation early with clearly defined roles. There is need for proper validation of candidacy based on expressed electorate support, to avoid waste, and ridiculing of the process.

Apart from the global embarrassment, unconfirmed figures put the postponement of the elections at close to N200bn in costs. Beyond elections, if our leaders go abroad for medicals the least they owe us is to make sure the ordinary Nigerian gets the best healthcare at home. With a surging population of kids out of school particularly in the North it is funny to see that governors are being begged and romanced into signing the Child Rights Act and yet these are leaders whose kids are in the best schools everywhere but Nigeria.

How can INEC be better than a flawed system that throws up its administrators by same politicians? Let me stay clear of the server or no server drama. INEC needs to do a critical self-introspection, dig deep, look at partners report not just the praise-singing notes, the next General Elections have already commenced.

Nothing will change, at this level, we shall keep watching, wailing, and hailing, for how long, till 2023 or till time tells?

Prince Charles Dickson PhD,

[email protected]