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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has informed the visiting ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) that the ongoing legal review by the National Assembly was delaying the implementation of its recommendations that require legislative intervention.
Chairman of the INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, made the disclosure in his remarks at the meeting with the ECONEC post-election follow-up/needs assessment mission to Nigeria in Abuja yesterday.
Speaking further, Yakubu revealed that the commission had prepared a detailed response on each of the 13 observations, adding that most of them were already contained in the 142 recommendations for electoral reform.
He said: “Of the 13 observations specifically addressed to the INEC, the Commission has considered all the recommendations that require administrative action to implement, while waiting for the conclusion of the ongoing legal review by the National Assembly on the aspects of the recommendations that require legislative intervention.”
While giving further update, he explained that, “The Commission has prepared a detailed response on each of the 13 observations, most of which are already contained in our 142 recommendations for electoral reform, which resulted from wide-ranging consultations with critical institutions and stakeholders, a copy of which has already available on our website. The review report as well as the main 2023 general elections report and other relevant documents, are also available on our website.”
Yakubu explained further that, “The Commission is glad that ECOWAS, which deployed long-term and short-term EOM, recognises that election is a multi-stakeholder responsibility. Consequently, for Nigeria’s 2023 general elections, it made 37 recommendations for consideration by seven critical institutions and stakeholders in the electoral process. “Of these recommendations, 13 are addressed to INEC while 24 require action by other institutions and stakeholders, such as the National Assembly, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), civil society organisations, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and political parties under the auspices of their umbrella body, the Nigeria Inter-Party Advisory Council (PAC).”
Responding, Head of the ECONEC and Chairperson of the National Elections Commission of Liberia, Mrs David Etta Browne-Lansanah said the delegation was looking forward to how INEC has implemented the recommendations.
“We anticipate that during our engagement, we may be able to understand reasons for some of the issues that came out of the 2023 elections and how INEC was able to navigate in a way that it has found answers to those challenges that abound during the 2023 elections,” she said. The Liberian electoral umpire equally used the opportunity to commend the Nigeria counterpart for setting up its ICT room.
“More importantly, INEC has supported through material sharing with the National Elections Commission in Liberia. Because of your intervention, we now have an ICT room, basically supported by your efforts. And I get emotional, sorry, when I speak about these years, because when we needed support, we realized that the ECONEC was there for us,” she said.INEC tells ECONEC
