National Assembly urged to unbundle INEC, pass election offences bill

 

By Okechukwu Onuegbu

The Nigeria's National Assembly comprising the Senate and Federal House of Representatives have been urged to expedite action towards unbundling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conduct of credible elections.  

The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Nigeria Civil Society Situationroom made the call at situation room advocacy meeting held at Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory which they organised with support of the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and attended by CSOs and journalists across the country.

According to the NUJ Situationroom, National Assembly unbundling the INEC including moving voter education responsibility to the National Orientation Agency (NOA), and passing the Election Offences Commission Bill into law, would go a long in ensuring that the populace participate actively in conduct of elections in the country just as election offenders would be duly prosecuted.

"The National Assembly should amend the electoral act to mandate compulsory electronic transmission of election results to limit manipulatioqn. The Senate should be more diligent and sensitive in its vetting process of nominees into INEC and ensure the opinions of the civil society and the media are considered during thee screening," the NUJ Situationroom added in a communique raised at end of the meeting.

The also charged the INEC to publish on its website and disseminate information regarding both prosecuted and unprosecuted cases of electoral malpractices till date, as well as provide the public with details of its financial allocations, expenditure and procurement processes.

"INEC should be diligent in its work at regulating political parties and ensure that parties’ reports of campaign finance are submitted and published timeously," they added.

They further called on the President Bola Tinubu to ensure that no politically exposed persons, including card carrying members of political parties are appointed while constituting the INEC board since tenures of the National Chairman of the commission and some other officials would come to an end this year.

"The President should ensure that no politically exposed persons are nominated into INEC. The President should also protect the independence of the Judiciary and INEC," they added.

The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Nigeria Civil Society Situationroom also enjoined the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun to as a matter of urgency update the public on outcome of their investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of attacks against journalists and observers during the 2023 General elections, recalling that the Press Attack Tracker of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) recorded that 89 journalists were attacked in the 2023 General Elections in the country.

They further argued that security of lives and property of the citizenry, including journalists and observers during election was necessary to record a peaceful, free, fair and credible election.

The group also urged the Police to eliminate militarisation of elections in Nigeria so that citizens would be bold and free to come out en masse and exercise their franchise without fear or favour, while adding that protection of journalists covering elections would guarantee press freedom in line with democratic principles.

"The meeting also called for a greater collaboration between the security agencies and the media to prevent attack, harassment and intimidation of journalists on civic duties," they added.

On political parties, the NUJ Situationroom urged politicians and their parties to imbibe internal party democracy, including keeping a proper and standard register of members, adhering to extant laws on political and campaign financing, and upholding the rule of law in their operations and practices.

"Political parties must fulfil their responsibility as required by law to deploy party agents to all levels of election in which they are involved. Political parties and candidates must commit to issue-based campaigns and refrain from skipping public debates before elections," they added. 

The media practitioners and CSOs also reaffirmed their commitment towards holding the government accountable, assuring that they would step-up advocacy for policy reforms that promote press freedom, media independence, and electoral accountability in Nigeria.

Earlier at the meeting, the Convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situationroom, Dr YZ Ya'u stressed that organising a credible poll demands effective collaborations to hold the government accountable towards constituting an unbiased electoral umpire and committing to the relevant electoral laws, guidelines and other processes.

Ya'u also urged the media and CSOs to continuously highlight and discuss the key issues in the 2023 electoral acts requiring amendments with a view to get the National Assembly to respond accordingly. 

Also speaking, the National President, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Alhassan Yahya, while assuring that the partnership had started and would continue, explained that his leadership would work towards empowering the forth estate of the realm with relevant knowledge and skills needed to perform their responsibilities through training and retraining, as well as checkmate the issues of news commercialisation and other unethical practices. 

Contributing, a development consultant, Agianpe Onyema and Bukola Idowu of Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI) while highlighting some key issues in the 2023 electoral act, urged the media and CSOs to be focused and not to wait till election time before interrogating the electoral system.

Speaking in a panel discussion, the National Secretary, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Achike Chude, Safiya Bichi of Yiaga Africa, and a development expert, Mr Austin Aigbe harped on the need for application of technology, fact-checking, investigative journalism and citizen observers in electoral monitoring and reporting to increase credibility of electoral process