By Collins Yakubu-Hammer
The Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Mr Samson Itodo has recommended for improved autonomy and capacity of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) to enhance the integrity of local government elections in the country.
Itodo gave the recommendations during his presentation titled “Local Government Elections: A travesty of Electoral Democracy ” at a ‘Reflection Roundtable on Local Government Election’ on Thursday in Abuja.
The Roundabout was organised by Yiaga Africa, a Civil Society Ortganjsation and supported by USAID, UKaid and International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).
According to Itodo, before the Supreme Court judgement on Local Government Autonomy and Local Elections, only 14 states in the country were operating democratic local government administration.
He said the states included Bayelsa, Borno,, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, FCT, Gombe, Katsina, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Oyo, Taraba and Yobe.
“After the Supreme Court Judgement, and as today, 31 states now have elected Chairmen at their various local government areas. And the six sates that are yet to have are Abia, Cross River, Kano, Nasarawa, Osun and Zamfara.
“We are positive that soon, the states would conduct their local government elections and swear-in the elected Chairmen.
“So far, clear party dominance is evident across the states, making political interference particularly by the state governors regarding the constitution and funding of SIECs a prominent topic in public discuss.
“However, to improve the integrity of local government election, there is need to reform the SIECs to ensure their independence from gubernatorial influence, efforts shouldbe made to improve the funding, autonomy and capacity of SIECs.
“While the promotion of civil education and awareness is essential, civil society organisations and the media should take up prominent and active role in observing local election.
“A local government election integrity assessment index could serve as a tool for evaluating the quality of local election in various local government across Nigerian states,”Itodo recommended.
He further explianed that the recommendations were necessitated by some key issues that arose from the recent local Government elections.
He noted that the issues included uncertain tenure for local government, inconsistency between state electoral law and the Electoral Act 2022, and irregular local elections.
“Other issues are vote allocation, predictable outcomes, dominance of ruling parties, poor electoral administration/governance and partisan election administration”.
News Agency of Nigeria reports that the event attracted chairmen of SIECs, civil society organisations and relevant stakeholders. (NAN)