Nigeria can conduct the 2027 general elections with 30 percent of the monies it currently spends on elections, according to renowned constitutional lawyer, rights activist and election expert, Clement Nwankwo.
Nwankwo, founder of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) in an interview on Channels Television programme, Politics Today on Monday night monitored by Newsmata.com.ng, insisted that there is no reason why all elections cannot be held same day, stressing that it is logistically possible.
The convener of the Civil Society Situation Room, who highlighted the proposals for electoral reforms by the election monitoring group before the National Assembly, expressed the need for election petitions to be concluded before anybody could be sworn in.
Speaking on what needed to be altered in the Constitution to have a free and fair election in 2027, Nwankwo stated that a couple of issues have always arisen from Observer reports from previous elections, whether it’s 2019 or 2023, from which lessons could be drawn.
“One is the extent to which we have elevated the Judiciary into an important component of electrical system. How do you eliminate that? I think that’s an important question. How do you conduct elections? How do you build an electoral body that people have confidence in?”
Lamenting how trust in our elections had consistently declined since after the tenure of Professor Attahiru Jega as the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) Nwankwo said concern should be how to rebuild this trust.
“When Professor Attahiru Jega organised elections, I think he organised two elections in 2011 and 2015. The Electoral system built its own trust. Since then, the electoral system trust has declined in the country.
“The question is, how do you rebuild that? We can’t go into 2027 general elections with the kind of distrusts you have in the electoral institution and that’s why the National Assembly is looking at a whole lot of things.
“One is, reform the issue of election petition litigation. For instance, reduce the levels of appellate tiers. For instance, the proposal is to get governorship elections to have only two tiers of election litigations, which is Court of Appeal, first jurisdiction, and then the Supreme Court, and then the National and State Assemblies, just keep it at the election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal.
“And then the proposal as well is to have the presidential elections go straight to the Supreme Court for adjudication. Then, the proposal also, with respect to elections, is to ensure that all elections happen on the same day, and there is nothing that should be able to prevent that logistically.
“Thirdly, to ensure that everything related to election petitions are concluded before anybody is sworn in. Those are the major proposals that we have at this time that the National Assembly is considering”.
Speaking on the benefits of eliminating staggered or off-cycle elections, the Executive Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, (PLAC) said, “I think one concern is the bandwagon effect of staggering elections. That’s one.
“Two, I believe that this country can conduct elections with 30 percent of the monies that it is spending on elections today. For several reasons, one, elections have become a honeypot for those who are involved in it or those who manage it. So, an incredible amount of money is spent conducting elections, and this country cannot afford the cost of elections as we speak, so we must reduce it, and one way of reducing it is to limit all elections to happen on the same day.
“Thirdly, I think it’s a question of election administration. I don’t see why it cannot be managed for elections to happen on the same day. If it happens on the same day, you save a lot of money, you reduce bandwagon effect, you reduce manipulation. You reduce distrust of the electoral system, and you finally achieve what you have nodded, which is really that election petitions conclude well ahead of swearing in of anybody. That will reduce the whole issue of staggered elections.
“As you know, right now, one of the biggest issues is the cost that staggered elections have generated for the country’s budget”.