CSO to election observers: Review your compliance with INEC rules in 2023 polls

Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA), a civil society organisation (CSO), says election observers must assess their roles and performances in the 2023 polls.

Ezenwa Nwagwu, chairman of PAACA, spoke on Wednesday at a two-day post-election review meeting for CSOs organised in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA).

Nwagwu said CSOs that monitored the polls need to review their adherence to the guidelines set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for election observation.

“The argument for me is that in the aftermath of the elections, everybody is doing review,” he said.

“And oftentimes, the reviews are just outsourcing blame. There is no mirror reflection in terms of how we value our own contribution as CSOs.

“So as civil society, especially those of us who observed that election, it is also important that we have a reflection meeting, and say how did we fare? Did we do well?

“As CSOs, we talk about INEC, we talk about security, we talk about the media, we talk about everybody participating in the election.

“We have never asked ourselves how does INEC see us? How do the security agencies see our own contribution?

“My description of an election observer is like a match commissioner in a football match.

“Oftentimes, we want to be able to see whether you jumped when a goal is scored by a particular team and whether you are angry when a goal is not scored.”

Nwagwu further added that elections in Nigeria have improved in recent years, noting that irrespective of challenges experienced in the 2023 elections, the positive outcomes outweighed the negatives.

“We’ve had a leapfrog. Unfortunately, that’s part of what we are not admitting,” he said.

“Our election has leapfrogged from a situation in which for instance, you are dealing with incidence forms. How many people know that incidence form has disappeared,” he said.

“We had an election in which many of the big pockets, for instance, the people who we believed had control, including those who were in government lost elections in which they were supposed to win.”

Also speaking, Garba Abari, director general of the NOA, said the country’s electoral process is evolving progressively.

“The innovations, the incremental reforms and the generally peaceful conduct that we witnessed before, during and after the elections are testimonies to the fact that even though our electoral process may not yet be where we wish it should be, it is certainly not where it used to be,” he said.

“It is therefore important to hold meetings like this which provide stakeholders an opportunity to review what worked in the election and what didn’t work, thus enabling us to make meaningful recommendations that will improve the electoral process.”