Tinubu must stop shame of bad elections in Nigeria – Falana

Tinubu must stop shame of bad elections in Nigeria – Falana

 Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has urged President
Bola Tinubu to put a stop to what he (Falana) described as as “the shame of bad
elections in Nigeria must stop.”

 

Falana stated this in an interview on Channels TV on Friday.

 

He said successive regimes in Nigeria had set up electoral
reform committees, but their recommendations had not been implemented.

 

According to Falana, appointment of card-carrying members of
political parties or loyalists of parties as Resident Electoral Commissioners
or National Commissioners complicated INEC’s ability to have credible
elections.

 

He said, “The commitment to have credible elections in 2027
and the shame of bad elections in Nigeria must stop, and President Tinubu has a
duty not only to encourage INEC to conduct good elections, he must also ensure
that his promises to have credible elections in Nigeria are kept.

 

“As a matter of fact, since 2007, successive regimes in
Nigeria—the Yar’Adua regime, the Jonathan regime, and the Buhari regime—have
all set up electoral reform committees or panels to make recommendations that
will assist the government to have credible elections.

 

“In the case of President Tinubu, as a leader of ACN,
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu set up a committee to campaign for the implementation
of the recommendations of the Uwais Panel, and one of them is that we must have
independent umpires.

 

“You can’t have a card-carrying member of a political party
or a loyalist of a party to be a Resident Electoral Commissioner or a National Commissioner;
you complicate for INEC to have credible elections.”

 

Falana stressed that judges should not determine the outcome
of elections, given that Nigeria has the highest number of election petitions
worldwide.

 

He said, “We need to resolve that we are never again going
to allow judges to determine or confirm the results of elections. It doesn’t
happen anywhere in the world, and that is why I repeatedly challenge my
colleagues: Are you aware that we have the largest number of election petitions
in the world?

 

“This year we recorded the lowest number of electron
petitions since 2003; we have 436 petitions; in 2019 we had 807; in 2007, the
worst elections we have ever conducted in Nigeria, Nigeria recorded 1,282
petitions.”

 

 

Source: Tinubu must stop shame of bad elections in Nigeria – Falana

 - NigerianEye

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