Abuja — The National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Engr Yabagi Sani, has disclosed that approximately 94% of elective offices in Nigeria's 2023 elections were expected to be determined through court verdicts due to flawed electoral laws.
This revelation was made during the presentation of the preliminary report of the IPAC 2023 Election Observation Mission (EOM) to the Liberia 2023 General Elections.
"There is a great deal of ambiguity in the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended), which fails to reflect what Nigeria truly deserves in conducting credible elections.
"These laws were not designed to ensure peaceful elections; rather, they are more like placeholders," said Sani.
He also highlighted a significant issue with Nigeria's current electoral process, stating that the majority of the petitions resulting from pre-election issues were primarily because political parties were confused and had insufficient time to grasp the amended laws, which were passed too close to the elections.
"We should not solely blame INEC or the politicians for the current situation. Instead, the National Assembly should be held accountable for providing us with a law that is excessively obscure," said Sani.
He also pointed out that the judiciary should have examined these issues with a greater understanding.
Meanwhile, he said that the IPAC EOM was impressed with the turnout for the election in Liberia, which was reported to be over 70%.
They attributed this high level of participation to a sense of patriotism and citizens' commitment to a national purpose.
In light of these observations, Sani laid out a program of action that IPAC intends to embark upon in the coming days.
This includes collaboration with other Nigerian political stakeholders to instil a firm commitment to democracy and nation-building, partnering with INEC to undertake a comprehensive audit of the voter register, and working with the National Assembly and INEC to amend the electoral legal framework.
The IPAC chairman further noted that unlike in Nigeria, Liberia's elections were not significantly influenced by primordial sentiments of religion and ethnicity due to the homogeneous history and background of its people.
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The IPAC EOM, consisting of party leaders from IPAC Nigeria, Action Democratic Party, Accord Party, African Democratic Congress, and All Progressives Congress, left Nigeria for Monrovia on October 7th and returned on October 11th after observing a successful and peaceful election in Liberia.
The trip was facilitated by Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, following a request by IPAC to learn from the experience of other countries to improve Nigeria's election process.
