The Nigerian Senate recently proposed a bill for the establishment of the Local Government Independent Electoral Commission (LGIEC). The bill, which was sponsored by the senator representing Niger East, Sani Musa, came about a week after the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to withhold allocations of local governments under caretaker committees appointed by governors. The bill is titled, "Local Government Independent Electoral Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024 (SB. 531)."
Reacting to the bill, the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) rejected the proposal which will take over the functions of the State electoral commissions. The National Publicity Secretary of IPAC, Mrs Chinyere Ogeh Kalu, said creating the commission will lead to unnecessary duplication of efforts and resources. State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) are established in Section 197 (1b) of the 1999 Constitution as State Executive bodies alongside the State Civil Service Commission and State Judicial Service Commission.
It would be recalled that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had, during a courtesy visit paid on him by the executive members of the Forum of State Independent Electoral Commissions (FOSIECON) on May 22, 2024, interrogated the integrity and credibility of elections conducted by SIECs saying, "The conduct of local government elections in virtually all the states of the federation has become mere coronation of candidates of the ruling parties."
Similarly, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, on May 27, 2024, called for the scrapping of SIECs. He made the call while speaking at a national dialogue on "Nigeria's Security Challenges and Good Governance at the Local Government Level," organised by the House of Representatives in Abuja.
Some of the critical challenges that characterise local government elections include rigging, which has always been done under the watch of security agencies. The judiciary, in its misuse of legal instruments, has equally not helped to improve the quality of elections at this level. Lack of internal democracy within political parties, including ruling parties, also remains a challenge.
Other apparent challenges of the SIECs include poor infrastructure, improper constitution of the electoral commissions in some states, and the usurpation of the basic functions of the commissions by government officials. Nigerian voters have since lost confidence in the elections conducted by the SIECs.
With all the inadequacies and failures of the SIECs, the creation of the LGIECs to replace the existing SIECs will make no difference as long as it would be the same Nigerians who, as electoral officers, presiding officers, returning officers, party agents, and security personnel who were part of SIECs' elections, that would yet be involved in the elections to be conducted by the proposed LGIECs. Indeed, the proposed LGIECs would only seek to multiply the current peccadilloes of SIECs, particularly the masterminding roles of state governors who discreetly determine winners in the local government elections.
In some states, for instance, the SIECs are constituted on the eve of local government elections and rendered redundant shortly after the exercise. Besides, most SIECs rely on INEC for basic electoral materials, including ballot boxes and voting cubicles; all because they are poorly funded by their respective state governments.
The mere fact that SIECs completely depend on INEC's voter register, iREV, BVAS, ballot boxes, and other resources to conduct local government elections, is enough justification to insinuate that the situation would not change even when they are replaced with the proposed LGIECs. It is public knowledge that SIECs have since their establishment remained an appendage to sitting governors.
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Instead of creating a new commission that would add no value to the electoral system at the local level, Daily Trust believes that what the country needs is not SIECs or LGIECs but a truly independent INEC to conduct credible elections, including local government elections. Spending time to critically examine the electoral value chain with a view to strategically addressing the problems associated with elections at the local level is better than wasting legislative time on a bill to create LGIECs.
While the government is encouraged to effectively strengthen INEC to deliver credible elections at all levels in the country, INEC is urged to synergise with relevant agencies, including the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to re-orientate all stakeholders for free, fair and transparent elections at the local level. With a credible INEC and given its capacity, there will, we wish to emphasise, be absolutely no need for the existing SIECs or the proposed LGIECs.
