Former military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar retired, has called for immediate reforms in the Nigerian elect-oral laws if Nigerians must restore their confidence in our nascent democracy.
In a paper presented at the seminar organised by the Independent National Elec-toral Commission the former Nigerian leader said that Nigerians have lost faith in the electoral process due to the manipulations that came under various shades with the connivance of the electoral officials.
Outlining what makes election to be credible before the stakeholders in the electoral processes, he decl-ared that elections must be generally accepted as free and fair by the majority of voters and foreign and domestic observers, stating that “most of the elections in Nigeria cannot be said to meet this criteria.
According to him, rigging of elections begins at the primary election level when the election is turned to selection within the parties and role of money and money bags come to play.
He added that the laws setting up INEC, its constitu-tions and composition are at the whims and caprices of the party in power as the electoral body is dependent on the executive rather than the National Assembly for its funding.
The former head of State explained that Nigerians are frustrated by the electoral dishonesty in Nigeria and have lost confidence in the electoral process, noting that the “charade of the 2003 elections” necessitates the need for electoral reforms.
The former head of state who spoke in favour of indep-endent candidates, said the new election law sent to the national assembly must cons-ider the necessity for legitim-ising the proposal and should move ahead to enshrine it in the constitution.
“It is difficult to explain why independent candidature is not allowed so that those who do not want to belong to the political parties have an alternative route to power,” he argued.
Offering suggestions for the consolidation of demo-cracy, General Abdulsalami advised that INEC should only be responsible for the presidential and National Assembly elections, while state Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECS), should concern themselves with organising and superv-ising gubernatorial and state assembly elections only.
The statesman also suggested that city and town councils should take care of local elections, while elect-oral disputes can be heard by men of honour selected on their personal merits to allow the judiciary shed their excess burden except in extreme cases.
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