The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation is calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), the Legislature and other stakeholders within the Nigerian political sphere to work towards eliminating barriers to civic participation in \u00a0Nigeria.
The Organisation in a recent report titled:\u00a0\u201cBarriers to Civic Participation in Nigeria – Edo and Ondo Election in Context\u201d, according to its spokesman, Mr. Wealth Dickson Ominab, noted\u00a0that Nigeria\u2019s elections since 1999 have been dogged by various factors such as violence, institutional weakness, political brigandage and lawlessness, monetization of elections and votes, electoral malpractices, ethnicity and voter apathy. These challenges \u00a0according to the report have \u00a0impacted on the credibility of elections in Nigeria.
\u00a0The report\u00a0 recommends \u00a0that :
\u201cGovernment should work towards limiting influence on the Electoral Management Body (EMB) and electoral process by ensuring total independence for the EMB and other agencies involved in the election process.
\u201cEMB should ensure concrete synergy with other stakeholders, especially security agencies, national assembly and political parties, as a way of building citizens’ confidence in the electoral process.
\u201cThe Legislature should give adequate legal framework for the improvement in electoral activities.
\u201cThe role of other government agencies involved in election matters should be clearly defined and systematized into the law, as a way of preventing arbitrary action or sabotage by some of the agencies.
\u201cEMB should work towards digitalizing the electoral process, especially the voting process.\u201d
The report noted that a flawed and non-credible voting process reflects an ineffective electoral \u00a0system.\u00a0 A faulty electoral system is an expression of faulty democratic process. This \u00a0democratic process \u00a0the report says throws up an electoral process that cannot ensure a credible voting system.
\u201cIf people have no real power to effect their wishes in the voting process, there will be loss of confidence in the electoral process, and this will engender a democracy that is neither participatory or beneficial, as the elected will not enjoy \u00a0the support and cooperation of the electors, while at the same time will see no reason to be accountable to them.\u201d
\u201cThis will again be reflected in subsequent electoral and voting processes, thus generating a vicious cycle of wrongful, non-representative, non-participatory, ineffectual and unbeneficial democracy. This can be a recipe for bigger social and political tension and crisis, as the legitimacy of the state is eroded.\u201d
The report also \u00a0identified various factors responsible for the persistent low voters\u2019 turnout in Nigerian elections. Some of the identified factors include institutional factors which have to do with the role and conduct of the election management body, security agencies and other government agencies involved in election conduct. Other factors include political factors which involve the role of politicians, the political parties and government, and the political environment; social and economic factors.
The report \u00a0highlighted \u00a0that the level of voter apathy is an indicator of the level of participation of citizens in the democratic process, submitting that voter apathy constitutes a \u00a0major crisis of credibility in Nigeria\u2019s democratic system.
\u201cThe turnout and voter apathy witnessed in the Edo and Ondo states dovetails with national trends since 1999. Aside from the 1999 and 2003 elections, all other elections have seen falling turnout in elections and growing voter apathy.
\u201cThe unfortunate situation in Nigeria, whereby citizens\u2019 participation in voting has been declining \u00a0in the last two decades calls for serious attention. As the study shows, voters\u2019 turnout in elections since 1999 has been reducing, safe for some few instances. This is also reflected in the elections in Edo State and Ondo State. While there were some positive improvements in the Edo governorship election which conferred more credibility on the electoral process, the issue of low voters\u2019 turnout remains endemic, with just 25.5 percent of registered voters actually casting their ballots.\u201d
On the effect of voter apathy to democracy, the report stated that:
\u201cWhen citizens lose interests in elections, it also reflects on their interests in governance. While low participation in elections are sometimes caused by poor governance; citizens\u2019 estrangement from electoral activities, especially voting, further worsens the quality of governance, and undermines political legitimacy. This further emboldens politicians to undermine the electoral process and \u00a0governance.
The report called on \u00a0governments at all levels to \u00a0implement pro-people policies in order to build citizens\u2019 interests in the political process.
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The Goodluck Jonathan Foundation is calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), the Legislature and other stakeholders within the Nigerian political sphere to work towards eliminating barriers to civic participation in \u00a0Nigeria. The Organisation in a recent report titled:\u00a0\u201cBarriers to Civic Participation in Nigeria – Edo and Ondo Election in Context\u201d, according to its spokesman, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}