Public Affairs Analyst

There are various actors and stakeholders in the electoral process. They are the Election Management Bodies (in Nigeria, we have two of them; namely, the Independent National Electoral Commission and State Independent Electoral Commissions), political parties and contestants, the media, the judiciary, the security agencies, the legislative assemblies, the accredited observers and the electorate. The EMBs are the umpires who are saddled with the responsibilities of orgnising, conducting and supervising the electoral process; the political parties field the players for the umpire. They produce and sponsor the contestants better known as candidates. The media educates the public on the activities of all the actors and stakeholders. The legislative assemblies produce the legal framework for the conduct of the elections, the judiciary adjudicates on election disputes, and the security agencies help to secure the electoral environment for the smooth conduct of the polls while the accredi...

This is a million dollar question. On the face of it I will say YES, it is desirable.   However, how feasible is it? Recently, on May 13, 2018 Sunday PUNCH published the report of a survey it conducted on whether there should be a law that will require presidential candidates to submit medical test reports before contesting the 2019 election. The poll went live at midnight on Friday, May 11. As of 5pm on Saturday, May 12, out of the 2,288 participants who took part in the poll, 89 per cent (2,037 respondents) indicated that they were in favour of a law demanding the medical status of candidates for the 2019 election. Conversely, up to 250 people, amounting to 11 per cent, said NO to the idea of such a law. According to The PUNCH, it ran the survey based on the frequent travel of President Muhammadu Buhari for medical treatment in the United Kingdom. The newspaper chronicled the president’s medical tourism since assuming office as follows: “Since assuming office on May 29, 2015,...

Periodic elections are one of the pillars of every democracy. Elections give the electorate, otherwise known as voters, the opportunity to either renew the mandate of the incumbent or replace them with a new set of leaders. The carrot and stick nature of election is perhaps the most glamorous thing about democracy. It is important to stress here that unlike the notion held by many people, including our political leaders, elections are not a day event but a process. Elections can be likened to a social activity like wedding which takes months or years to plan for but takes place over a day or two. The Independent National Electoral Commission served a two-year advance notice of 2019 general elections. The commission on March 9, 2017 informed Nigerians that the elections would hold on February 16 and March 2. It has even gone ahead to give dates of general elections for the next 55 years. It’s exactly 276 days to February 16, 2019 when the first set of elections are expected to be he...

The All Progressives Congress commenced election of new party executive members with the Ward Congress held last Saturday, May 5, 2018 across the country. Unfortunately, the party whose motto is Justice, Peace and Unity ended up with an exercise that was marred by widespread violence, alleged imposition of candidates, holding of parallel congresses, confusion and controversies. What happened last Saturday gave credence to the initial resolution of the party on February 27, 2018 when the National Executive Committee of the APC decided to extend the tenure of the current executives by a year, beginning from June 2018. It took the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari who asked the party to rescind that decision because it was illegal and unconstitutional before the party agreed to have elective congresses and convention. Initially, the party had scheduled the Ward Congresses for Wednesday, May 2, 2018; Local Government Congresses for Saturday, May 5, 2018; State Congresses for...

It is no longer news that the ruling All Progressives Congress has chosen the path of honour, constitutionalism and legality by publishing the timetable for its congresses. It will be recalled that in February, the National Executive Committee of the party resolved to extend the tenure of the National Working Committee members for a year starting from June 2018. However, President Muhammadu Buhari saved the day when he declared the controversial move as illegal and unconstitutional during the March 27, 2018 NEC meeting. Now, the party announced that the Ward Congresses will hold on May 5; Local Government Congresses on May 12, while the State Congresses will hold on May 19, 2018. However, there is a raging controversy on how the forthcoming party elections will be funded. Last Friday, online news portal, Premium Times, broke the news that the APC had asked each of its 24 state governors to donate N250m each for the purpose of funding the party’s congresses and convention. This wi...