2023 election: ECOWAS harps on free, fair, credible polls

Ahead of the 2023 general polls, the ECOWAS Fact-Finding Mission for the Elections said that it is important to the African continent and beyond, stressing the need for free, fair and credible polls in Nigeria.

The mission, therefore, called on all stakeholders to play their roles to achieve democratic expectations.

The Head of the Mission and former Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Dr. Kwadu Afari-gyan, stated this on Friday when he led the mission on a courtesy visit to the Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and his campaign team at Liberty House Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, Lagos.

Members of the ECOWAS delegation include, Mr Mohammed Konnel, the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Sierra Leone; Dr Remi Ajibewa, Director, Political Affairs, ECOWAS and Dr Onye Orukuwa, Head of Peace and Mediation Unit, ECOWAS.

Others were: ASP Nuru Amidu, Head of ECOWAS Security and Mr Abu Turkey, Election Technical Expert, ECOWAS.

According to Afari-gyan, the need for free, fair and credible elections informed the mission’s visit to Nigeria and evaluate the process with attendant challenges.

“We (delegation) have been talking with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, security agencies and others. The mission will move to various zones in Nigeria to hear from the stakeholders.

“These elections are going to be very important, not only for Nigeria but to all of us in Africa and even beyond. We dare not fail. If we fail, it is going to spell doom far beyond Nigeria. That is how critical these elections are.

“For us, we want free, fair and credible elections but the words ‘free’ and ‘fair’ carry important contents- It must be free to do certain things and elections must be free from certain things.

“What should be fair, and who should be fair? We must think about all these,” the head of the mission said.

The leader stressed the need for all stakeholders to join hands together to ensure that the nation conducts elections that would be a model for the continent.

Afari-gyan, continued: “Most of the time, we are looking to the electoral commission, the election management body. An election is such a complex activity that many organisations have roles to play.

“At the end of the day, the way elections go depends to a large extent on how well various components play their role.

“Electoral Commission alone cannot achieve free, fair and election. It is a collective activity including the government.”

He added that government must bring in the money to conduct free and fair elections, saying “if the government failed to do its responsibility, the election would be deficient.”

Afari-gyan, therefore, urged the candidates to also comport themselves to prevent violence capable of disrupting the exercise.

According to him,”We cannot talk of elections without candidates. Candidates must conduct their campaigns, for example, in a way consistent with democratic expectations.

“The campaign must be free from violence, hate speech and abusive language. A candidate must be free to go everywhere in the constituency to campaign and try to convince the people he is the best.

“Let us remember that the electoral commission is not a kingmaker, it is the people. In elections, we talk about the sanctity of the votes. If you cast the votes, it must be counted the way it was cast and everybody who is qualified must be given the opportunity to vote.”

Afari-gyan said that a lot of lessons would be learnt from Nigeria by other members of the ECOWAS, who would be having elections in 2023, 2024 and so on.

“All of them will be impacted in one way or the other by what happens in Nigeria. So, please, let us commit ourselves to achieve free, fair and credible elections,” he said.

Afari-gyan, asked Jandor If there were challenges in his campaigns and getting his messages to the people through the press.

According to him, the team wanted to know where it could give moral support and advice to the government.

“We will talk to any political party that is willing to talk to us to know about their problems and candidates in the thick of the affairs,” he said.

Responding, Adediran, who commended the team for the visit, noted that the visit was a bit late because the election was a process and not an event.

According to him, the fact-finding mission should have also been in touch right from the voter registration exercise to see the challenges some groups faced in getting registered, saying some eligible voters were not able to register before the suspension of the exercise.

Adediran said, “Here, in Lagos State, we are in opposing camp because we have had a government in power for the past 23 years.

“What we are doing this time is to see how we can change the narrative and give the people of Lagos a breath of fresh air. I think people should have a free atmosphere to select their leaders in 2023.

“We understand that somebody, who wants to lose something will struggle but not to the point of infringing on people’s rights or going on the wrong side of the regulations of the exercise.

“We have a couple of experiences like this which we have taken to the court of public opinion, especially in the area of campaign materials “

The PDP candidate took the opportunity to narrate how his convoy was attacked last Sunday by political thugs and that people, including journalists, got wounded during campaign tours to various wards in the state.

“If the process leading to the day of elections appears so violent, then what do we expect on the day of elections?

“So, we thought that this nation will look at some of these things and see how we can interact with the authorities so that people can choose freely and fairly those they want to be their leaders.

 “We will continue to do our best and seek votes and canvass for support from the people because people want the change,” he said.

According to him, “if the ECOWAS mission is about the free and fair election, we must treat the election as a process and not as an event.”