By NAOMI SHARANG

Some civil society organisations and political stakeholders have expressed mixed feelings on a proposal for the establishment of an independent agency for the conduct of local government elections.

Entitled “Local Government Independent Electoral Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024”, the proposed bill is before the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Sani Musa (APC-Niger).

According to the proposal, the proposed agency will be responsible for conducting elections to the office of the local government chairmen, councilors and any other related matters.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, a chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Ameh, said that the call was to make for a better management of the

“Section 197 of the Constitution gives the state independent electoral commissions the power to conduct local government election.

“Yet you find out that the process has been manipulated, we must find a proper solution to how to make sure that the interference by the governors is stopped,” he said.

The Co-Convener, Campaign for Transformative Governance, Mr Jaiye Gaskiya, suggested the expansion of the mandate of INEC to accommodate resources for it to be able to conduct elections directly.

“But I think to have another independent or autonomous agency to do local government elections while INEC conducts state and local government elections will be really too cumbersome and duplicating of effort.

Gaskiya further said that to address the issue, the constitution should either be amended to remove the provisions for state independent electoral commissions in that regard and saddle that responsibility with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Chief Spokesman Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation, Mr Yunusa Tanko, said that most of the state independent electoral commissions were not strong to conduct local government elections.

“You find out that most of the appointees are supporters or probably leaders of political parties that the governors pick as leaders of the state independent electoral commissions.

“People are calling for electoral reform that will go down the line and constitutional reform where the processes of appointing state electoral commissioners and national electoral commissioners are independent,” he said.

The Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Mr Auwal Rasfanjani, said that public institutions must be made to function effectively and efficiently.

He noted that having another body to conduct local government elections would amount to duplication of functions.

“We cannot be duplicating public institutions in the country. We are talking about reducing cost of governance and we are talking about revitalising confidence and integrity of our institutions.

“We cannot simply because we want to organise local government elections and then we create another body which will obviously undermine or waste public funds.

“Whatever it is, let the current institution organise free, fair and credible elections. They must be made to organise free fair and credible election.

“This will restore hope and confidence on the Nigerian people. But if we continue to balcanise and create all sorts of duplicated agencies, and yet results are not coming positively, I don’t think we have done justly.

“The existing structures and agencies that we have must be made to work and Nigerians must hold leaders accountable,” he said. (NAN)

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