By EMMANUEL OLONIRUHA

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has implemented all administrative recommendations made by the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission (EOM) after the 2023 general elections.

The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made the disclosure in Abuja during a meeting with a post-election follow-up and needs assessment mission from the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the visiting ECONEC mission was led by the Chairperson of the National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia, Mrs Davidetta Browne-Lansanah.

The team was In Nigeria to assess the level of implementation of the 2023 EOM report.

Yakubu stated that out of 37 recommendations made by the ECOWAS mission, 13 were specifically addressed to INEC.

He added that the remaining 24 were directed at other key institutions, including the National Assembly, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and political parties.

Other stakeholders according to him include; National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Civil Society Organisations, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC).

“Of the 13 observations specifically addressed to INEC, the commission has considered all the recommendations that require administrative action to implement.

“We are waiting for the conclusion of the ongoing legal review by the National Assembly on aspects of the recommendations that require legislative intervention.

“The commission has also prepared a detailed response on each of the 13 observations.

“Most of the observations are already contained in our 142 recommendations for electoral reform which resulted from wide-ranging consultations with critical institutions and stakeholders and the information is on our website.

“The review report as well as the main 2023 general elections report and other relevant documents are also available on our website,’’ Yakubu said.

Yakubu, however, commended ECOWAS for the partnership with ECONEC in deploying follow-up missions to member countries.

He said that INEC was glad that ECOWAS, which deployed both long-term and short-term EOM, recognised that election was a multi-stakeholder responsibility.

“Nigeria has participated in many of these missions.

“In April this year, I was involved in a similar mission to the Republic of Gambia together with my colleague from Sierra Leone and some of the election experts present today.

“Today, it is our turn to host our colleagues from Liberia and Ghana leading a team of international election experts. In this sense, today’s mission is a routine practice but very critical to electoral democracy in our region,’’ he said.

In her remarks, Browne-Lansanah, said that the mission’s visit was a peer-to-peer review of its presence during the 2023 elections.

She said it was to see how INEC had been able to implement recommendations offered as well as how it was able to address the challenges experienced during the 2023 general elections.

Browne-Lansanah said the aim was to use Nigeria’s expertise in dealing with the problems or challenges to better situate of elections in members country.

“We see this mission as a lesson learned, not just for INEC Nigeria but also for our institutions, election management bodies.

“We know, problems or challenges that are faced by any election management body are also faced by other election management bodies throughout the world.

“The fact that we can sit and talk about what we went through and how it impacted on our work during elections, we may be able to use those recommendations to better situate our individual election management bodies when we return to our various countries,” he said.

She said that ECONEC members were ready to learn.

Browne-Lansanah, on behalf of the Liberia’s NEC, appreciated Yakubu and Nigeria in ensuring that their country did a good job as was done in Nigeria.

“More importantly, INEC has supported through material sharing with the National Elections Commission in Liberia.

“Because of your intervention, we now have an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) room basically supported by your efforts.

“When we needed support, we realised that ECONEC was there for us. And through ECONEC and its principles and ideas, Nigeria actually responded to our needs,” she said.

The ECONEC delegation also included the Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Dr Bossman Asare and acting Permanent Secretary of ECONEC, Mr Serigne Ka.

Others were representatives from international partners such as the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IIDEA) and the German Development Agency (GIZ). (NAN)