By John Ikani
Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, yesterday, declared that a perfect electoral law won’t guarantee free and fair elections if other components of the country’s electioneering process remain flawed.
Omo-Agege said this at the public presentation and inaugural meeting of the Electoral Hub, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
The deputy senate president who was represented by Dr Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser on Legal and Constitutional Matters, argued that a good electoral process could only be sustained if founded on adequate electioneering culture.
What Omo-Agege said:
According to him, “No matter how good the clauses are in the electoral law, if other aspects of the electioneering process are flawed, the electoral process itself will ultimately be flawed,” he said.
“While there have been many more issues in our electoral history, it seems to me that if we have had adequate and unambiguous clauses, plus adequate advocacy, understanding and the will to comply, we would have had less controversies, fewer post-election court cases and generally, a more credible electoral process.
“This is to say that we need adequate and generally acceptable rules of engagement in the electioneering process.
“I refer to how candidates emerged on party platforms, campaign rally rules, and generally political actions toward a fair and credible political participation by voters.
“I am glad, for instance, that the National Assembly is now dealing with the issue of direct primaries”.
While canvassing direct primary mode, Omo-Agege said direct primaries would have stronger salutary consequence on the challenges of selecting delegates at primaries, which he said, had been a sore point in Nigeria’s electioneering process.
