The Chairperson of the National Elections Commission of Liberia, Mrs Davidetta Browne-Lansanah
The Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Dr. Bossman Asare
The Ag. Permanent Secretary of ECONEC, Mr. Serigne Mamadou Ka
Other Members of the Team from EISA, IIDEA, GIZ and ECONEC Secretariat
National Commissioners of INEC
Other Senior Officials of the Commission
The Chairman and Members of the INEC Press Corps
Ladies and Gentlemen
1. It is my pleasure to welcome our guests from the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) who are here to follow-up on the implementation of the recommendations made by the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission (EOM) to the last General Election in Nigeria held two years ago in February and March 2023. In particular, I would like to welcome my colleagues the Chairperson of the National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia, Mrs Davidetta Browne-Lansanah, who is the Head of the Post-Election Mission to Nigeria, and the Deputy Chair (Corporate Services) of the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana, Dr. Bossman Asare. I similarly welcome the Ag. Permanent Secretary of ECONEC and Head of the Electoral Assistance Division of ECOWAS, Mr. Serigne Mamadou Ka, for his consistent support to ECONEC in particular and commitment to the cause of elections in our region in general. It also my pleasure to welcome other members of the mission.
2. Let me start by commending ECOWAS for the partnership with ECONEC in deploying follow-up missions to member countries always led by a chairperson of an electoral commission. Nigeria has participated in many of these missions. In April this year, just three months ago, 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.
3. Election observation missions make their findings and recommendations public. They also deploy follow-up missions on the implementation of their recommendations. The Commission is glad that ECOWAS, which deployed both long-term and short-term EOM, recognises that election is a multi-stakeholder responsibility. Consequently, for Nigeria’s 2023 General Election, it made 37 recommendations for consideration by seven critical institutions and stakeholders in the electoral process. Of these recommendations, 13 are addressed to INEC while 24 require action by other institutions and stakeholders such as the National Assembly, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), civil society organisations, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and political parties under the auspices of their umbrella body, the Nigeria Inter-Party Advisory Council (PAC). Furthermore, the Follow-up Mission will also interact with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
4. Of the 13 observations specifically addressed to INEC, the Commission has considered all the recommendations that require administrative action to implement while 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 prepared a detailed response on each of the 13 observations, most of which are already contained in our 142 recommendations for electoral reform which resulted from wide-ranging consultations with critical institutions and stakeholders, a copy of which has already available on our website. The review report as well as the main 2023 General Election report and other relevant documents, are also available on our website. Nevertheless, hard copies of these reports and documents, have been included in your document bags for this meeting.
5. I cannot conclude my brief remarks without appreciating our development partners for facilitation and expert support. We welcome to Nigeria Lenny Taabu and Mathias Hounkpe supported by EISA, Emmanuel Kissi supported by IDEA and Michael Agada from the German international cooperation agency, GIZ. I must also commend the diligence of the staff of ECONEC Secretariat for the professional manner they have always carried out their assignments.
6. We look forward to a robust interaction at this meeting in the best interest of our elections and electoral process.
7. I thank you all.