By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja
NIGERIA Civil Society Situation Room and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) have reaffirmed their commitment to effective collaboration for promotion of the integrity, credibility, transparency, and accountability of elections in Nigeria.
The reaffirmation is contained in a communique issued at the end of an advocacy meeting of the two bodies to discuss issues bordering on electoral integrity in Nigeria on Friday at Pearl Jabi Lake Hotel, Abuja.
Signed by YZ Ya’u, Convener of the Situation Room and Alhassan Yahaya, National President, NUJ, the Communique called on all stakeholders in the electoral process to uphold democratic principles and ensure the integrity of elections in Nigeria.
According to the communique, the meeting brought together key stakeholders in the Media and Civil Society to discuss formidable and working partnership to promote credibility and accountability in Nigeria’s elections.
The meeting also aimed to foster a deeper understanding of election credibility, raise public awareness, and strengthen advocacy efforts for reform in Nigeria’s electoral processes.
The two bodies observed a number of key issues that negatively impact on elections in Nigeria creating anomalies that question the processes.
They include Persistent attack on journalists and the failure of security agencies to bring perpetrators to justice, Political influence on Media ownership and Reoccurring electoral malpractices as well as vote buying and result manipulation.
They also include Independence of INEC and SIECs, failure to unbundle INEC, proliferation of misinformation and fake news, particularly on digital platforms by political actors and influencers and Poor internal party democracy.
Others are Inconsistencies and unreliability of the Nigeria’s Voters’ Register, the necessity for adherence to ethical reporting standards to ensure balanced and fact based election coverage.
The Communique consequently, urged the Media to hold government and public officials accountable as enshrined in section 22 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and prioritize investigative and objective reporting.
It urged President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to ensure that all impending vacancies in INEC, are filled with persons not politically exposed adding that independence of the Judiciary and INEC must be protected.
It equally called for unbundling of INEC, urging the National Assembly to move Voter Education responsibility to the National Orientation Agency (NOA), and in same vein, mandate compulsory electronic transmission of election results.
It urged the Nigerian Police Force which is the lead agency saddled with election security to provide public updates on investigations and prosecution of perpetrators of attacks against journalists and observers.
The Communique called for demilitarization of elections, and protection of journalists covering elections while urging political parties to imbibe internal party democracy.
It also urged parties and their candidates to commit to issue-based campaigns, adhere to extant laws on political and campaign financing, and uphold the rule of law in operations and practices. (Ends)