The Center for Democracy and Development, CDD, has warned that the rising insecurity, money politics, ethno-religion division in Nigeria are posing a serious threat to the 2023 general elections.
The CDD made this known in a report titled: ‘Nigeria’s presidential polls: A SWOT analysis’, signed by its Director, Idayat Hassan.
According to the report, the current security challenge in the country, if not checked, could be a threat to credible election in 2023.
“CDD warns that rising insecurity, misinformation, money politics, religion and ethnic narratives may undermine the credibility of the 2023 election, if not properly addressed.
“Holding credible polls in this context that guarantees the security of voters and INEC personnel will be a major challenge,’’ she said.
According to Ms Hassan, the 2023 general election is a significant logistical operation and there will be significant logistic challenges reaching the 176,846 polling units with election material.
She said that for such a far-reaching level of deployment to be successful, it would require the recruitment and training of close to 1.5 million poll and security officials about four times the size of the entire Nigerian military.
Ms Hassan said that the CDD report observed that the divisive factors of religion, money politics, and ethnicity among others have already played roles in shaping the emergence of the major party candidates.
She said the report pointed out that the Electoral Act 2022 had elicited prospects that could redefine elections in Nigeria.
Ms Hassan rated the legal framework in place for the election as robust and laudable; saying however, that the conduct of political actors would be critical if the benefits of such framework were to be enjoyed across the board.
She said that with political campaigns looming, key governance issues, such as insecurity would be a factor in the political calculations for the leading candidates as they traversed the country.
Ms Hassan said that money would continue to play a huge role in determining who emerged the winner if the presidential primaries and recent gubernatorial elections offered any lesson.
She added that online campaigns would be more fiercely fought than ever, with attacks aimed at boosting candidates, attacking opponents and undermining INEC during and even after voting.
Ms Hassan said that the SWOT Analysis revealed that cases of inconclusive election would be drastically reduced in 2023 as the new Electoral Act has defined over voting in terms of accredited voters as against registered voters.
She added that the new Act would also allow INEC to be able to review results signed under financial inducement or duress.
According to her, the report said that if INEC judiciously applied the use of technology as allowed by the Electoral Act, the transparency of the election will be improved.
Ms Hassan added that prompt release of the entire INEC budget could help mitigate some of the problems.
She said that the role played by the security agencies and subsequently by the judiciary, might be as crucial in determining the credibility of the election as that of the election management body.
