Shame of bad elections in Nigeria must stop, Falana tells Tinubu

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has called on President Bola Tinubu to ensure that the 2027 elections are credible and that “the shame of bad elections in Nigeria must stop.”

Falana made the call in an interview on Channels TV on Friday, where he said that successive regimes in Nigeria had set up electoral reform committees, but their recommendations had not been implemented.

Falana said that the appointment of card carrying members of political parties or loyalists of parties as Resident Electoral Commissioners or National Commissioners complicated INEC’s ability to have credible elections.

He said, “The commitment to have a credible elections in 2027, the shame of bad elections in Nigeria must stop and President Tinubu has a duty not only to encourage INEC to conduct good elections, he must also ensure that his promises to have credible elections in Nigeria.

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“As matter of fact, since 2007, successive regimes in Nigeria, Yar’Adua regime, Jonathan regime and Buhari regime have all set up electoral reform committees or panels to make recommendations that will assist the government to have credible elections.

“In the case of President Tinubu, as a leader of ACN, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu set up a committee to campaign for the implementation of the recommendations of Uwais Panel and one of them is that we must have independent umpires.

“You can’t have a card carrying member of a political party or a loyalist of a party to be a Resident Electoral Commissioner or a National Commissioner, you complicate for INEC to have credible elections.”

Falana reiterated his stance that judges should not determine the outcome of elections, given that Nigeria has the highest number of election petitions worldwide.

“We need to resolve that never again are we going to allow judges to determine or confirm the results of elections. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world, and that is why I repeatedly challenge my colleagues; are you aware that we have the largest number election petitions in the world?

“This year we recorded the lowest number of electron petitions since 2003, we have 436 petitions, in 2019 we had 807, in 2007, the worst elections we have ever conducted in Nigeria, Nigeria recorded 1,282 petitions.”