Isaac Samuel
The head of the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) post-election mission, Davidetta Browne-Lansanah, has said lessons from Nigeria’s 2023 general elections are crucial to strengthening electoral management across West Africa.
She stated this during a follow-up and needs assessment visit to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja on Monday.
Browne-Lansanah was accompanied by the Deputy Chairman (Corporate Services) of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Dr. Bossman Asare; Acting Permanent Secretary of ECONEC and ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Division Head, Serigne Mamadou Ka as well as experts from GIZ, EISA, and International IDEA.
The meeting was aimed at reviewing Nigeria’s implementation of recommendations made by the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission (EOM) following the 2023 General Election.
Speaking earlier, INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission had reviewed all recommendations made by the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission (EOM) following Nigeria’s 2023 general elections.
According to Yakubu, INEC has taken steps on those within its administrative mandate while awaiting legislative action on others.
Yakubu said the observer mission had issued 37 recommendations in which 13 were addressed to INEC and 24 to other institutions, including the National Assembly, security agencies, regulators, civil society organisations, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), and political parties under the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC).
Yakubu explained that INEC had acted on recommendations requiring administrative measures and incorporated them into its 142 reform proposals now before the National Assembly, while legal aspects remain under parliamentary review.
“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”, Yakubu stated.
He added: “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.
Stressing that elections are a multi-stakeholder responsibility, Yakubu commended ECOWAS for its continued support.
Browne-Lansanah, who is also Chairperson of Liberia’s National Elections Commission, said the mission aimed to review Nigeria’s implementation of observer recommendations while drawing insights to improve regional electoral systems.
She added that the mission seeks to learn what happened, understand how INEC navigated 2023 election challenges, and apply those lessons to strengthen election management bodies across West Africa.
Her words: “We have come to see how best INEC has implemented those recommendations. We anticipate that during our engagement, we may be able to understand reasons for some of the issues that came out of the 2023 elections and how INEC was able to navigate in a way that it has found answers to those challenges that abound during the 2023 elections.
“We see this mission as a lesson learned, not just for INEC Nigeria, but also for our own institutions, our own election management bodies, because as we know, problems or challenges that are faced by any election management body are often faced by election management bodies throughout our region.
“And the fact that we can sit down and talk about what we went through and how it impacted on our work during elections, I think we may be able to use those recommendations again to better situate our individual election management bodies when we return to our various countries.
“So let me say on behalf of the team that we are happy to be here and we are happy for your warm welcome all the time. But let me go further to say that Liberia, the National Elections Commission, appreciates you in particular for your stance to ensuring that we do a good job as we have done here in Nigeria.
Browne-Lansanah who praised INEC for supporting electoral bodies within the sub-region, pointed out the role the commission played in equipping Liberia’s elections commission with a dedicated ICT facility.
She commended Yakubu and the entire INEC team for their commitment to democratic values and advancing electoral integrity not only in Nigeria but across the West African region
“We want to learn what happened, so that we use your expertise in dealing with the problems and challenges to better situate our individual election management bodies and processes”, she added.
