The Economic Community of West African States Network of Electoral Commissions, ECONEC, has carried out an assessment visit to Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to encourage a full implementation of 13 key recommendations it made from the 2023 general elections.
The visit, which comes as legislative review of some recommendations remains pending at the National Assembly, was described by the Head of ECONEC, Mrs. Davidetta Browne-Lansanah, as a peer-to-peer engagement focused on reviewing the extent to which INEC has responded to recommendations from the ECOWAS Election Observation Mission, EOM.
Browne-Lansanah, who also serves as Chairperson of the National Elections Commission, NEC, of Liberia, spoke in Abuja on Monday when she led the delegation of the regional assessment team on the post-election follow-up and needs assessment mission to INEC.
According to her, the mission was equally an opportunity for reflection and learning.
“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,” she said.
She stressed the importance of mutual learning across election management bodies in West Africa, noting that challenges encountered by one body are often shared across the 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 said.
Browne-Lansanah also expressed deep appreciation for Nigeria’s continued support to Liberia’s NEC, particularly in capacity-building and material support.
“More importantly, INEC has supported through material sharing with the National Elections Commission in Liberia. Because of your intervention, we now have an ICT room, basically supported by your efforts.
“And I get emotional, sorry, when I speak about these years, because when we needed support, we realized that ECONEC was there for us.
“And through ECONEC and its principles and ideals, Nigeria actually responded to our needs. So I want to ask you to give a round of applause for Professor Mahmood and the Commissioners and the team of INEC Nigeria,” she said.
Earlier, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to regional electoral improvement, noting that INEC had already reviewed all 13 recommendations addressed to it, especially those that require only administrative action.
Yakubu however, disclosed that some recommendations requiring legislative amendments are still pending with the National Assembly.
He stressed the significance of election follow-up missions and Nigeria’s active participation in similar efforts in other ECOWAS states.
“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.
“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,” he said.
The INEC Chairman also disclosed that the ECOWAS observation mission made 37 recommendations following the 2023 elections.
He added that of the recommendations made,13 were directed at INEC, while the remaining 24 were meant for other critical stakeholders including the National Assembly, Nigeria Police Force, National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, NITDA, civil society groups, the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, and political parties.
“The Commission has prepared a detailed response on each of the 13 observations, most of which are already captured in our 142 recommendations for electoral reform,” the INEC Chairman added.
Yakubu assured that all related documents, including the 2023 general election report, are available on INEC’s website, and hard copies had been provided to the ECONEC team for reference.
Also present at the meeting were the Deputy Chair, Corporate Services, of Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Dr. Bossman Asare, and Acting Permanent Secretary of ECONEC and Head of ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Division, Mr. Serigne Mamadou Ka.
The ECONEC post-election mission is part of an institutionalised effort by ECOWAS to strengthen electoral integrity, democratic governance, and peer learning among member states. Nigeria’s hosting of the delegation reflects its central role in the sub-region’s democratic development.
The delegation is expected to hold discussions with other Nigerian institutions, including the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, to further assess how inter-agency collaboration contributed to the electoral process.
