As arrangements for the 2023 general elections gets underway, Nigeria’s foremost election observation coalition, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), has declared readiness to mobilize its members across the country to engage critical aspects of the process to ensure successful transition.
The election monitoring body
vowed to utilize its experience and expertise on elections to help
strengthen Nigeria’s democracy, promote citizens participation in all stages of
the process and strengthen good governance, especially at a time citizen’s
faith in democracy appears to be waning as a result of the failure of the
political elite to meet the expectations of Nigerians across various strata of
the society.
Speaking at a strategy planning meeting organized by the
coalition to reflect on its place in the Nigerian civic space and to relaunch
itself, TMG chairman, Mr. Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, noted that there were several
aspects of the electoral process, which the TMG would immediately move to work
on, given its numerous advantages and over two decades experience in election
observation and promotion of democratic governance.
The Strategy Planning Meeting brought together TMG leaders
and members from the six geo-political zones of Nigeria, past leaders, and
former members of staff of the coalition, to discuss its legacies, successes
and challenges recorded in recent years.
Participants at the meeting unanimously concluded that
despite the challenges and setbacks encountered by the coalition in recent
years, it remained relevant in the Nigerian civic space, especially with the
critical 2023 general elections fast approaching. They identified short and
long term strategies for relaunching the coalition to enable it re-enact its
award-winning performance in election observation in the previous election
cycles in Nigeria.
Some of the proposed identified areas to work on include,
voter education in the pre-election period, especially around the recently
amended Electoral Act 2022, linking election observation to good governance,
campaign finance issues, as well as interfacing with key electoral
stakeholders, particularly the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), with the goal of enhancing the credibility of the process.