A report released by a coalition of over 70 human rights organisations under the aegis of the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room has indicated that the “over-militarisation of elections in Nigeria” was limiting vulnerable citizens from participating in elections in the country.
This, the group warned, may lead to voter apathy during the 2023 general election.
Human rights advocate, Clement Nwankwo, and other stakeholders made this known during the presentation of the report on inclusivity in Nigeria’s elections Thursday in Abuja.
regretted that security personnel during elections do not put certain factors into consideration when they shoot canons of teargas to disperse people or shoot sporadically into the air.
The report said, “The over-militarisation of elections in Nigeria, the study shows, is functionally limiting the communities of marginalized groups to participate in elections. For instance, the PWDs have special needs that require exclusive attention in situations of emergencies. security personnel often do not put into consideration when they shoot canons of teargas to disperse people or shoot sporadically into the air. This, the respondents consider as a harbinger.”
According to the report, marginalised and vulnerable groups in society consider the practice as a harbinger of electoral apathy.
The report revealed that one of the greatest concerns of the community of marginalized groups was the widespread disaffection by respondents about poor participation in the communication of Persons With Disabilities and Internally Displaced Persons in the legislative process.
The report also said that increasing the participation of the marginalised group in the electoral process would positively reflect their voices in policy decisions that affect them, adding that their numbers would significantly affect election turn-outs at the polls.
The report revealed a dearth of advocacy by core Civil Society Organisations for electoral inclusion at the grassroots level, regretting their inability to secure systemic support by government across boards in their attempts to engage international donor agencies that can be
useful in their drive for all-around inclusion.
According to the report, the government was not doing enough in the area of collaborations with relevant CSOs to engender political inclusivity, maintaining that the attitude was borne out of the fact that a great deal of the respondents especially marginalized groups do not know what to do and how to go about key processes such as voters registrations exercise.
The report said some of them do not also engage in the voting process because assistive devices were not provided for them at the voting points during elections, adding that most of the efforts of government in consolidating an inclusive electoral process were often thwarted by poor implementation framework and non-criminalization of violators of the electoral act.
According to the findings, the persons who administer elections significantly disenfranchise the communities of PWDs and IDPs and they are not subjected to any punitive sanction in that regard.
Also speaking, Deputy Country Director, MacArthur Foundation, Mark Ayo, urged relevant authorities to release adequate funds for the Independent National Electoral Commission to begin preparation in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
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