A civil society organisation (CSO), Yiaga Africa, has said that the transparent conduct of the recent general elections in Ghana is a huge lesson for Nigeria and other countries in West Africa.
Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Mr Samson Itodo, stated this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
Itodo said even though Nigeria’s population is far bigger than that of Ghana, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could emulate some noticeable attributes in the conduct of Ghana’s elections.
“There are so many things Ghana can learn from Nigeria and there are so many things Nigeria can also learn from Ghana.
“It is important for Nigerians and the world to understand that the population of Ghana and its landmass cannot be compared to Nigeria.
“Nigeria has the largest database of registered voters in Africa, with about 93 million registered voters, compared to Ghana’s 18 million.
“If you think about our polling units, we have more than 174,000 polling units. So from an operational standpoint, you cannot compare the two countries.
“Now, when you think about what we can learn from Ghana, it is the level of transparency. The transparency of Ghana’s electoral commission was really unprecedented.’’ he said.
Apart from monitoring political activities in Nigeria, Itodo said that his organisation had also monitored elections in Ghana and other West African countries.
He stated that during the result collation process, polling agents or agents of political parties were given 20 minutes to scrutinise the results once they came from the field.
“They have to scrutinise the results, verify them before the Electoral Commission starts announcing the results. That is one level of transparency.
“The ballot boxes also had seals of each political party which were fixed before voting starts and before they started counting; if any seal is broken, you can actually say that the process has been tampered with,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ghana had its ninth general elections on Dec. 7, 2024.
The Electoral Commission of Ghana, headed by Mrs Jean Mensa, officially declared John Mahama of National Democratic Congress winner of the poll.
He said that early voting and adequate provision of security were other remarkable lessons from the country’s election.
Itodo also stressed the need for ballot papers to have the images of candidates, as done by Ghana Electoral Commission.
“The ballot papers should have all the logos of political parties and the images of the candidates; that will enhance the quality of choices that people make.
“And don’t expect civil society or the media to do your job for you. Nigerian political parties need to strengthen their system and engage elections from a professional and comprehensive manner,” he said.
Itodo said that Yiaga Africa deployed study missions to Ghana, with some delegates from Nigeria and South Africa to monitor how other countries are getting it right.
He said that the Nigerian delegation comprised two chairmen, chairs of the committees of INEC and Electoral Matters in the National Assembly and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President.
Itodo said it was a worthwhile experience and if all they noticed are implemented in the country, we would get more credible and transparent elections. (NAN)
