Stakeholders under the auspices of The Electoral Forum on Friday began a two-day meeting to tackle critical issues on Nigerian electoral reforms: Political Campaign Finance and related matters.
The Electoral Forum began on Friday, 21 January 2022.
The Electoral Forum is an initiative of The Electoral Hub that pools resource persons from electoral management bodies (EMBs) together with other electoral stakeholders to conceptualise solutions to the unique problems facing electoral governance in Nigeria. It is chaired by Professor Bayo Olukoshi.
The aim of the Forum is to deepen understanding of the electoral process in Nigeria, as well as to provide solutions to improve electoral integrity and credibility.
The policy roundtable, which is supported by MacArthur Foundation, is being held to discuss the issue of campaign finance, including how best practices from around the world can inform efforts to improve regulation and monitoring of campaign finance in Nigeria.
The meeting was organised to address the growing influence of money in Nigerian politics, especially in light of the increased limits on election expenses in the Electoral Bill 2021.
The objectives of the meeting were outlined below:
• To analyse the concept of campaign finance
• To explore best practices from around the world
• To discuss challenges from the Nigerian perspective
• To make recommendations to address these challenges
Those who attended the roundtable discussion include Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate; Professor Julius Ihonvbere, member of the House of Representatives; Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Professor Attahiru Jega, former Chairman of INEC; Professor Mohammad Kuna, Special Adviser to the INEC Chairman; Forum members including retired National Electoral Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners, Deputy Secretaries, and Directors of INEC; and other highly distinguished persons.
The meeting will feature discussions on best practices of campaign finance, provisions relating to campaign finance in the Electoral Bill 2021, perspectives from the EMB and civil society on monitoring campaign finance, and the implications of campaign finance on inclusion. These rich discussions will be used to produce outputs, to be released on the Forum page: https://electoralhub.iriad.org/electoralforum. Stakeholders in the electoral process are urged to join the Forum in the advocacy for better electoral governance in Nigeria.
