Former Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has called on Nigerians to stop considering elections as a perfect exercise, saying the country should focus more on strengthening democratic institutions and improving the electoral processes.
Elections are complex exercises, especially in a large federation like Nigeria, with logistics that make it difficult to achieve perfection, said Fashola, a former Minister of Works, Housing and Power.
Fashola spoke on Friday at The Platform, a public policy forum in Lagos, as part of activities to mark Democracy Day, it was reported.
He said elections were critical to democracy but citizens and political actors needed to understand the challenges of conducting nationwide polls.
“Elections are not a perfect event because it requires a big logistical operation across a federation,” Fashola said.
“Presidential elections are a nationwide affair, with thousands of polling units to conduct the same process simultaneously, and with different local conditions.
Such a huge operation may have mistakes or shortcomings, he said, adding the challenge should be how to improve the system rather than undermine the public confidence in elections.
The reality of a presidential election is that all the polling units across the nation must be doing the same thing at the same time. “The question then is how we assign blame when things go wrong, especially when the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission cannot be everywhere at the same time,” he said.
Fashola said Nigerians should be fair in their assessment of electoral problems and should not blame the leadership of the electoral body for every operational failure.
He said electoral challenges are not peculiar to Nigeria, saying even older democracies have flaws in their electoral systems.
“Mature democracies know that elections may not always be perfect, but work to improve their institutions and processes over time,” he said.
“They tolerate these imperfections in other jurisdictions, and they want to do better but they also tolerate the outcome,” he said.
The former minister said Nigeria should also learn the discipline of strengthening its democratic system without constantly delegitimising outcomes of elections.
Losers Should Go into Opposition
Fashola also expressed concern about what he described as “widening” refusal by some political actors to accept election results after losing.
Such conduct, he warned, can jeopardize democratic development and the role of the opposition in national development.
“I think unwillingness to accept the result of an election perhaps makes the unsuccessful participants blind to seek and take up the role of opposition for the development of society,” he said.
Democracy, he said, doesn’t end with victory or defeat in the polls.
Opposition parties and unsuccessful candidates have important roles to play in holding the government accountable, offering alternative policies and contributing to the progress of society, he said.
Fashola also called on Nigerians to expand their perspective of democracy beyond elections and political battles.
“The country has to start asking itself the hard questions about the kind of democratic system it wants to build and sustain,” he said.
“If we are going to talk about democracy outside of elections, my question is: what kind of democracy do we want?,” he said.
The former governor said democratic maturity must not only be measured by the conduct of elections but also by the robustness of institutions, the respect for the rule of law, accountability in governance and the behaviour of political actors after elections.
Fashola said democracy can only grow when institutions are protected, strengthened and allowed to perform their roles without being undermined by political interests.
He said that citizens, leaders and political parties must continue to support systems that promote accountability, fairness and stability.
His remarks were part of broader discussions at The Platform on the state of democracy, governance, accountability in Nigeria, and the roles of leaders and citizens in keeping democratic institutions alive.
“Elections are still a key pillar of democracy but the real test of democratic progress is when institutions and citizens can sustain democratic values long after the ballots have been counted”, Fashola added.
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