Concern Over Credibility Of Election Observer Reports

Concerns have been raised over the credibility of election observer groups’ reports, as most of them are believed to have been compromised during the election partly due to their ownership, among other considerations.

Elections in Nigeria are always saturated with observers deployed by different groups. For the 2023 general election, 146,913 domestic and international observers were deployed. About 1,000 of them are expected at the Edo governorship election this Saturday.

While most of the groups that deploy observers do not submit reports at the end of the exercise, as disclosed recently by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, some that turned in reports are being questioned for credibility.

Yakubu, while addressing Civil Society organisations recently said, “While many of you submitted their reports, some accredited observers have yet to do so for the last general elections, supplementary elections, off-cycle elections, by-elections, and re-run elections.

“May I, therefore, seize this opportunity to remind those yet to submit their observation reports that it is a mandatory condition for eligibility to observe future elections.”

Speaking with LEADERSHIP, the coordinator of the Foundation for Sustainable Development and Inclusive Growth, Jude Uzoma, admitted that reports by some election observer groups are compromised because of political affiliation and financial inducement.

Uzoma said that just as corruption has permeated all facets of Nigerian national life, it equally impacts election observations, with some groups, due to a paucity of funds, being influenced by their sponsors or the highest bidders.

“As people will say, corruption is hydra-headed, and when you are fighting corruption, it is fighting back and in virtually all facets of our national life – religion, economy, politics itself, the market and all that, even in the ivory towers.

“None is insulated from corruption and so also civil society organisations working with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as either foreign observers or domestic observers. You find a lot shenanigans, some observer groups which are in favour of certain political interests. Some of them supported the PDP against the APC during election observation time.

Tell me where these kinds of people will tilt their reports towards. You will find political parties even partnering with CSOs. Political parties are paying some of the CSOs.

“My advice will go to the electoral umpire and even the international organisations. They are sponsoring some CSOs, but in the country, some of those sponsored and INEC said don’t sponsor CSOs. The so-called foreign observers who come into the country are sponsored by some government agencies abroad.

“Let me give you an example: the UN and ECOWAS; there are government organisations that get their funding from sovereign states. Are they not the government as well? So my advice to INEC is that even if they don’t give CSOs, it accredits 100% sponsorship, it can give them 50%. As an accredited observer group by INEC for several elections, I can tell you for free that reports are usually influenced,” he added.

A lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the Federal University of Kashere, Gombe State, Dr Terna Vincent Tavershima, said that as human beings, election observers have their own biases, which could be reflected in the reports they submit at the end of electoral observation.

He said, “Elections everywhere in the world, including even the United States of America, are at a point not transparent. Those who observe elections are also human beings, and there is this tendency of bias in every human being when issues are discussed, whether political, economic, or social.