Group Seeks Adoption of Citizens’ Priorities In Electoral Amendment Bill

The National Assembly has been urged to adopt a set of citizens’ priorities for the 2021 Electoral Amendment Bill.

Executive Director of the International Press Centre (IPC), Mr. Lanre Arogundade made the call at a joint press conference in Lagos on Tuesday.

The IPC in a coalition involving other Civil Society Organisations with support of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) in line with their constitutional mandate have been monitoring governance and holding the government accountable to the people for the citizens-driven electoral reforms in Nigeria.

The group had held a similar conference at the premises of the National Assembly, Abuja to drum support for the adoption of citizens’ priority as the electoral amendment Bill gets underway.

Arogundade who sought the support of the Nigerian media on the electoral reform Bill wants the media to ensure that the National Assembly is made accountable to stakeholders in the electoral process by making amendment to the current Electoral Act.

According to him, among the stake holders that should be included are the civil society, the women, the youths, the people living with disabilities and the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“Any amendment that fails to reckon with the demands of these groups will not help to strengthen the electoral process,” he said.

At the press conference coming at the wake of the 2021 World Press Freedom Day, Arogundade said, “The electoral law must empower the media and that is why we want to once again draw the attention of members of the National Assembly to the proposals contained in one of the memoranda submitted to it.

The group is however demanding the recognition of distinction between and provision for free access and paid access for political parties and candidates to the media during election campaigns.

It is also pushing that the public media (broadcast and print) should provide equitable airtime/coverage to all political parties and candidates during election campaigns under both free and paid access arrangements.

On the marginalised groups, the coalition is agitating that the public media should grant the usually underserved and marginalised groups including women and people with disabilities special discounted airtime/advert rates during election campaigns and that the media should publish airtime/space tariffs before, during and after elections.

Also, Arogundade said the penalty for contravention of the provisions in Section 100 should be restricted to the offending entity (the media house) and it should not be extended to the ‘principal officers’ and ‘other officers’ of the media house.

He however stated that, “The above demands reflect our rejections of the proposed amendments to the Electoral Act in the Bill before the National Assembly especially in section 100(6 (a) of the Bill proposing that the fine for media houses be increased to N2m in the first instance and N5m upon subsequent conviction  and Section 100 (6) (b) proposing that: ‘Principal Officers and other Officers of the media house to a fine of N2m or to imprisonment for a term of 12 months.”

The group however placed its demands which include strengthening the financial and operational independence of INEC, publication of polling unit level results by INEC to promote transparency in the result process and legitimising the use of technology in the electoral process through electronic accreditation of voters, electronic voting, electronic collation and transmission of results.

Other demands of the group include introduction of stiffer sanctions for electoral offences and establishment of the Electoral Offences Commission, improving election security and comprehensive regulation of the conduct of security personnel on election day, introduction of early voting for Nigerians on essential election duty and voting rights for Nigerians in the diaspora, eliminating judicial actions/proceedings that ridicule or make a mockery of citizens will and choices to election representatives.

In his own comment, Dr. Akin Akingbule said it is an opportunity for the media to fight its own cause and should unite to do so.

“This is an opportunity for the media to fight its own cause and the cause of the society,” Akingbule said.

Stating further, he said, some of the laws are hidden and if not well read, one may not see the dangers in them.

“The National Assembly cannot hide, except you are very careful you won’t see some of these things tucked away except you are very careful. So this is an opportunity for the media to fight its own cause, we must fight the cause of the society. Some people cannot just sit somewhere and criminalise media practice,” he argued.

Also at the event, President of Lagos State chapter of the Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union of Nigeria (RATAWU), Comrade Dare Durosimi, joined to reject the amendment of the electoral Act, especially where it proposed imprisonment for certain officers of the press.

“Targeting the senior officers to imprison them is what we are rejecting. We know that during election period, everything is political.

“The over 90 political parties we have may not even have enough airspace to accommodate them while we know that some of them are so strong. But for any ruling party that will come against the media, in the implementation of law, we have so many things involved.

“There are many things that the government is supposed to do that it is not doing. Like the implementation of the minimum wage. So how are we sure when they put these things into the law that they won’t use it against the media house which is not supporting their cause?

“So as a union, we are rejecting it totally, we don’t want our members to be imprisoned for nothing. I also want to appeal to our media houses to see that these are the issues we need to look into. We are also agitating for life insurance for the journalists, media owners should take this as important. Violence during election is always high so media houses should provide life insurance,” he said.

Chairperson of the Lagos chapter of National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Mrs. Adeola Ekine enjoined women to be their sisters’ keepers.

“Women should support each other. We should not only seek support from our male counterparts, we should start from ourselves. We should support ourselves and I believe when we do, we would be a force to reckon with in Nigeria,” she said.

Founder of the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities, Mr. David Anyaele at the event talked about access to voter education for people in his constituency.

According to Anyaele, “Where there is no access, exclusion is inevitable. I want to ask that the media should serve as our ears, our eyes and our legs. Let us ask questions, by so doing, we can say that we are not just doing our civic obligation, it is also a spiritual mandate by speaking for the voiceless.

Other members of the coalition include Institute for Media and Society (IMS), Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), CLEEN Foundation, Inclusive Friends Association, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Nigeria Women’s Trust Fund, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), The Albino Foundation and Yiaga Africa.