Democracy
Support
NeGSt is committed to working with both
government, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders to mainstream
transparency and efficient delivery of electoral support services in Nigeria.
Nigerians have become used to elections being decided even before a single vote
is cast, usually by a political godfather.
Party primaries remain a shady arena, and the
manner in which the incoming president or state governors’ rise to power across
the board evokes images of a successor being hand-picked rather than elected
through the vote of the electorate. Looking at the history of electoral
violence in Nigeria, the Crisis Group and election situation room, in its 2018
report stated that about 4,000 lives were lost in elections conducted from 2006
to 2015, with casualty levels increasing in each election cycle. Even with
significant military and police presence, Nigerian elections are rarely
peaceful. And some would say this is so because of the winner-takes-it-all
mentality of the political establishment. All of which breed despondency in the
mind of the average Nigerian voter, who begins to question the validity of
election results and the logic in partaking in this quadrennial democratic
ritual. Why risk your life to cast a ballot that will not count? Why register
to vote when the entire polling infrastructure will be set ablaze.
As a result of the inextricable link between
elections and good governance, NeGSt has decided to focus on measures aimed at
confirming when free and fair elections occur in Nigeria as a means of ensuring
transparency in governance. NeGSt is thus collaborating with the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) as well as the German Parliamentary
Partners and such other pro-democracy support partners for the purpose of
implementing a sustainable training program for domestic non-partisan Election
Monitoring Organizations, involving youths, men and women, to enhance the
credibility of election observation and ultimately, the credibility of the
elections.
Our objective in this regard is to empower in
a sustainable manner, domestic election observers in Nigeria with skills
necessary to conduct non-partisan election monitoring for every election in
Nigeria.
