Nigerian local government elections have been characterized as electoral coronations by YIAGA Africa, a non-profit civil society organization.
Samson Itodo, the organization’s executive director, made this claim on Monday while answering questions during an interview on Channels Television’s “Sunrise Daily” program.
“I want to restate something that YIAGA Africa has said repeatedly. Every local government election that took place both before and after the Supreme Court’s ruling was a complete and utter mockery of electoral democracy.
Almost all of those elections violated the various legal provisions. To put it another way, they broke the Electoral Act, and I doubt that all of them will pass muster if you contest the legitimacy of those elections in court.
The second point is that elections are held at the local government level, and the results are nothing more than electoral coronation. Since the state electoral commissions lack the authority to operate independently, they are not elections. The governor’s approval is required for operational independence,” he stated.
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