LAGOS – Prof. Ademola Popoola, a former Dean, Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun, on Thursday said conduct of a credible elections in 2015 would strengthen Nigeria’s unity.
The don spoke in Lagos at seventh Annual Law and Social Development Lecture of Bamidele Aturu and Co., a Lagos-based law firm.
The lecture also marked the 50th posthumous birthday celebration of Aturu, who died on July 9 after a brief illness.
The lecture had the theme: “2015 General Elections: Making the People’s Votes Count: Prospects and challenges”.
“By organising free, fair and credible elections in 2015, Nigerian leaders will strengthen the unity of the country and prevent the doomsday prediction of the dissolution of the country,” he said.
The law teacher also called for creation of a separate court to adjudicate on electoral disputes in order to accelerate conclusion of cases.
He said : “The peculiar circumstance of Nigeria justifies the expedience of removing the determination of election disputes from the first instance jurisdiction of the ordinary courts of the land.
“The system of election tribunals separate from the ordinary courts definitely has a lot to commend itself.
“We should also not ignore the fact that, in most advanced democracies, the court is seldom called upon to determine between two candidates who actually won an election.
“This is because in these democracies, election rigging in its various forms – illegal voting, falsification of results and other forms of electoral fraud – is minimal if not generally unknown.’’
Prof. Okechukwu Ibeanu, the Chief Technical Adviser to the Independent National Electoral Commission, urged the Federal Government and Nigerians to work together toward the success of the polls.
Ibeanu said that implementation of electoral reforms in the country would ensure that the votes of Nigerians counted in 2015.
“Making people’s votes count is about electoral reforms. One of the major problems we have today is that very powerful reforms such as the Babalakin and Uwais reports are not fully implemented.
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“Also, there must be institutional reform of the electoral body itself. Lastly, we must improve the quality of conducting elections in Nigeria.
“Even if we get everything right, are elections enough in ensuring quality of people’s lives?
“Election is only one of the four things considered critical in raising the quality of people’s lives.
“These four are quality of citizenship, quality of the election, quality of justice and quality of governance.
“Until we do all these, the votes of the people may count, but it will count for nothing,” he said.
Earlier in an address of welcome on behalf of the firm, Mr Chisa Anyanwu, lauded the contributions of the late Aturu to the deepening of democratic governance and the rule of law in Nigeria.
Anyanwu said: “The general belief among the people is that the 2015 elections may present a war situation in the country and not an exercise for Nigerians to elect leaders of their choice.
“The aim of this lecture is to facilitate an understanding of the obstacles in the way of transparent and free elections in 2015, and how to overcome the problems so as to create a room for sustainable development in Nigeria.” (NAN)
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