Nigeria needs elections with no party agents monitoring – IPAC

The Lagos State Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Mr Olusegun Mobolaji, says Nigeria needs an improved electoral system in which elections will be conducted without being monitored by agents of political parties.

Mobolaji made this remark in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday in Lagos.

He added that stakeholders must tackle money politics in Nigeria.

He called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to come up with strategies that would make elections to be conducted creditably and acceptably without the need for monitoring by party agents.

He said that party agents, sometimes, compromised elections at various polling units or wards.

He added that some political parties lacked the financial strength to hire agents for election monitoring.

“We should get to a point in 2027 in this country where elections are conducted without political parties’ agents.

“In fact, if we get to that point where the electoral umpire can be so much believed to be fair to all parties and it can conduct credible polls without being monitored by anyone, the better for us.

“Let us improve in our elections and let INEC do the job without being influenced.

“Let people vote while INEC counts as it is, without being influenced by any agents.

“Let it be INEC officials all through or ad-hoc staff employed; you will see that there will be a difference,” Mobolaji said.

He said that vote buying and selling as well as other manipulations would be reduced if INEC could improve in election conduct and gain credibility.

On poor performance of many opposition parties in elections, Mobolaji, also the Lagos State Deputy Chairman of the Young Progressive Party, said that money politics would always negatively affect smaller parties during elections.