How CSOs 'll monitor Edo election - Akiyode-Afolabi,TMG President

How CSOs ‘ll monitor Edo election – Akiyode-Afolabi, TMG President 

By Aisabor Osaloboh

Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi is the Chairperson, Transition Monitoring Group, TMG. She speaks in this interview on the role of the over 44 Civil Society Organisations, CSOs.

On the availability of CSOs for the election, she said:“The local CSOs are already there, are ready and have also collected their kits, while national accredited observers like the Transition Monitoring Group, TMG; Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, PLAC; and some others, have also arrived.”

On how the postponement of the election from the earlier scheduled date of September 10 to 28 may have affected the CSOs, she said: “For CSOs, budget for such programmes are usually approved long before time.
Akiyode-Afolabi: TMG chairperson

Akiyode-Afolabi: TMG chairperson

So, it is difficult to get sponsors to adjust budget  within two weeks, especially when you have exhausted all planned activities. For example, TMG had to cut down on its number of national observers and rely more on those that reside in the state. Most affiliates present for the previous date, both from the national and state levels, had to also step down because of cost.

“The National Association for Peaceful Elections in Nigeria, NAPEN, has also exhausted all their programmes. They had radio jingles that were supposed to run up to the election so as to ensure voters’ education and a free and fair election, especially for the fact that both the National Orientation Agency and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, have not done enough on voters’ education. “Notwithstanding the drawbacks, CSOs will be there to monitor the elections.

However, instead of the scientific observation we used in the past, we are going to make do now with the traditional observation method, basically because of issues of logistics and funds. That is, instead of double-checking the ballot papers with the quick count system, because we do not have the capacity to do that anymore, we will rely on the traditional observation method which can help to make people aware of the circumstances that led to the kind of results got; like whether the election was credible or not, whether ballot boxes were hijacked, whether INEC did their work or not.

“The implication of this is that we will not be able to verify whether INEC’s result is correct or not, unlike we were able to do in 2015 based on the quick count method. Unfortunately, only TMG has the capacity for that. Now, we will simply count on the line. But we assure that we will observe the election critically, give the report of our observation and also ensure that the process is peaceful,” she said.