COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF THE HIGH-LEVEL CONFERENCE OF THOUGHT LEADERS ON CIVIC SPACE, POVERTY & ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA HELD AT SHEHU MUSA YAR’ADUA CENTRE, ABUJA – APRIL 29, 2025

For democracy to thrive in any nation, the space for participation needs to be wide enough for robust conversations and engagements by all stakeholders including women, men, youth, persons with disability and other marginalized groups to promote the values and tenets of democracy and facilitate the delivery of its dividends to the people. Unfortunately, in recent years, the situation in Nigeria does not show the kind of progress expected as the civic space keep shrinking resulting to marginalization of women, increased poverty, a challenging electoral system among others.

In response to this, Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) and Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA) are collaboratively working to raise awareness, advocate, and mobilize for electoral reforms through engagement with policy makers, institutions and citizens at various levels. The project supported by MacArthur Foundation seeks to enhance democratic governance. In line with this, a high-level conference of thought leaders on Civil Space, Poverty and Elections in Nigeria was held on Tuesday April 29, 2025, at Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre, Abuja with notable civil society actors, the media, traditional leaders, academics and other key stakeholders in attendance.

At the close of the conference, participants identified some key issues of concern which were deliberated upon and proffered the way forward as captured below:

Key Issues Identified and Deliberated upon

• There appears to be an increased shrinking of the civic space in Nigeria manifesting in form of the suppression of the civil society, women’s rights denial, pervasive poverty, and a faulty electoral system.
• Growing lack of confidence and trust in the electoral system and process in Nigeria resulting to voters’ apathy and dwindling participation in elections in Nigeria since 2007 with a record low of 26.7% in 2023.

• The process of selecting and appointing the leadership and top management of the electoral management body in Nigeria leaves so much in the hands of the President and Commander-in-Chief thus creating room for the appointments of his cronies.
• At the moment, it looks as if Nigeria runs a political system that subsidizes the welfare of the political elites to the detriment of the ordinary citizens which is a disservice to sustainable national development and democratic practice.
• Contemporarily, many civil society actors appear to be too comfortable residing in big cities and frolicking with members of the political class, at the detriment of engaging and awareness creation on civic education and policy literacy of the majority players at the grassroots; thus, losing their sworn duty of holding government accountable to the people.
• There are observable concerns around the costs of elections in Nigeria running into hundreds of billions of naira in a country with heavy debt burden and battling with multi-dimensional poverty. For instance, over 90 million ballot papers were printed whereas less than 25 million were utilized amounting to colossal waste of hard-earned resources.
• Experience in the past indicates that multiple-day elections lead to waste of resources, voting fatigue/burnout and general mismanagement of the electoral system.
• There is a growing incident of state and elite capture in our political system with the tendency to slip into a one-party state.
• There are concerns with the ‘judicialization’ of elections and the role of the judiciary where the courts have become the decisive agent in selecting election winners rather than the ballots and the polling units.
• There seems to be a clandestine move by politicians in power to fix their cronies into INEC in readiness for 2027 general elections.
• The funding and fund disbursement process of many donor agencies and development partners appear to be short of transparency and accountability giving the impression that they do not support issues that will address observed gaps in our political system and democratic experience. 

The Way Forward

Participants identified the following as what should be done to address the concerns raised

1. What the Government Should Do:
2. Government should prioritize the development and implementation of policies aimed at reducing social inequalities, alleviating poverty and fast-track the delivery of the dividends of democracy to citizens rather than prioritizing the welfare of public office holders.

• The Uwais Report which emphasized long-term strategies that prioritize sustainable electoral reforms to benefit future generations rather than short-term solutions should be revisited.

• The Judiciary should pursue reforms to attain autonomy to address issues like judges’ welfare, condition of service, recognition of magistrates to mention but a few.

• The proposals before the National Assembly seeking to reform the electoral process should be prioritized by the 10^th Assembly.

• Until a wholesome reform is carried out in our electoral system including the appointment into INEC, government should circumspect and demonstrate a high level of transparency and accountability as well as moral discipline and objectivity in the selection and appointment of election managers.

• What Civil Society & Media Should Do
• Civil society and media should actively engage in citizens’ sensitization programmes to educate them about their rights, responsibilities, and effective ways to hold duty bearers accountable.

• An advocacy and campaign for a wholesome reform in the electoral system with respect to appointment into the electoral management body, electronic voting and other sensitive electoral issues in Nigeria should be initiated by concerned and serious-minded civil society.

• Civil society should advocate and demand for a more responsible and responsive governance to put an end to the culture of subsidizing public office holders and the political elites to the detriment of the ordinary citizens.

• They should support the legislature to ensure persons with questionable character do not find their way to positions that can be used to compromise the electoral system and the development of democracy in Nigeria.

• Civil society should take up the advocacy for single-day elections in Nigeria as part of its electoral reforms campaign to enhance, electoral credibility, transparency, efficient use of state resources and minimize waste.
• Civil society actors, enlightened citizens and others in urban centers should take up the responsibility to personally reach out to people at the grassroots upon which they have some level of influence to educate them on the need to be politically conscious and make well-informed decisions during elections.   

• What Donor Agencies and Development Partners Should Do
• Donor agencies and development partners should revisit their funding mechanisms, funds disposal systems and processes to promote objectivity, transparency and accountability as well as prioritize programmes that support the enhancement of governance and democratic experience in Nigeria.

Conclusion

Participants commended the efforts of WRAPA, Centre LSD and their partners for convening the conference and enjoined all relevant stakeholders to play their role to expand the civic space for a better democratic experience in Nigeria.

Signed