Chief Eddy Olafeso, the former National Vice Chairman of the South West for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), shared his thoughts on improving the electoral process for the 2023 general elections. He highlighted the need to decentralize the election process by allowing each state to conduct its own elections.
Olafeso believes that centralizing the election process can create challenges, such as logistics issues and increased opportunities for electoral malpractice. By enabling each state to handle its own elections and transmit the results to a central authority, the process could be more efficient, manageable, and less susceptible to manipulation. This decentralization could help enhance the integrity of the electoral system and ultimately contribute to building a stronger and more united nation.
In an interview with The Sun, Olafeso said, "What I want to see in the Electoral Act is allowing each state to hold their elections. That is over centralization, when you ask INEC to get staff to go and conduct elections, a thousand miles away from the headquarters. How do you do that?
Each state at this level must be able to conduct their elections. And at the federal level, all of us will do it at the state level and transmit results to the headquarters of whichever organ that is given the authority to conduct the election. It would be faster, easily managed. And it will be less prone to criminality and all these distortions you see out there. Believe me, we have so much to do in this country to become a nation."