The Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr Dimeji Bankole, said in Abuja on Wednesday that credible elections in 2011 would guarantee good governance.
Bankole said this at the Leadership Roundtable Conference on “free and fair elections in Nigeria”.
Bankole, who was represented by Mr Aminu Pampuwal, Deputy Chief Whip, House of Representatives, said the conference “is apt and timely, particularly now that the 2011 elections are around the corner’’.
“Earlier, democratic experiments in Nigeria failed largely because of failure to guarantee orderly succession and transition through credible elections.
“Although democracy is not all about elections, free and fair elections are the heart of democratic governance,” he noted.
Bankole said that it would be logical to demonstrate genuine concern and measures aimed at ensuring that future elections organised by INEC are free, fair and credible.
Such measures should also allow the citizens to elect those they wanted to rule them, he added.
In his speech, former governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Ahmed Tinubu, urged the National Assembly to pass into law the bill on electoral reform.
Tinubu said that it behoved the law-making body to give Nigeria the law that would usher in transparency in the electoral process by implementing Justice Mohammed Uwais-led committee report.
“If we don’t have democracy we all are losers. Let us do it for an enduring democracy,’’ he said.
Tinubu, however, faulted the current revalidation of the voter register by INEC, arguing that it failed to meet international standard.
He said that Nigeria should adopt a computer-based system incorporated with biometric features.
“The current register cannot guarantee free and fair elections because it does not have biometric accuracy.
“It allows dual and multiple voting,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the public discuss is aimed at ensuring the realisation of an enduring democratic culture in Nigeria.
(NAN)
