When Lawmaking Serves Narrow Interests - SAMSON ITODO

When we raised concerns about certain insertions and deletions in the 2026 Electoral Act, lawmakers in the National Assembly ignored repeated calls to uphold public interest. Instead, they chose to pass laws shaped more by political calculation rather than the urgent need to strengthen the integrity of the electoral process. Today, some of those same lawmakers are being trapped by the very laws they passed. For instance the National Assembly deleted the entire section on direct primaries from the Act and simply said political parties should provide guidelines to regulate direct primaries. Just imagine the conduct of direct primaries under such a vague framework. How do aspirants who are now shortchanged in ongoing primaries seek redress when, in many cases, they never even sighted the party guidelines that supposedly governed the process? This is the irony of bad lawmaking: when you legislate for narrow interests, you may one day become the victim of your own design. In this clime, electoral laws are too often crafted to target perceived opponents or secure advantage in the next election, rather than to protect the credibility of the process. I hope they are learning the hard lesson to always allow public interest guide lawmaking. Power is transient but the law remains. Samson Itodo, Executive Director, YIAGA Africa