U.S.-NIGERIA RELATIONS
The
2018
Osun
Elections
and Nigeria’s Greatest Resource
by Benjamin Williams
A
mbassador Symington
has said many times that
Nigeria’s greatest resource is
not its vast oil reserves, nor
its large mineral deposits, but its people
– Nigeria’s amazing human resources.
To me, this was nowhere more evident
than in the September 22 off-cycle
gubernatorial election in Osun State,
where thousands of domestic election
observers did their part to foster a free,
fair, credible, and non-violent electoral
process.
While on the ground in Osun on
Election Day, I personally witnessed
hundreds of Nigerian citizen observers
doing their part to move Nigerian
democracy forward, hailing from
various civil society organizations
(CSOs) like the Youth Initiative for
Advocacy, Growth and Advancement
(YIAGA Africa), the Policy and Legal
Advocacy Center (PLAC), the Civil
Society Situation Room, the CLEEN
Foundation, among many others.
For our part, the United States sent
52 Mission personnel to Osun for the
September 22 election. Forming eight
teams, our international observer
mission crisscrossed the state on
Election Day and visited all 30 Local
Government Areas (LGAs), stopping
at roughly 300 of the state’s 3,010
polling units to observe the casting and
counting of votes. Our observer teams
coordinated with other international
missions, like the European Union
and the United Kingdom, to increase
the reach of the international
observer mission. But even with
our international partners, we likely
reached just 10 percent of the total
number of polling units in Osun State.
This explains the immense value of
Nigeria’s own citizen observers on
Election Day. With thousands of
A disabled voter poses with U.S. Mission election monitor, Ben Williams after proudly casting his vote
observers from many different CSOs,
Nigerian domestic observers covered
far more ground than our international
observer missions ever could. Nigerian
domestic observers not only did their
part by watching polling units, thus
warding off foul play on Election Day.
They also observed vote counting
and reported those numbers back to
YIAGA’s Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT)
team, which uses data analytics based
on citizen observer reports to project
the likely outcome of a given election.
As you can imagine, the PVT guards
against manipulation of election results,
because YIAGA and its observers
provide an independently-verified
likely outcome, against which we can
compare the official election results.
Domestic observers and the PVT
provide vital safeguards for Nigeria’s
young democracy.
Even among the world’s oldest
democracies, there is no such thing
as a perfect election. The important
thing, as time goes on, is that the
quality of Nigeria’s elections continues
to improve with each election cycle.
One key way to improve the quality of
elections in Nigeria is to increase voter
turnout and boost the participation of
Nigerian citizens in their own vibrant
democracy. The more voters there are,
the harder it is for bad actors to sully
the democratic process with violence,
suppression, vote-buying, or ballot box
snatching.
With this in mind, and as the 2019
national elections approach, I urge you
to use your PVC and exercise your
right to vote. And if you see domestic
election observers at your polling unit,
thank them for doing their part to
safeguard your democracy. Remember
that you are Nigeria’s most precious
resource. Voting is your right – when
February comes, go out and vote!
CROSSROADS | December 2018/January 2019
7