Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Civil society in Nigeria

The distance from the USA to Nigeria often makes it difficult for students to recognize how active civil society organizations are in Nigeria. The textbooks describe government institutions and political parties. The news is full of stories about corruption and violence. This report, however, suggests that civic groups are numerous and active. How many groups are mentioned? How much of society do they represent? Who is not represented?

Civil Society Groups Score INEC High on Registration

In spite of hitches in the on-going voter registration in the country, Project 2011 Swift Count, a group of civil society, has scored the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, performance so far above 90%.

The independent monitoring group, however, added that the process had, in part, been marred by the malfunctioning of some Direct Data Capture, DDC, machines and shortages, as well as the inadequacy of essential materials in some areas…

Project 2011 Swift Count is a joint initiative of the Federation of Muslim Women's Associations in Nigeria, FOMWAN, Justice, Development and Peace/ Caritas Nigeria, JDPC, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, to promote free, fair, peaceful, credible and legitimate elections for all Nigerians…

The group said reports from its observers in all local governments across the country by the end of second week showed that 93 percent of registration centres were opened by noon; 86 percent had two registration officials present, while 82 percent had complete DDC systems…

See also:
Project 2011 Swift Count web site

Project 2011 Swift Count's Facebook page
PROJECT SWIFT COUNT GIVES INEC PASS MARK