Electoral Act Amendments Without Enforcement, A Waste of Time — Falana

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has warned that repeated amendments to Nigeria’s Electoral Act will remain ineffective unless authorities show the will to enforce existing laws.

Falana made the remarks during a televised interview yesterday, where he questioned the value of ongoing electoral reforms without accountability for violations.

According to him, Nigeria’s democratic challenges are not rooted in the absence of legal frameworks but in the consistent refusal of the political class to implement them.

“What we have is not a shortage of laws but a collapse of enforcement,” Falana said. 

“You can amend the Electoral Act endlessly, but without consequences for offenders, nothing will change.”

Furthermore, the senior lawyer noted that the political culture has shifted away from ideology and public service toward personal advantage, particularly through frequent party defections.

He argued that elected officials routinely abandon the parties that brought them into office without facing sanctions, a practice he described as a serious threat to democratic order.

“Defection has become the most important political activity in Nigeria,” Falana said. 

“People cross from one party to another freely, and the system pretends not to notice. That is the real danger to our democracy.”

Additionally, Falana recalled that Nigeria already has strict legal penalties for electoral offences such as vote-buying, violence, and intimidation, yet prosecutions are rare.

“We operate in an atmosphere of reckless impunity,” he said. 

“Despite clear provisions in the law, the machinery of the state is never deployed to arrest or prosecute electoral offenders.”

He also referenced a 2008 reform proposal that recommended the establishment of an Electoral Offences Commission, lamenting that successive administrations have failed to implement it.

“That recommendation has been on the table for years,” Falana stated. “Even governments that campaigned on electoral reform have failed to act on it.”

Moreover, Falana criticised discussions around increasing campaign finance limits, noting that existing regulations are already widely violated without enforcement.

“Expanding campaign funding thresholds is pointless when no one complies with the rules,” he said. “Compliance cannot be optional in a democracy.”

Hence, Falana concluded that without firm enforcement mechanisms and accountability, proposed amendments to the Electoral Act risk becoming symbolic gestures rather than meaningful reforms.