Bureaucracy, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the electoral process in Nigeria

Abstract

In a fledgling democracy like Nigeria, the organization and conduct of elections demands proper planning, training and execution by the election management body, giving that elections are an important aspect of any democracy. This study examines the organizational structure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Specifically, it looks at the bureaucratic structure of the commission as it relates to the electoral process in Nigeria. The study attempts to correlate such arrangements with key variables like the organizational decision-making process, its autonomy and the quality of election outcome in Nigeria. It further highlights the challenges confronting the electoral process in line with the organizational bureaucratic theory of Max Weber, which equally served as the theoretical underpinning for the study. This study adopted a descriptive survey research methodology. To achieve this, the study relied on secondary technique of data collection and content analyses technique for
analyses, while equally subjecting collected data to logical reasoning with diagrammatic representations. The study recommends inter alia, that electoral process should not be managed entirely by a single electoral umpire, rather elections should be conducted on a more decentralized level, given that there is a new electoral law that harnesses the use of technology, thus states can conduct election suiting to their peculiarities and would to solidify commitment and extricate logistics challenges during an electoral process. Also, Transparency, public accountability and ethical reorientation should be giving first priority in every fold of public bureaucracy. In INEC ethical reorientation and public accountability (not to politicians) is a precondition for consolidating democracy and improving on Nigerians trust in the commission, so training and retraining should be done yearly and not just during an election period.