It is my pleasure to introduce to you The Electoral Forum, an initiative of The Electoral Hub that pools electoral resource persons together to conceptualise solutions to electoral issues in Nigeria. The Forum consists of a fine mix of highly experienced electoral stakeholders on both the supply and demand sides of elections. These include former Chairs, National Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners, Deputy Secretaries, and Directors of the electoral management body, members of civil society organisations, members of donor agencies, and media personnel.

Experience in countries around the world has made it obvious that elections play an important role in democratic processes. If elections are allowed to fall below a certain standard of acceptability, there will be crisis and political instability. In the Nigerian context, the poor standard of elections in recent years, particularly during the 2019 general elections, is a call for concern. If this issue is not addressed, we may lose some of the gains we have made in democratic consolidation over the years.

The Electoral Forum has therefore been established to provide solutions to improve the integrity and credibility of the electoral process in Nigeria. We seek to do this through meetings where we discuss and analyse pressing electoral issues, production and dissemination of advocacy asks and policy briefs to key stakeholders, and advocacy and outreach to further popularise solutions conceptualised by Forum members. In this way, we believe that we can contribute our own quota to improving electoral integrity in the country.