Abstract

The paper set out to examine the role leadership and good team work could play in ensuring credible and acceptable conduct of election in Nigeria.  Bearing in mind that the previous conduct of elections in Nigeria was questionable as series of legal petitions always greeted Nigeria election results.  This obviously is not disconnected with breach of Electoral Act and Constitutional provisions guiding the conduct of Nigeria electoral system.  This misnomer has always been traced to bad leadership and disharmony among the election stakeholders. To this end, the paper groped for factors affecting the conduct of election in Nigeria using secondary data and random sampling technique to elicit information from the stakeholders on why Nigeria election results are always in doubt and unacceptable to the stakeholders.  The information garnered were analyzed and the findings revealed that Independent National Electoral Commission cannot conduct election without the harmonious support of the stakeholders, such as political parties, traditional institutions, civil society groups, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme, press and police; (70%) of the respondents confirmed this finding.  The findings of this investigation further revealed that noncompliance with Electoral Act and Constitution provision by the stakeholders can explain why Nigeria electoral system is defective; (60%) of the respondents agreed with the finding. The paper thus concluded that Nigeria electoral system can only be improved to meet international standard if the electoral laws are respected and harmonious relationship exist among the stakeholders and good leadership is established.

Key words: Leadership, training, electoral system, Nigeria.