The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Most Rev. Matthew Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto have called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure credible election processes at the rescheduled gubernatorial elections. This is coming on the heels that the 2023 Nigeria presidential and National Assembly elections were contentious and controversial and have come under huge criticism with some political parties and stakeholders calling for outright cancellation. The first phase of the 2023 General Elections was held on Saturday, February 25, while the second is governorship. The Nigerian electorates will go to the polls on Saturday, March 18 to elect the new governors for 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states. On same day, new lawmakers will also elected for the Houses of Assembly in the 36 states. Subsequent to the first phase, INEC announced Bola Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the presidential election. According to Professor Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had the second-highest figure with 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) was next with 6,101,533 votes. Abubakar and Obi have since headed to the courts to challenge the result. International observers and civil society groups said the late arrival of voting materials to polling units and the glitches in the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) were some of the hiccups that characterised the election. CAN, on Tuesday, expressed concern over the tensed political atmosphere in the country, calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure that the will of the people prevail.
According to CAN, despite the many assurances given by INEC about its level of preparedness for this year’s general election, the exercise fell below the “reasonable expectations” of the people. The President of CAN, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, made this assertion in a statement titled, “Elections: CAN appeals for calm, demands responsible action from INEC, others.” The statement reads, “The national leadership of CAN has noted with deep concern the recent developments in the country following the February 25, Presidential and National Assembly elections. “Elections are vital for our country’s stability and democratic consolidation, and so the process must be conducted and concluded safely, fairly and credibly. “For this reason, we urge political parties, candidates, supporters and the public to desist from any action that could create needless tension or stoke any form of violence that could put the country on a precipice. “CAN specifically asks all presidential candidates to abide by the spirit and letter of the Peace Accord they signed before the elections. We remind them that this is the only country we have, and we must do everything to keep it safe, united and peaceful. “In the same breath, we encourage all political actors, elder statesmen, eminent personalities in our society as well as religious and traditional leaders to make proactive interventions to calm any tension and nip signs of violence in the bud.
“We equally ask the Independent National Electoral Commission to do all within its scope of authority to ensure that the will of the people, as expressed through the ballots during the recent presidential and federal legislative elections, count.” Commenting on the development on Arise TV, Bishop Kukah called on INEC to ensure that voting materials arrive at the polling units on time and clear “all obstacles” that might hinder the free and fair conduct of the governorship elections. “If we have any lesson to learn at all, it is that those who have their PVCs buried will have to start digging the ground to find them. Because I believe on Saturday we are going to see people going out to either consolidate their gain or seek to claim what they thought they lost through carelessness. So we are going to see a much more robust process on Saturday,” the cleric said. “We just hopefully pray that INEC would learn from the mistakes it may have committed two weeks ago and ensure that voting materials arrive in good time and all obstacles are cleared on the path of ordinary people, so that this process can be seen as being free, fair and credible.
