The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and other stakeholders in the electoral process have insisted that the 2023 general elections must be held despite some challenges.
The commission and stakeholders said this at the 20th Annual Daily Trust Dialogue with the theme, ‘Interrogating the 2023 Presidential Agenda’, held on Thursday in Abuja.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, said that the Commission was preparing hard for the election in line with its mandate.
He said that 70 per cent of the non-sensitive materials for the election had been deployed.
“As of today, we have taken delivery of all the technological devices we will deploy for this particular election, and we have also started training the corps members and other election staff that will be deployed for the conduct of this election.
“We recognise that security is a huge challenge and a reasonable concern for election workers, Nigerian people and the Commission.
“We are consulting almost daily with the various security agencies about the security of our staff, the protection of the corps members that will be deployed for this election and voters’ safety.
“So, we want to assure Nigerians that this commission is committed to conducting free, fair, transparent, verifiable and inclusive elections,” Okoye said.
He reiterated that the dates fixed for the election remained fixed and firm, and INEC would not depart from them.
Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the Spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), commended the programme’s organisers for sustaining the quality of the dialogue, adding that discussions on the 2023 elections were apt.
Baba-Ahmed said that it was high time Nigerians raised their voices to insist that there must be an election on February 28 and March 11.
“Under any condition, Nigerians should not and will not accept any arrangement outside the Constitution.
“It doesn’t matter what the security situation is; there are people with responsibility President Buhari, governors, security agents.
“They must improve the security environment in such a manner that will relieve the public of some of the stresses they are living under that is likely to provoke them; these are essentials,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed said the measure was necessary because a credible election could not be conducted in a chaotic and angry environment, saying the government should improve it.
He said there were many challenges ahead of the elections, like fuel scarcity, insecurity and even the naira redesign of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
On his part, the National Chairman New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Prof. Rufai Ahmed-Alkali, said that the naira redesign should have happened long ago and not a few months before the election.
Baba-Alkali said the currency change was causing agitation among Nigerians, adding that the new notes were not enough in circulation and people were rejecting the old ones.
“Secondly, only recently, some people are calling for the removal of the INEC chairman for no reason.
“How can you ask for his removal? The Commission has also been doing its best, so there is a better time to say you want to remove him,” he said.
“All these things are causing tension, but we are calling on INEC to stand firm; we also call on security agencies to stand firm, so they can ensure that we have a free and credible election”.
INEC has fixed February 28 and March 11 2023, for presidential and gubernatorial elections, respectively.
