Barely four days after raising fresh fears of possible postponement or cancellation of the 2023 polls over insecurity in some parts of the country, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, made a U-turn saying nothing would stop the conduct of the polls on February 25 and March 11.
INEC’s Chairman, Board of Electoral Institute (BEI), Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, had warned on Monday that the general election faces serious threats of cancellation and postponement if security challenges across parts of the country fails to improve.
Zuru, who represented the commission’s chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, at the validation of election security training resources in Abuja, also expressed concerns that the cancellation or postponement of the elections due to insecurity in some areas would not only hinder the declaration of elections results, but also precipitate constitutional crisis.
However, in his keynote address at the presentation of National Register of Voter to the 18 registered political parties in Abuja, yesterday, INEC Chairman, Prof Yakubu, said security agencies have given strong assurances of adequate security and safety of electoral officials to allow for the conduct of peaceful and credible polls across states.
He said: “The commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the general election. For the avoidance of doubt, the presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday February 25, 2023 while Governorship and State Assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday, March 11, 2023. The repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed. The 2023 general election will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the commission.”
The INEC chairman also announced that a total of 93.469 million Nigerians would be eligible to vote in this year’s general elections. Giving a gender breakdown, he said 49,054,162 males registered to vote, while the figure for females stood at 44,414,846.
The breakdown contained on the newly-released voter register, showed that while Lagos topped the chart with 7,060,195 eligible voters, Kano and Kaduna states trailed second and third with 5,921,370 and 4,335,208 respectively, while Ekiti State has the least number of voters with 987,647.
Interestingly, Nigerian youths within the age range of 18-34 topped the age categories with a total number 37,060,399, 39.65 per cent, middle-aged between 35-49 stood at 33,413,591, 35.75 per cent, the elderly within the age range of 50-69 constituted 17,700,270, 18.94 per cent and the old within 70 years and above have 5,294,748, about 5.66 per cent.
Yakubu said with the presentation of voters’ register to the political parties at the meeting, it had successfully implemented 11 out of the 14 activities on schedule for the polls.
He further said substantial quantities of sensitive and non-sensitive materials had been airlifted and deployed to states and other locations across the country.
He explained that the configuration of the last batch of critical technology, especially the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the elections would soon be completed, adding that some of the materials for 17 states in three geo-political zones had been delivered.
“Furthermore, 13,868,441 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) have been printed, delivered to states and are being collected by citizens as new voters or by existing voters who applied for transfer or replacement of cards as provided by law. Similarly, following the display of the voters’ register nationwide and the conclusion of claims and objections by citizens, a new national register of voters has been compiled. In short, at no time in the recent history of the commission has so much of the forward planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a general election.”
Also in Ilorin, yesterday, INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner in charge of Kwara State, Mal Attahiru Madami allayed the fears of Nigerians concerning the 2023 general elections, declaring that the elections would hold as planned.
He spoke at the 2023 annual lecture of the National League of Veteran Journalists (NALVEJ), Kwara state council in Ilorin, the state capital.
He charged Nigerians to be responsible and avoid violence to ensure peaceful polls.
Madami, who said that the commission is prepared to sustain peaceful conduct of elections in the state, added that the state had been recognised for achieving peaceful conduct of elections over the years, especially in 2019.
He assured political parties of unbiased process in the elections in the state.
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who was represented by his special adviser on Strategy, Saadu Salahu, restated his administration’s continued support for the media and newsmen, serving and retired in the state.
Meanwhile, the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has vowed to do everything within its powers to stop vote buying during the poll.
IPAC Secretary, Yusuf Dantale, thanked the INEC Chairman for the successes so far recorded in the organisation of the elections. He, however, took a swipe at those he claimed were working secretly to thwart the efforts of the commission.
