With the controversy still surrounding the presidential election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has a chance on Saturday to redeem itself, Nigerians who spoke to BusinessDay said.
The governorship and state House of Assembly elections, which were initially slated for March 11, was postponed to March 18 owing to the fallout from the presidential election, whose results are being challenged by the opposition.
Festus Okoye, INEC’s national commissioner and chairman of voter education and publicity, said the decision to postpone the polls was made to ensure adequate time to back up data stored on the over 176,000 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines from the presidential and National Assembly elections and then reconfigure the machines for the governorship and House of Assembly elections.
INEC has said serious efforts were being made to rectify the challenges witnessed with the INEC Result Viewing Portal in the February 25 elections.
Okoye said valuable lessons learned during the elections would be used in the governorship and House of Assembly elections.
Nigerians now look up to INEC to restore their confidence in the commission. Many voters are still determined to vote this week and protect their votes.
Nigerians expect INEC to conduct a free and fair election that is transparent.
Shola Koyade, a resident of the Oshodi/Isolo area of Lagos State, said he is more concerned with having an atmosphere where voters are free to cast their votes without any element of molestations and/or intimidations, where the votes so cast are counted, where each candidate’s votes are accounted for, and where the winner wins fair and square.
Friday Erhabor, director of media and strategy at Marklenez Limited, said he expects the elections to be more organised and hitch-free, with the provision of adequate security.
“It will be a more organised and improved version of the February 25 election. INEC would have learnt one or two things from the presidential election,” he said. “I also want to believe that security will also be improved upon. In all, I expect a good election. Like the presidential election, there will be surprises too.”
Bamidele Okuwoga, a legal practitioner, believes the elections on Saturday would likely be more transparent.
He said: “They will definitely be more reflective of individual choices because the influences and biases that characterised the presidential elections are no longer present.
“Furthermore, preparations by INEC may be more robust. I, however, see palpable tension in some states such as Lagos, Oyo, Rivers, Kaduna and Katsina. In the end, some lessons are already learnt and these will have an overall positive impact on the coming elections.”
However, John Akrasi, from the South-South, said because a lot of people were disappointed by the outcome of the presidential election, the turnout and the expectations for Saturday’s polls will not be so high.
He is worried that there is a tendency for a lot of people to sit at home because justice was not gotten for those who were injured or disenfranchised in the February 25 poll.
Lucky Irabor, the chief of defence staff, has restated the commitment of the Nigerian Armed Forces to ensure violent-free polls before, during and after the elections, augmenting the services of the Nigeria Police in providing adequate security.
The military will also provide support for civil authorities through the Nigerian Air Force, by airlifting electoral materials to different parts of the country, following an agreement with INEC.
Similarly, Usman Alkali Baba, inspector general of police, mandated that all commissioners of police and tactical commanders on election duty should marshal all resources at their disposal for the smooth conduct of the March 18 elections across the country.
Read also: INEC begins distribution of sensitive materials to 18 LGAs in Edo
Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria, had recently decried voter apathy in the elections, urging the police to engage relevant stakeholders to address the issue.
“This trend of conspicuous voter apathy has been the elephant in the room which all the contenders in the post-February 25 debate seem to be ignoring,” he said.
Tensions are really high in some states of the federation for obvious reasons. For instance, in Lagos State, the battle is between the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Labour Party (LP), and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
In Kaduna, Abia, Lagos, Rivers and Cross River, the battle is between LP, PDP and APC. In Kano, it is between APC, New Nigeria People Party and PDP, while in Imo State, it will be a fight to the finish between APC, PDP, LP and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
