Dissatisfied by the conduct of February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, the Nigeria’s National Peace Committee has expressed its reservations over the polls.
The committee is jointly chaired by former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah and the international observers.
While the Joint Election Observation Mission of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) led by former President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, said the elections “fell short of the reasonable expectations of Nigerians”, the National Peace Committee urged INEC to probe grievances of Nigerians against the polls.
The Committee wants INEC to “take all the time it required to ensure delivery of results which will inspire the confidence of Nigerians in line with international best practices.”
Abdulsalami made the suggestions in a statement titled, “A call for calm: Please give peace and the process a chance’”, in Abuja on Tuesday.
“The world has invested a lot of goodwill towards the country in the elections, all citizens deserve to be rewarded by a process that ensures that their votes truly count,” he said.
From the international observers comes a damning report on the conduct and processes of the election.
The 40-member team of the two United States institutes said “logistical challenges and multiple incidents of political violence overshadowed the electoral process and impeded a substantial number of voters from participating.”
It said members of the team were deployed across all six geopolitical regions of the country to observe all stages of the voting process; stressing that their observations informed the preliminary findings and practical recommendations to improve future elections.
“At the close of the polls, challenges with electronic transfer of results and their upload to a public portal in a timely manner undermined citizens’ confidence at a crucial moment of the process.
“Moreover, inadequate communication and lack of transparency by INEC created confusion and eroded voters’ trust in the process.
“Nonetheless, the delegation maintained that despite these issues, Nigerians demonstrated their commitment to the democratic process,” the foreign observers also said.
Both IRI and NDI noted that voters demonstrated resilience and resolve to have their voices heard through the ballot.
The monitors commended INEC for “administering a nationwide election according to the electoral calendar for the first time in the country’s recent history.”
For the European Union Election Observations Mission (EU-EOM), the February 25 polls lacked transparency.
“Although the election was held as scheduled, it lacks transparency during the critical stages of the electoral process, while on the election day; trust in INEC was further reduced due to delayed polling processes and information gaps from the Result Viewing Portal.”
The Chief Observer, EU-EOM, Andrew Barry, noted that INEC’s operational capacity was hampered by ongoing fuel and naira shortage, adding that insecurity hindered the commission from accessing some council areas across the country.
“The level of violence suppressed voters’ turnout during the election, suppression of voters is a serious issue to the rate of inclusiveness in the election and they have taken note of it.”
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had called on President Muhammadu Buhari and INEC chairman to cancel results from areas where elections were compromised or which recorded malfunctioning of INEC machines and violence.
According to him, this is imperative to save the country from “looming danger and disaster.”
Obasanjo alleged that some INEC officials sabotaged the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the Server for transmission of results from polling units.
Obasanjo, in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari and the INEC Chairman, Yakubu, also accused officials of the Commission of manipulating and compromising the election process to favor a particular candidate.
He also alleged that the officials had collected “bribes and blood money” to subvert the will of the people as expressed in Saturday’s elections.
