The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) fact-finding mission for Nigerian elections on Wednesday met with the management of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in Enugu state with a view to ensuring free, fair and credible polls come 2023.
The mission also met with the members of the Civil Society Organisations, media practitioners and political parties and leadership of Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC).
Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Head of the Mission and former Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, while interfacing with various groups at the INEC Office in Enugu, said that the 2023 general elections in Nigeria remained important to the African continent and beyond.
Afari-Gyan said all stakeholders ought to play their own roles to achieve democratic expectations.
He said that there was urgent need for stakeholders to unite to ensure that the nation conducted elections that would be a model for the continent.
He urged political parties and candidates in the elections to comport themselves well, so as not to ignite violence capable of disrupting the exercise.
Afari-Gyan added that a lot of lessons would be learnt from Nigeria by other members of the ECOWAS, who would be having elections in 2023, 2024 and so on.
He urged the media practitioners to use their reports to douse tensions in the country ahead of the election by not magnifying small issues out of proportion.
He added, that the success of this election in the interest of everyone irrespective of party affiliation.
Responding on the challenges facing the Commission in the state, the Administrative Secretary of INEC in Enugu, Mr Chidi Nwafor, said that because of the insecurity in the South East, no state in the region has received the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters.
Although he said that most of non sensitive materials have been delivered to the state, ahead of the elections, Nwafor noted that the delay may be connected with the recent attacks on the Commission’s office in the region, citing the burning of Card Readers during 2019 general election in Anambra and Imo states.
He also noted that some of local government offices of the commission in the Enugu state including headquarters were attacked and burnt by unknown gunmen.
He regretted that up till now the Commission hasn’t replaced the vehicles that were burnt.
Meanwhile, members of the civil society organisations identified apathy, insecurity and vote-buying as the major challenges ahead of the election.
Among members of the ECOWAS delegation were Mr Mohammed Konnel, the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Sierra Leone; Dr Remi Ajibewa, Director, of Political Affairs, ECOWAS and Dr Onye Orukuwa, Head of Peace and Mediation Unit.
