Author: The Nation

• NBA: election okayed by 92% of Nigerians

The Presidency yesterday described the February 25  Presidential and National Assembly elections as the biggest and most competitive in Nigeria’s history.

It marked a commendable progress on the nation’s electioneering experience, the Presidency said yesterday in a statement by Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu.

Pointing out that the outcome of the elections had been widely praised locally and internationally, the Presidency, noted that no one had disputed the result of the elections, except those who lost to the will of the majority in the process.

The Presidency was reacting to the published opinion of two former American ambassadors, Mark Green and Johnnie Carson, who joined other foreign observers to monitor the elections, on behalf of the National Democratic Institute/International Republican Institute (NDI/IRI) Election Observation Missions.

In the statement, the Presidential spokesman said that by many standards, the election, as conducted by the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), following the precepts of the Electoral Act 2022, was a significant improvement on past elections, a development for which both the government and people of Nigeria deserve to be credited.

The statement said some of the noticeable hitches experienced during the polls, including delays and technical issues, were normal with elections anywhere in the world.

It, therefore, demanded that all friends of Nigeria should  to rather join Nigerians in making forward progress towards sustainable peace.

The statement reads: “The Presidency thanks former ambassadors Mark Green and Johnnie Carson – along with other foreign observers – for their concerns over the logistics of the recent general election in Nigeria and their work as observers on the National Democratic Institute/International Republican Institute Election Observation Missions.

“It is worth setting their comments in context. No one has disputed the result of the election, except the candidates that fell short. The biggest and the most competitive presidential election in the history of Nigeria has been won by one man: Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“The U.S. State department congratulated President-elect Bola Tinubu of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and the people of Nigeria on the outcome of the “competitive election.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quick to congratulate the winner. So, did many others in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU).

The statement reads further: “Though it is true there were some delays and technical faults in the process that we can learn from – as is the case in any election the world over – the vote progressed and consolidated democracy in Nigeria.

“The integrity of the Electoral Act of 2022 was strengthened. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System cut out ghost, unauthorised or multiple votes to stem fraud. The election may not have been pluperfect, but due to the steps the government has taken, it is an improvement on previous polls. That achievement should not be overlooked. The next step is for the Election Commission to ensure transparency in collation.

“Adverse reactions, as received from some quarters, are themselves a part of the learning process for everyone. Elsewhere, the world had been treated to epic lies, obfuscation, jingoism and hate, and told by global media to expect a different outcome. Nigerians shocked the world by refusing religious hatred and sectarian politics.

“All true friends of Nigeria should join the people in proceeding forward for sustainable peace.

“APC victory in the presidential election, underscored by the nationwide wave of support in the National Assembly results, is clear mandate for the party to retain power for another term of four years.

“This election is an improvement on past elections and due credit should be given to the government and people of this country.”

Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi yesterday explained that he was challenging the outcome of the February 25 election because the “process was wrongly created by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to serve a particular purpose.”

He said he was doing so to change Nigerians’ recourse to “accepting what is wrong and unacceptable as God’s wish.”

Obi, however, clarified that he had no issues with the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the winner of the poll, but the process.  

The former Anambra State governor, who came third in the election after Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Atiku Abubakar,  featured on Arise Television’s Morning Show.

 He also spoke on Saturday’s governorship and Houses of Assembly elections as well as the ethnic tension arising from the loss of the All Progress Congress (APC) in the presidential poll to the LP in Lagos State.  

Besides, the   LP standard bearer flayed Governor Nyesom Wike for working against him in Rivers State.  

Obi, who urged his supporters to remain calm, also dismissed any partnership with the PDP in the process.

He said: “The journey so far has been very tough and difficult because I am trying to change what has kept us where we are now. So, it is going to be difficult.

“My appeal to Nigerians is to remain calm and prayerful for our country, Nigeria. We don’t have any other country apart from Nigeria.

“I am not challenging who they declared. I am not challenging the outcome, but the process and unless we do that, we are not going to change the rascality that happened.”

The former governor later clarified in a Tweet that he was also challenging the declaration of Tinubu as president-elect by INEC.

The tweet reads: “Following my response to a question while appearing on Arise TV earlier today(yesterday), I want to state categorically that at the Presidential Elections Tribunal(PET), I am challenging the INEC electoral process that led to the declaration of Tinubu as president-elect as well as the declaration itself.’’

The LP candidate told the Arise Morning Show panellists that Nigerians’ mentality for accepting what is wrong and unacceptable as God’s wish has kept Nigeria where it is.

He queried: “The problem of Nigeria is accepting what is unacceptable. That’s not God’s wish.

God’s wish is that you do the right thing. Is it God’s wish that we remain poor as a country despite his abundant blessings on us?”

Stressing that the Obidient Movement was in the system to create an egalitarian society, the former governor lamented that after 63 years as a nation, Nigeria has been unable to conduct a credible election.

Obi said while he was challenging the poll’s outcome through legal and peaceful means, it was disheartening that the rule of law was being treated with levity by   INEC, a public institution maintained with taxpayer’s money.

Obi said some mischievous persons were trying to create an impression of ethnic tension in Lagos because LP defeated APC in the state.

He argued that more non-Igbos, including the Yoruba, who share the aspiration for a Nigeria, voted for him.

His words: “In the Southeast, it is a similar situation, people know me, people know what I stand for, people know I have kept my promises. People know I’ve kept to what I have said.

“It is a simple thing. People go about and say, oh! he got votes in Lagos because of the Igbos and I ask how many Igbos live in Lagos? I got more votes from indigenes in Lagos than those who you can call visitors.

“Are the Igbos more in Nasarawa, are the Igbos more in Plateau, are the Igbos more in Abuja?

“In Rivers State, where you know that the governor came out against me and everything, I still… If the real votes of Rivers were counted, I won. I had over 50 something per cent of the votes.

“The other two parties were sharing the remaining 50 per cent.”

The LP candidate explained that even if Igbos voted for him, it would not be the first time they were doing so for other persons.

He wondered why there was no brouhaha when the Igbo massively voted for Chief Olusegun Obasanjo even when he lost in his region and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan from the Southsouth.

PARTIES seeking to examine the materials used during the Presidential and National Assembly elections to prosecute their election petition will have unhindered access to them, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has assured.

The INEC boss said the agency has nothing to hide.

He spoke while hosting the legal team of the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate at the February 25 poll, Mr. Peter Obi at the commission’s Abuja Nataional Headquarters, yesterday.

Besides the LP, the All Progressives Congress (APC), its standard bearer (now President-elect), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have approached INEC to grant them access to the materials.

Yakubu told the LP counsel that there were two levels of documents to be given to them – those available at the Headquarters of the Commission and those domiciled at its offices in the states.

According to him, the accreditation records for the elections will be printed from the back-up server and certified by the commission before they are given to the parties.

Yakubu said: “We received a letter from Uzoukwu (SAN)  on behalf of the Labour Party. The letter is dated March 6, in the letter, we were served notice that the team will be here on the seventh at nine in the morning to inspect the materials.

“But most specifically, the letter requested us to get in touch with our resident electoral commissioners across the 37 states of the federation to make the documents and information available for the prosecution of their petition.

“A meeting has been scheduled with all the resident electoral commissioners. It is going to be a virtual meeting at 3pm, today, where we will discuss among other issues, this matter of providing CTCs not only to the Labour Party, but to all other litigants as well.

“I want to assure you that the Commission will not hide any document from anybody and will make available any document that they have requested.

“There are two categories of documents. Those that are in possession of the headquarters of INEC. We will easily make these documents available to you. Specifically the EC8Ds from the states and the ECD A, which is the collation at the national collection centre by the commission itself.

“The EC8E, the declaration can easily be certify and give to you almost immediately. As for other documents that you are asking for, they are at state level. So we need to work out the schedule so that we know when your team is going to which state and on which date so that we can easily facilitate not just certification of documents, but also the inspection that you requested for each of these documents.

“The other one is accreditation data from the back end. This will also be made available to you. Remember that the accreditation data covers over 176,000 polling units. We have to print them physically, certify them, and give them to you, so the long and short of what I’m saying is that you will get this document speedily.

“They will also make arrangements and notify our Resident Electoral Commissioners of your intended visit so that these documents will be made available to you, especially those that are at that level, including access to inspection of any category of materials.

“So, I crave your indulgence to suggest that let your team interface with the legal team of the commission immediately. So you work these things out and then we make all the documents available to you.

“But please be assured, that INEC has nothing to hide. Whatever you’re asking for will be made available to you. So, I want to thank you for coming. Now the meeting will be between our technical people and you will just work things out.

“Whatever we need to facilitate as a commission so that you get this document that you require as a matter of urgency, I want to assure you that you will get them as a matter of urgency.”

Uzoukwu, who is lead counsel, said they came to the commission because they have not received any electoral stocks for inspection on behalf of their clients, in view of the fact that election petition is time sensitive.

He said: “We have 21 days to file a petition on behalf of our clients. Out of that 21 days, we probably have about 10 days to go and up till now, we have not received any document.

“We have written to INEC requesting for a documents apart from that, the Court of Appeal made an order on the March 3, to INEC to release those documents to us but we haven’t received any hence we requested for a meeting with the chairman of the commission.

“He graciously granted that audience within a very short notice, and he has given us assurance, concrete assurance on record that all documents we require will be made available and if possible, some of them will be made available to us today.

“So, we  believe that that will happen and we are leaving here rest assured that by the time we leave INEC premises at least we will leave with some documents, the rest can then come from tomorrow and so on and so forth.

“We are very much bothered and I made that point when we met with the chairman that not only that our clients are bothered and agitated but also we members of the legal counsel are bothered, members of Labour Party are bothered, their supporters are bothered and restive.”

”Well, some documents will come from the state level but we do not think it will take eternity for those documents to come. Meanwhile, there are those that are domiciled here at the headquarters. Those ones we can go away with today.”

On what will happen if the needed documents are not made available, he said: “That will be a national calamity. Why do I say that? Not making the documents available will create the impression that INEC is deliberately frustrating us.

“That’s just the impression it will create to make sure that we cannot prosecute this petition. But listening to the chairman a short while ago and all assurances, I want to give him or we want to give him the benefit of the doubt that we will get some of them today.

“At least if we get some of them today that is indicative that we’ll get some other documents from tomorrow, next tomorrow to enable us file this petition. Having said that, the way and manner, the chairman spoke, I’m confident that he will keep to his words.”

Ninety-two per cent of voters across the country are  ”impressed” or “satisfied” with the conduct of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has said.

The percentage comprises  27.1 per cent of voters that were “excellently impressed” and the majority 64.6 per cent  s that were “somewhat satisfied.”

NBA, in a statement yesterday by its  National Publicity Secretary, Akorede Lawal, said the score was a  part of the findings contained in the interim report of the association’s  Election Working Group.

The interim report was based on the feedback sent to the NBA 2023 Elections Situation Room by the NBA Election Observers from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Over 1000 INEC-accredited observers drawn from the 128 branches of the Bar were deployed by the NBA to monitor the polls.

According to the NBA, Elections Situation Room received more than 2,250 reports from its observers.

It said the reports were received through the NBA election observer app, social media handles, and toll-free lines.

The association explained that the application developed and deployed for the observation was able to identify the geo-location of the observer.

It said with this, reports received in pictorial or video forms were verifiable and confirmed using the app’s features.

The association said generally, findings from the observation process “indicated that only a quarter of the electorate was excellently impressed with the conduct of the ballots (27.1 percent) while the majority of the voters (64.6 percent) were somewhat satisfied.

“Only 8.2% rated the election poor or very poor,” he added.

The report is in sync with a recent comment by NBA President Yakubu Maikyau that despite challenges, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) performed well in the conduct of the elections.

“There were challenges, definitely. There were some infractions, some of them actually constituted electoral offences but on the whole, I will score INEC as having performed maybe about 78, 80 per cent in the delivery of these elections,” Maikyau had said.

The NBA’s interim report also noted some problems with the poll.  It urged INEC to fix all bugs or glitches in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines before Saturday’s elections.

The Bar also asked INEC to exclude its collation and returning officers with proven cases of misconduct in the presidential election from the forthcoming polls.

On Tuesday, INEC announced that it had suspended the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Sokoto State, Dr Nura Ali, with immediate effect. It gave no reason for the decision.

Lawal said following the observations and because of the impending governorship and state houses of assembly elections,    the NBA was urging INEC to get its act together.

The association, according to Lawal, also advised the   Police to ensure the timely deployment of its men and officers on duty for the 11th March 2023 Elections.

“Political parties are equally advised to educate their members and supporters on the need to eschew all forms of actions in violation of the Electoral Act,” it said.

The NBA  commended Nigerians for their resilience and perseverance in carrying out their civic duties.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed Deposit Money Banks to comply with the Supreme Court’s judgement of March 3, which revalidated the old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes as legal tender till December 31, 2023.

The directive was contained in a statement by CBN’s acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isa AbdulMumin, on Monday night.

The statement reads: “In compliance with the established tradition of obedience to court orders and sustenance of the Rule of Law Principle that characterised the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, and by extension, the operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as a regulator, Deposit Money Banks operating in Nigeria have been directed to comply with the Supreme Court ruling of March 3, 2023.

“Accordingly, the CBN met with the Bankers’ Committee and has directed that the old N200, N500 and N1000 banknotes remain legal tender alongside the redesigned banknotes till December 31, 2023.

“Consequently, all concerned are directed to conform accordingly.”

The Presidency has absolved President Muhammadu Buhari of any blame over the apparent hesitance of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to effect the Supreme Court’s judgement of March 4, which revalidated the old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes as legal tender till December 31, 2023.

CBN last year introduced new N1,000, N500 and N200 notes, instructing that the old versions would cease to be legal tenders by January 31.

The monetary policy, which was introduced to complement others, including the cashless policy, has however inflicted much hardship on the public, leading to a chronic cash scarcity nationwide and eventually a legal tussle between some state governments and the federal government.

The Supreme Court decided the case over the cash scarcity crises two Fridays ago, instructing the CBN to immediately release the already evacuated old denominations into the system, along with the new one and allow both to circulate as legal tenders until December 31, when the old ones will finally cease to be legal tender.

However, since the Supreme Court gave its verdict on the matter, there had been no action from the CBN or the Federal Executive Council (FEC), giving rise to a new wave of suspicion from the public, including state governments and other stakeholders.

However, reacting to the allegation of disrespect for and disobedience of Judicial powers of the Supreme Court against the President, the Presidency, in a statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said Buhari has not impeded either the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice or the CBN Governor from obeying the courts in the matter.

“The Presidency wishes to react to some public concerns that President Muhammadu Buhari did not react to the Supreme Court judgement on the issue of the N500 and N1,000 old currency notes, and states here plainly and clearly that at no time did he instruct the Attorney General and the CBN Governor to disobey any court orders involving the government and other parties.

“Since the President was sworn into office in 2015, he has never directed anybody to defy court orders, in the strong belief that we can’t practise democracy without the rule of law and the commitment of his administration to this principle has not changed.

“Following the ongoing intense debate about the compliance concerning the legality of the old currency notes, the Presidency therefore wishes to state clearly that President Buhari has not done anything knowingly and deliberately to interfere with or obstruct the administration of justice.

“The President is not a micromanager and will not, therefore, stop the Attorney General and the CBN Governor from performing the details of their duties in accordance with the law. In any case, it is debatable at this time if there is proof of willful denial by the two of them on the orders of the apex court.

“The directive of the President, following the meeting of the Council of State, is that the Bank must make available for circulation all the money that is needed and nothing has happened to change the position.

“It is an established fact that the President is an absolute respecter of judicial process and the authority of the courts. He has done nothing in the last eight or so years to act in any way to obstruct the administration of justice, cause lack of confidence in the administration of justice, or otherwise interfere or corrupt the courts and there is no reason whatsoever that he should do so now when he is getting ready to leave office.

“The negative campaign and personalised attacks against the President by the opposition and all manner of commentators is unfair and unjust, as no court order at any level has been issued or directed at him,’’ the presidency stated.

On the cashless policy, the Presidency said: “As for the cashless system the CBN is determined to put in place, it is a known fact that many of the country’s citizens who bear the brunt of the sufferings, surprisingly support the policy as they believe that the action would cut corruption, fight terrorism, build an environment of honesty and reinforce the incorruptible leadership of the President.

“It is therefore wide off the mark to blame the President for the current controversy over the cash scarcity, despite the Supreme Court judgement. The CBN has no reason not to comply with court orders on the excuse of waiting for directives from the President.

“President Buhari has also rejected the impression that he lacks compassion, saying that “no government in our recent history has introduced policies to help economically marginalised and vulnerable groups like the present administration.’’