Public Affairs Analyst

  The twin evils that research has shown as malignant tumours that affect credibility of Nigeria’s elections are violence and vote buying which I choose to call vote trading as it involves both buyers and sellers.   It is important to note that not a few people suspected that the redesigning of N200, N500 and N1,000 banknotes by the outgoing administration through the Central Bank of Nigeria was aimed at preventing vote trading during the 2023 polls. In his nationwide broadcast on February 16, 2023, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) admitted that much when he said inter alia in paragraphs 21 and 22 that “I am aware that this new monetary policy has also contributed immensely to the minimisation of the influence of money in politics. This is a positive departure from the past and represents a bold legacy step by this administration, towards laying a strong foundation for free and fair elections.”   Did the policy really stem vote trading? Notably among the laws agai

  Nigeria’s seventh general elections in this Fourth Republic has come and gone but the ripples will take a while to settle. I was an Independent National Electoral Commission accredited observer in the election under the platform of Nigerian Women Trust Fund. As the saying goes, “one eye witness is of more weight than ten hearsays.” In order to refresh our collective memory, there is a need to recount the key statistics on the elections. The polls were held over two separate days– the first which was for the national elections to elect people into one presidential seat, 109 senatorial seats and 360 House of Representatives seats held on Saturday, February 25, 2023. The second strand which were for state level elections into 28 governorship seats, and 993 state Houses of Assembly seats were held on Saturday, March 11, 2023. As against 2019 when 91 registered political parties contested the polls, in 2023, 18 political parties contested the elections. There were 176, 846 polling units

  The national elections (presidential, senatorial and House of Representatives) scheduled for February 25, 2023, held last Saturday. INEC accredited 229 national and foreign observers (196 national or domestic groups that collectively deployed 144,800 observers and 33 international organisations that deployed 2,113 observers) In all, 146,913 observers were deployed for the 2023 general elections. I was among the domestic observers. I was accredited and observed the elections under the platform of Nigerian Women Trust Fund where we observed the polls using gender lens. I am also a Channels TV election analyst. I participated fully in the pre-election and election day observation at Abuja municipality. My overall impression about the elections are as follows: The Independent National Electoral Commission again disappointed Nigerians with the late commencement of the polls in most of the 176,606 polling units where it deployed poll officials and materials to; the commission could not f