NBA gives INEC high score on conduct of presidential election

As mixed reactions continue to trail the outcome of the Saturday, February 25, general elections, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has passed its own verdict on the conduct of the exercise.

While giving his own evaluation, the NBA President, Yakubu Maikyau, scored the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) high in terms of the delivery of the presidential and national assembly elections.

He noted that, despite the challenges witnessed during the exercise, the commission still managed to perform above average.

Maikyau said these while speaking on a Channels Television programme on Saturday, March 4, 2023, where he also urged INEC to make deliberate efforts to forestall a recurrence of the lapses experienced in the last exercise.

Maikyau's words: "I will say that the elections went well. Those who came out were happy to express their franchise

“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 percent in the delivery of these elections.

“That will be an A for every exam. Notwithstanding, all the things that happened which we are not ignoring.

“That is why we are admonishing and advising INEC and recommending to INEC that in those areas where we saw lapses in the election held on the 25th February 2023, deliberate efforts must be taken to make sure that those lapses did not occur again in the elections that are coming up on the 11th March because when these lapses happened, it impacted on the confidence of the public in the process.”

Maikyau's comments come amid feelings of discontent by some Nigerians over the process that led to the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as Nigeria's President-elect.

Aggrieved Nigerians, including the main opposition parties consisting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Labour Party, have continued to voice their rejection of the exercise which they claimed was marred by widespread violence and massive rigging.