Former Minister of Information and Culture, Prof. Jerry Gana, has said that the 2023 election has every opportunity to be credible and fair for Nigeria.
Prof. Gana stated that the new technological advancement in the new electoral system and the manner of results collation are sources of encouragement for the electorates to vote for leaders that will create the necessary atmosphere for development.
Gana who was the chairman of the event made this known at the 11th edition of the Change We Need Nigeria Initiative Lecture Series on Friday in Abuja.
He said, “we hope the technology will work on election day. We think that the BIVAS that they brought out is credible but it should work. There is every opportunity this time around that the election is going to be credible and fair.
‘’The former process of collation was not healthy because results were changed after leaving the polling centres before it gets to the collation centres but this time around there is hope and encouragement.
Speaking at the event one of the panellists, Dr Mike Ezekhome SAN, stated that the country’s presidential candidates can hardly solve Nigeria’s problem considering the level of rot, systematic issues and others.
According to him, the country has to revert to its fundamentals, and a people-driven constitution saying politicians do not believe in Nigeria, because of mutual suspicion, religious intolerance, tribal jingoism, electoral malpractices, corruption, bad economy, insecurity, and kidnap.
‘’Whether you are ‘Tinubulising’, ‘Atikulated’ or an ‘Obidient’, you cannot solve the problem of Nigeria because the system is rotten, it is systemic and it has to first change. You have to first go to fundamentals.
‘’We must have a people’s constitution subjected to a referendum and the plebiscite of the people. It was done on the 10 of August 1963 when the Midwest region was created from the Western Region.
The legal luminary who hailed some new changes to the 2022 electoral act noted that the country’s problems can be solved through “having a virile INEC devoid of corruption, pay them well, remove stooges, the electorate must be fully educated and informed, votes are not only counted but count, embrace technology in a very serious way and manner, allow a system where Nigerians, wherever they are, will be able to cast their votes and voters registration should be a continuous process.
Earlier in his presentation on the theme: 2023 General Elections: Critical Success Agents, the General Overseer of the Charismatic Renewal Ministries Inc., and initiator of the project, Dr Cosmas Ilechukwu, pointed out that the success of the coming election will depend on some critical agents which include the electorate, the Independent National Electoral Commission, the security agents, the political parties and their candidates, the electoral tribunals and courts, the Federal Government, the media and civil organizations, and ultimately God.
“We have faced leadership selection over the years and the resistance to the current order of things which if not well managed may snowball into uprisings as experienced during the #EndSARS campaign.
‘’Efforts must be made to encourage the people to go out and vote freely, the electoral umpire must figure out the best way to effect the deployment of staff and materials to these units safely and on time, the impartial status of these security agencies is necessary for the credibility of the outcome of the election.’’
