By Abba Dukawa
The Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), has charged Nigerians to ensure the success of the 2023 general election as the country could not afford to make a mistake.
ECOWAS said it was concerned about the success of the 2023 general election in the country due to its effects in the region and the Africa continent as a whole.
The sub-regional raised the concern in a when a delegation of ECOWAS pre-election fact-finding mission to Nigeria led by Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, former Chairman, Electoral Commission of Ghana, have interactive session with civil societies and journalists at Centre for Information Technology and Development in Kano.
According to the leader of the delegation, who is also the Director, Political Affairs, ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Remi Ajibewa, said they were in Nigeria for fact-finding ahead of the country 2023 general election in line with ECOWAS supplementary protocol 2021 to observe elections in Nigeria.
Ajibewa said Article 11, 12 and 13 of the protocol mandated the commission to deploy electoral fact-finding mission to every member states of ECOWAS that were about to conduct the election, especially, presidential election.
He stressed that the delegation’s visit to Nigeria was not the first time as that was done during other previous elections in the country, including the 2019 general election.
Ajibewa said ECOWAS looked forward to successful and credible elections in West Africa countries especially, Nigeria in 2023, given the leadership role the country played in the sub-region.
“We all know the importance Nigeria holds, given the fact that, as they used to say, if Nigeria sneezes, the whole West Africa catches cold and we don’t pray that will be the result. So, we are here to listen to you, to see the area of challenges that we might also report,” he said.
During the interactive session former Chairman, Electoral Commission of Ghana, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan said , INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, assured the ECOWAS delegation
INEC commitment of Nigeria’s free, fair and credible elections, driven by technology, saying 2023 general election in Nigeria will be driven by technology not only as a matter of legal requirement, but also as a matter of course, for us in the commission.
Also Journalists and Civil Society Organisations in Kano present at the session unanimously indicated violence against Journalists and CSOs, political thuggery, vote buying, inadequate security, hate speech, misinformation and disinformation, Inconclusive elections, lack of credibility on the part of the electoral officers during vote counting among several worrying issues sums up the political atmosphere of Kano in the previous elections.
The Journalists and CSOs noted that, the issues highlighted above have made voters discouraged and thrown into fear of voting. Thereby, resulting in mass political apathy ahead of the 2023 general election.
“There is also a need for proper interpretation of the new 2022 Electoral Act for better understanding by the general public and relevant stakeholders ahead of the election” they added.
Mr Afari-Gyan while appreciating CITAD for hosting them, noted that the delegation has recorded all the inputs from the participants and vows to sit down with his team towards mapping out workable solutions for achieving a free, fair and credible election in Nigeria comes 2023.
other members of the delegation are Dr. Francis Gabriel Oke, Dr. Eyesan Okorodudu, ACP Nuhu Hamidu, Barou Yba Luther Yokou and Abu Turay
