The United Nations (UN) has predicted that the 2019 general election in Nigeria will be free of violence.
Head of UN Office for West Africa, Mohammed Ibn Chambers, stated this in a chat with Channels Television.
He said: “Let us not forget that so far there have been some significantly successful elections in this country by the current INEC leadership – gubernatorial elections, senatorial elections, and other by-elections.
“So there have been opportunity for INEC to test itself and so far, as we can all attest to, those elections have been credible and peaceful. This is highly commendable.
“It should be acknowledged that 2015 elections were largely violence-free. There are indications that we will see an improvement upon it in 2019.”
Chambers, commended the current leadership of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, for its diligence in running the affairs of the commission.
“I can assure you that, from what we have seen so far, we are very, very, confident that Prof Yakubu and his team are on track.
“You do have in Nigeria, an election body that has a good capacity. It was demonstrated in 2015 to the admiration of all of us. So we are confident that in 2019, the current INEC leadership will deliver better results than we saw in 2015 and consolidate on its gains,” Chambers said.
The official, however, called for the formulation of appropriate laws that will back the use of relevant technologies in the election to checkmate fraud and unnecessary litigation, adding that Nigeria should learn from the recent experience in Kenya’s presidential election.
“We need to see for instance legislation backing all the processes, particularly with regard to the adoption of technology. We all witnessed what happened in Kenya where, unfortunately, the first round of voting was cancelled,” he said.
“We must learn lessons from each other. Obviously all the processes need to be backed by appropriate legislations. Indeed adoption of technology in the last INEC leadership proved very effective and useful. It’s a big country dealing with big number. We hope there will be efforts in that direction.
“The needs assessment that will be fielded by the UN will identify those areas. We are working very closely with INEC and INEC is very open to this kind of collaboration. This is appreciated and it’s very encouraging”.
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