Electoral stakeholders have tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to provide an enabling environment for the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in 2023.
The stakeholders said this at a conference organised by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Nigeria Office themed “Multidimensional Election Security Threats in Nigeria: Challenges, Options and Opportunities for the 2023 General Election ‘’in Abuja.
Dr Daniel Mann, the Resident Representative FES Nigeria, said that the programme was put together for experts and stakeholders in election and security space, to critically identify, examine, and discuss key potential security threats to the election.
“This overall project that FES is conducting is aimed at promoting democracy to stabilise it.
“Nigeria is a nation with over 50 per cent of its population as youths yet they hardly make their way into politics and they are mostly used by politicians to cause violence,” he said.
Mr Mathias Dold, First Secretary, Political Officer, German Embassy, said that the event was timely because the election was barely three months away.
“We as diplomats are solely observers in election times, we don’t have a favourite and we don’t support any candidate.
“The only thing we do support is free, fair and credible election. This is something the German Government has supported through numerous projects and advocacy campaigns especially through our funding of FES.
“It is also something the European Union which we are members support through its support to democratic governance campaign that has contributed so much to the electoral process and continued to do so most recently through the signing of the National Peace Accord,” he said.
Dold said that it has been observed that the election process in Nigeria has been improving from election circle to election circle.
He said the new Electoral Act would further boost the 2023 electoral process and make it more robust than the previous ones.
He, however, said that some potential problems that could harm the election included violence and cyber threats among others.
He urged all candidates to accept election results and called government to focus on electoral security which seemed to be threatening free, fair and credible elections.
A participant, Ms Olajumoke Gani-Ajenyo said that the 2023 poll was unique because it would be the first time Nigeria would be conducting an election through digital means.
She cautioned INEC to put in appropriate measure that would curb cyber threats.
NAN
