The National Unity Forum, NUF, a civil society organization, on Sunday said the 2023 general election was an improvement on previous polls held in Nigeria, despite the challenges witnessed during the exercise.
The Forum made the assertion during a rally in Abuja on Sunday.
National Coordinator of the Forum, Comrade Godwin Meliga, while addressing journalists during the rally, noted that while no election could be 100 per cent perfect anywhere in the world, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was able to douse the tensed situation in the country with the manner it conducted the poll.
According to him, a compromised electoral process could have triggered violent upheavals across the country, and as a result threaten the fabrics of Nigeria’s corporate existence as a nation.
Meliga said, “There’s nowhere in the world where elections will be 100 per cent perfect. Nigeria is a growing democracy. We are coming from the Professor Maurice Iwu era. There’s no election that will hold and people will not protest against the outcome, especially those who lost.
“But whatever happens today, we believe that the current INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmud Yakubu has brought a lot of innovations into the Commission.
“The fact that INEC was obviously above board in the discharge of its mandate during the last general elections helped to a great extent in disarming all those nursing sinister intentions for the country, including all those who may wish to capitalize on the outbreak of widespread electoral violence to achieve their narrow destabilization agenda for Nigeria.”
The Forum commended INEC for its strident efforts at ensuring the success and credibility of the 2023 general elections.
Meliga added that the Forum will continue to collaborate with INEC and the National Assembly to strengthen the country’s electoral laws and the democratic process.
The Forum, in the same vein, called on Nigerians to pray for President Bola Tinubu, the 36 state governors and all others in leadership positions as they make efforts to address the economic challenges in the country.
Meliga noted that while some Nigerians may resort to acts of civil disobedience and open protests in order to express their disenchantment with the prevailing socio-economic and political challenges facing Nigeria, the Forum resorted to praying because it was the best option for the country at the moment.
2023 election, an improvement on previous polls – National Unity Forum