A former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has described the 2023 general elections as “credible in many substantial aspects”.
Jega, speaking in a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Tonight on Monday, said his favourable assessment of the polls was not necessarily in defence of the incumbent INEC chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood.
Mixed reactions have trailed the elections, their outcomes, ensuing legal battles, and some of the decisions by election petitions tribunals and, subsequently, the Court of Appeal.
“I would say that, in many substantial aspects, it was credible,” he said.
“In areas where we have seen serious challenges that are avoidable and should have been avoided, I believe that to a large extent — and you asked me to be very frank with you — we have a tendency to heap blame on the leadership of an electoral management body and I have had my own fair share of those kinds of blames,” he added.
The Professor of Political Dcience also argued that blame should be apportioned appropriately in the conduct of the election, adding that politicians played direct roles in areas where there were “very serious challenges.”
According to him, such influence “more or less circumscribed the powers” of INEC and its chairman.
“So, to my mind, really, it’s unfortunate it has happened on the watch of Yakubu Mahmood but it has happened not because — to my mind, I have no evidence that he is complicit in these things,” Jega added.
