BIODUN BUSARI FROM VANGUARD
The Team Leader of EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria phase two programme, Rudolf Elbling, made the remarks during a seminar in Abuja to assess various security threats that could affect the conduct and credibility of the elections.
“For a country like Nigeria, elections always have the potential of creating unrest and instability for a country the size of Nigeria, and that is a very dangerous thing not only for Nigeria and Nigerians but for the whole region.
‘’So, the insecurity issue for the last one or two years is of concern for everybody. It’s a concern for every Nigerian because life has changed. You cannot move around as you could; so there is a huge potential for this to impact on the elections,” Elbling stated.
He described the innovations introduced by the INEC to the electoral process as “quite substantial”
He, however, added that insecurity, which he described as the “basic problem”, might prevent INEC from conducting elections in all parts of the country.
The EU official stated, “This would create a lot of legal implications for the entire process that might disrupt the process. There are a lot of potential legal implications which subsequently would have a lot of political implications and which would have a lot of potential to disrupt the poll but of course, you know, logistics is also and always an issue.
