Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said the 2023 general elections were
“credible in many substantial aspects.”
Jega disclosed this in an interview on Channels Television’s
Politics Today on Monday.
The former INEC both noted that, however, blame should be
apportioned “appropriately.”
His comment comes in the wake of mixed reactions trailing
the elections, their outcomes, ensuing legal battles, and some of the decisions
by election petitions tribunals and, subsequently, the Court of Appeal.
Jega said his favourable assessment of the polls was not
necessarily in defence of his successor and incumbent INEC chairman, Prof.
Yakubu Mahmood.
He said, “I would say that, in many substantial aspects, it
was credible.
“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.”
“We should apportion blame appropriately. In a lot of the
areas where there were very serious challenges, politicians played a direct
role.
According to Jega, such influence “more or less
circumscribed the powers” of INEC and its chairman.
“So, to my mind, really, it’s unfortunate that 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.
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