Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has called for more action to prevent the breakup of Nigeria before the 2023 elections.
Jega said this while speaking at the Tell Magazine’s 20 years of democracy conference on Wednesday.
Jega noted that the people have lost trust in the electioneering process and it might be fuel for the disintegration of Nigeria.
He said: “The CIA thought that 2015 was the do-or-die period for Nigeria, that there would not be a Nigeria in the way you know after the 2015 general election – that has come to pass. But I think if we do not take care, a lot of these predictions will come to pass that is why we need to do quite a lot, much more than we have ever done in order to protect the integrity of the electoral process before 2023.
“The clearest evidence of this loss of trust and confidence is declining voter turnout in elections since 1999.
“For example, people have argued that in 2015 the generalized insecurity was a result of the activities of Boko Haram have been responsible for the low voter turnout regardless of the improvement in the electoral process.”
Jega, questioning the postponement of the 2015 and 2019 elections won by the All Progressives Congress, said there was very low voters’ turnout in the 2015 and 2019 elections attributing it to the lack of trust in politicians.
