President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to the deployment of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System for credible, fair, and transparent elections in 2023, his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Femi Adesina, said on Tuesday.
While calling on the media to give scant attention to purveyors of bad news and naysayers who allegedly wanted to ensure that the 2023 election ended in confusion, he expressed optimism that such negative narratives would not happen because Nigeria had held elections in tense situations in the past.
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According to him, since the election conducted by technology brought Buhari to power after contesting three times, he was not going back on technology.
Adesina was reacting to the recent alarm raised by some civil society organisations and the Spokesperson for the Coalition of United Political Parties, Ikenga Ugochinyere, about plans by some political actors to remove the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, through the National Assembly and also deactivate the BVAS from being used in the 2023 elections and ultimately stop electronic transmission of results.
He spoke while delivering his goodwill message at the 2022 international day to end impunity for crimes against journalists with the theme, ‘Media, civil society and violence-free election in Nigeria.’
Adesina said;
How many times has the President spoken about the role of technology in getting him into office? He has spoken about it locally and internationally that three times he contested and three times he ended in Supreme Court because the government of the day wrote results and they never voted.
He (Buhari) said until technology came and there was a Permanent Voters Card and, it was difficult to write results. So how can the same person now have issues with BVAS?
Adesina however told the media to trumpet Buhari’s assurance of free, fair and credible elections and ignore those who wanted to cause confusion in the 2023 general election.
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He said:
The media, electoral body and all stakeholders involved to ensure free and fair elections have roles to play.
One thing that we can be sure of about our President is that he has stated this as much as possible in local and international level that his administration will ensure that the elections will be free, fair and credible.
Therefore, the media has a role to ensure that they trumpet what the President has been saying about free and fair elections till we get to where we are going.
Adesina added;
When there is no rigging of election, violence is almost ruled out. So the media must be on the alert and give scant attention to naysayers who want to ensure that the elections end in confusion. It will not happen because Nigeria has held elections at times where there was greater tension in the country and the election succeeded.
The 2023 election will be successful and Nigerians will get leaders of their choice in different offices.
