By John Ikani
The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Connected Development (CODE), Hamzat Lawal has called on Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to “Bury his head in shame” for overseeing a “disastrous” 2023 general elections in spite of his promise of leaving a legacy of free and fair elections in Nigeria and the West African sub-region at large.
Hamzat made the call on Sunday when he appeared on Arise TV to give his assessment of the governorship and state assemblies polls held nationwide on Saturday, March 18.
The anti-corruption activist who lamented that the March 18 polls were marred by “voter Apathy, massive vote-buying, thuggery, among other forms of voter suppression,” added that “security agencies were undermined and ultimately failed to protect the interest and lives of the electorate, members of the press and independent observers.”
Delivering his verdict on the polls Hamzat said: “President Buhari should Bury his head in Shame. I’m not sure what his advisers or people around him are telling him about the polls but the elections we witnessed were marred and far from credible, not even by international or local standards set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“The President had promised to leave a legacy of free and credible elections. Maybe he has his own personal standards which he has met but the 2023 polls did not meet the standard of the Nigerian people. Consequently, he should bury his head in shame and this will inform his legacy because what he has given us is an election that is unacceptable. What we witnessed was a total disaster.”
Expounding on Buhari’s failure to deliver credible polls, Hamzat wondered why the President failed to address the nation after overseeing a flawed February 25th Presidential and National Assembly polls which were not different from Saturday’s polls.
According to him: “What I had expected after the February 25th elections was that President Buhari would address a nation whose faith in his assurance to deliver credible polls were shattered long before results collation were concluded.
“Citizens had also expected that the apex law enforcement agency, the Nigerian Police would have constituted an investigation.
“It was also the wish of Nigerians that the Department of State Services (DSS) would have made some arrests, interrogated some people, and even briefed citizens on what is being done because we all know that the electoral process was heavily compromised.
Speaking further, the founder of Follow The Money read the riot act to INEC stressing that the electoral commission must account for the billions of naira spent in the conduct of the elections.
“INEC got over 305 billion naira to conduct the 2023 polls. What we are going to do as civil society is to raise dust and ask critical questions after the conclusion of the elections. How was the money utilised?“
“We would be going back to 2019. What was the budget for INEC in 2019 and the budget for 2023 and how was the money spent because I am a taxpayer and what we have seen does not give confidence to taxpayers.”
