UN Partnership Will Strengthen Elections In Nigeria – INEC

Prof. Joash Amupitan

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN), has called for stronger collaboration with the United Nations. He recently had his say while receiving the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mohammed Fall, and the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme, Ms Elsie Attafuah.

According to him, a closer bond with the UN will help to enhance the credibility, transparency and inclusiveness of elections in Nigeria.

Stressing that INEC is dedicated to doing better and not disappointing the hopes of Nigerians, he added that the commission remains committed to improving every election it conducts.

His words, “We want to improve on every election because we in Africa, and especially Nigeria, live in a continent where the people expect so much. We cannot afford to fail our people.

Our hope, our aspirations, our desire is that every election we conduct will be better than the last one.

Africa suffers underdevelopment, and that has also affected our electoral processes. We just need that lift that will take Africa beyond the level of underdevelopment, and then some of the issues that are peculiar to Africa in terms of the electoral process will definitely be a thing of the past.

We want to intensify and partner more in the area of voter education, which is one area of your core mandate, so that you can share your experiences.

In terms of the election, the results are normally transmitted to our IReV to ensure transparency, which will now afford voters and political parties the opportunity to see the results on our portal and compare them with what is given to their agents.

We are taking steps to improve the technology that I inherited to ensure that some of the discrepancies that we noticed in the past are removed. We have brought in some safeguards to ensure that is done.

We have braille to assist the blind. We also have very strong glasses to assist albinos and many more.”

WOW.