By Oluwatope Lawanson
Mr Lanre Arogundade, Executive Director, International Press Centre, says signing of the amended Electoral Bill into law by President Muhammadu Buhari emboldened Nigerians and made them to believe in democracy and transparency.
Arogundade made the remarks while assessing eight years of the Buhari-led administration.
He spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
NAN reports that the president had on Feb. 25, 2022 assented to the bill which allows the Independent National Electoral Commission to authorise electronic transmission of voting results and electronic registration of voter identities to prevent fraud.
“The reworked law gave the people the right to be emboldened to challenge the outcome of the last general elections.
“This is because there is a law that actually provided that the process should be transparent.
“To some extent, we can say that is a credit to the government,” he said.
Arogundade said that the step would further engender clarity, effectiveness and transparency of Nigeria’s electoral process.
On security and anti-corruption efforts, Arogundade, however, said that the administration performed below expectations of Nigerians.
“The Buhari administration did not meet the expectations of Nigerians especially in security and management of the economy.
“In states such as Zamfara, bandits and terrorists have taken over most of the villages and towns.
“Most of these cases and even the insurgencies happening in the east are not reported as often,’’ he said.
According to him, it might take years to change the narrative.
“We urge the Bola Tinubu administration to deal squarely with insecurity in order to bring sanity to the nation.
“The incoming administration should, by all means, reduce insecurity to the nearest minimum,” he said. NAN
