The NPC Chairman, Nasir Kwarra, made this known while speaking at a meeting with the Resident Representative of the United Nations Population Fund, Ms. Ulla Mueller, in Abuja.

The gubernatorial and state assembly elections, which had originally been scheduled for March 11, have been moved up a week to March 18, according to an INEC announcement made late on Wednesday.

As a result, the NPC chairman said he would consult with President Muhammadu Buahri, on a suitable date for the national census to begin as no date specific date had been assigned for it.

On her part, the Resident Representative pledged the support of the UNFPA in ensuring the success of the exercise.

She emphasized the importance of the exercise for achieving the sustainable development goal, though, and said that conducting a post-enumeration survey would also lend credibility to the census.

The UNFPA provided sixteen high-capacity computers to be used in the post-enumeration survey as a sign of support.

In a meeting with his Nigerian counterpart, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Thursday outside of a Group of 20 summits in New Delhi, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they spoke about the aftermath of the election.

A State Department spokesman on Wednesday congratulated “President-elect Tinubu,” who was declared the winner Tuesday of the February 25 polls in Africa’s most populous democracy.

“This competitive election represents a new period for Nigerian politics and democracy,” Ned Price told reporters Wednesday.

Price acknowledged the discontent among some Nigerians over the validity of the results, as at least one opposition figure has promised to dispute the outcome.

“We understand that many Nigerians and some of the parties have expressed frustration about the manner in which the process was conducted,” he said.

“Nigerians are clearly within their rights to have such concerns and should have high expectations for their electoral process,” Price said, urging political leaders to register their concerns through established legal “mechanisms.”

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Tinubu, the candidate for the ruling All Progressives Congress, won 8.8 million votes, while main opposition candidates Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi snagged 6.9 million and 6.1 million, respectively.

Nigerian officials had hoped new biometric voter identification technology would make the election the cleanest yet, but malfunctions, long delays and slow results have fueled the accusations of fraud.

“We call on all parties to refrain from violence or inflammatory rhetoric at this critical time,” Price said.

The newspaper criticized the Independent National Electoral Commission for how the elections were handled and urged the courts to closely examine Bola Tinubu’s election as president-elect if his victory was contested in court by his rivals.

The editorial from the London-based publication, which was published yesterday, offered the advice. Additionally, it stated that Tinubu had the weakest mandate possible with 8.8 million votes in a nation with 220 million citizens.

It indicated that the former governor of Lagos State will have one of the toughest tasks in the world because Nigeria has been on the verge of collapse due to a breakdown in security and an almost complete lack of economic growth.

InsideOjodu recalls that INEC in the early hours of Wednesday declared the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the president-elect of the 2023 elections and had proceeded with the issuance of certificate of return to him and his running mate, Kashim Shettima on Wednesday afternoon.

Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, who declared the results noted that Tinubu polled a total of 8,794,726 million votes to defeat his closest challengers, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party who polled 6,984,520 million; 6,101,533 million and 1,496,687 million votes, respectively.

However, The Financial Times argued that all that Nigeria needed was a clean election to reiterate the basic message of democracy where a sovereign people could choose its leaders, saying “sadly, it did not happen.”

The court granted “an order of interlocutory injunction filed by the Labour Party and five others restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (defendant/respondent), whether by itself or by its officers, affiliates, servants, privies or agents or any person acting or purporting to act for and on behalf howsoever from taking any steps or further steps whatsoever in furtherance of the engagement or appointment or consummating the appointment of Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo-led Lagos State Parks Management Committee or any of its commercial bus drivers to distribute 2023 election materials and personnel in Lagos State pending the hearing and determination the substantive suit.”

According to reports, INEC in Lagos State responded to criticism after MC Oluomo requested in a letter that the electoral umpire award him the contract for the distribution of materials by claiming that it (INEC) was working with parks administrators in the state rather than MC Oluomo.

Olusegun Agbaje, the residential election commissioner for Lagos State, had stated, “On the issue of MC Oluomo, the commission is not concerned with Oluomo. We are concerned with the issue of motor park administration in Lagos.

“For the past two years, the Lagos State government has banned the operations of the NURTW and RTEAN in the state. They had problems and the state government banned them.

“So we are left with Lagos State Park and Garages and the National Association of Road Transport Owners,” adding that NARTO, which, according to him, the commission was already working with, “is not able to meet up with the 40 per cent needs of the commission for this election,” hence the commission’s consideration of engaging the MC Oluomo-led Lagos State Parks and Garages.

“We are not dealing with MC Oluomo,” Agbaje had said, adding that “we are dealing with park managers. They are individual persons that have vehicles that we are going to use for the elections.

“The law has already banned the NURTW from operating in the state so we cannot violate the law by patronising them.

“It will be we working against the law if we have to be working with the banned associations. So it cannot work.”

In the event that the new deadline of February 10, 2023 is again postponed, the parties have stated that they will not be taking part in the elections.

President Muhammadu Buhari was applauded for redesigning the N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes, but the coalition of political party chairmen stressed that the policy must remain in place.

The parties also knocked the Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara state governments for heading to the Supreme Court to get court injunction to extend the deadline for the validity of three old notes.

Speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, noted that the Commission had trained technicians who would be on standby at polling units.

There had been speculations about the possibility of server failures in the course of the transmission of election results through BVAS, especially by some politicians.

Okoye on Sunday noted that the electoral body had already made provision for the use of the BVAS in the over 176,000 polling units in the country. He, however, noted that INEC also made provision for spare BVAS machines in the case of any failure.

“For each electoral ward, we are going to have some spare BVAS to be deployed speedily if there is any issue or any challenge in any of our polling units. We have also trained technical support staff that can also intervene if there is any challenge with the BVAS.

“But if there is sustained malfunction of the BVAS up to the time of the closing of the poll, the Electoral Act demands that we should undermine voting in that particular polling unit and repeat voting within 24 hours,” Okoye stated.

He earlier described as “an impossibility”, the plan by any politician who was already allegedly harvesting PVCs to rig the elections.

According to INEC, BVAS technology that will be used for the accreditation and authentication of voters in 2023, will reject biometric data of persons who are not original owners of traded permanent voters cards.

“In terms of any politician bypassing the BVAS, I want to tell you that that will not happen, that is an impossibility,” Okoye said.

“Anybody who is purchasing a permanent voter card is just engaging in an exercise in futility. The only thing any person can do is to make sure the voter does not vote on election day but for you to come to the polling unit on election day with a voter’s card belonging to someone else, and you attempt to vote with it, that is an impossibility, the BVAS will not capture your fingerprint,” Okoye said.

INEC also noted that polling units near politicians’ homes had been removed.

He said, “We removed polling units from the palaces of traditional rulers, we removed polling units that are near the homes of politicians, we removed polling units that are in shrines, we also removed polling units from places we consider not conducive for electoral business.”

Okoye also admonished voters to support the commission’s efforts through shared responsibility and mandate protection to ensure free and fair 2023 elections.

The telcos, therefore called on those questioning their capability to succeed, to come off the bet. Seventy-nine days before the general elections, many Nigerians, mostly politicians have queried how the INEC plans to transmit results electronically, particularly in rural communities and areas with poor signals.

But the operators through their umbrella body, the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators in Nigeria, ALTON has doused the tension, claiming it was nothing to worry about.

Chairman of the association, Engr Gbenga Adebayo, in an exclusive chat with Hi-Tech disclosed that his members were working closely with INEC to ensure the transmission of election results from critical areas are successfully done.

He said: ‘Yes, we have an understanding with INEC on transmission of results. However, that is as far as carrying the signals. The content and its fidelity are for the INEC to determine. We know we have enough resources to transmit signals from every part of the country irrespective of how remote. So, there is no reason to doubt the success of the exercise based on that. We have even done that with INEC in the past and achieved perfect results.

Recall that INEC has before assured Nigerians that its innovative solutions including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, and INEC Results Viewing, iRev will be game changers during the 2023 general elections.

BVAS is an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs and authenticate voters, using the voters’ fingerprints while

However, some Information Technology conscious Nigerians are contending that although Nigeria is gradually coming up in the area of broadband penetration, some interior communities are still grappling with poor connections and questions how there could be successful transmission in such areas.

The Police boss stated this while addressing the United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit (UN COPS) in the United States of America.

Baba’s assertion is based on the “robust security threat analysis carried out using global best standards to ascertain the trend of expectations for the electioneering processes,” a statement issued on Sunday by the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi disclosed.

The IGP also met with Mr. Todd D. Robinson, the Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, U.S. Department of States as part of events rounding up his attendance at the UN summit.

During the meeting, discussions centered around enhancing support for the NPF training and capacity-building programmes particularly the training of tactical units deployed in the North East and other conflict theatres across the country.

The Force spokesman stated that the IGP used the opportunity of his meeting to discuss the achievement of cascading the ongoing election security management training across the six geo-political zones in preparation for the 2023 general elections.

Also not left out is the issue of support for police recruit training in modern policing themes such as forensic investigations, human relations, and cyber security.

In his remark, the Assistant Secretary praised the good work and the feats recorded by the NPF under the amiable leadership of the IGP even as both leaders discussed other ways of increasing support to the NPF.

Adejobi stated, “The Inspector-General of Police, in his quest to achieve improved policing services and bequeath an enviable policing system to the nation, has continuously interfaced with individuals and groups with requisite ideas and support-base for the achievement of his agenda of a modern Nigeria Police Force.

“The IGP, who is billed to return to the country on Sunday (today), similarly emphasized his administration’s focus on improved training and retraining of police officers and men, as well as the sustenance and improvement of cutting-edge technology for better crime prevention, deterrence, and apprehension of suspects with concrete, credible and corroborated evidence.”

Buhari noted that the kind of leadership that thrives on intimidation will not benefit the nation.

This was contained in a statement signed by presidential spokesperson Femi Adesina on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the President gave this assurance when he received some Governors of the All Progressives Congress, led by Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, at the State House in the nations capital, Abuja.

Buhari stated that under his leadership he will continue to respect Nigerians by ensuring that their votes count and the people’s voice matter in choosing political leaders at different levels.

He further assured Nigerians that the APC will continue to bequeath strong political institutions that reflect their choices, through non-interference in elections, citing outcome of polls in Ekiti, Anambra and Osun States as cogent indicators.

He, however noted that a decision in the right direction might bring about progress in Nigeria.

The former President gave this advised when he appeared as the special guest of honour at the Wilson Badejo Foundation’s 15th annual lecture, with the theme, ‘Overcoming the twin challenges of poverty and insecurity in Nigeria’, held in Lagos on Wednesday.

“It is either we make the right choice in 2023 because if we make the right choice, we would get there.

“However, if we do not make the right choice in 2023, things would consume us and we pray against that one. We must make the right choice in 2023.

“Nigeria isn’t where it is supposed to be today. If anyone says it’s ok where we’re at the moment, then the person’s head needs to be examined.

“My friend, the late Ahmed Joda, used to tell me that God has given us everything a nation needs and there is no need for prayers because if God has given you everything and you squandered it, then something is wrong.

“I told him that even at that, we still need prayers as a nation.”