Jide Johnson, Deputy Provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism has said that the postponement of the 2019 elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission was much better than to have an inconclusive election.
Johnson who spoke exclusively with our correspondent during an interview explained that If INEC had gone ahead with the elections today, it would have been inconclusive because some parts of the country would have had elections while elections won’t hold in some other parts.
Johnson added that, if INEC had started with state’s elections instead of the presidential elections, lessons would have been learnt and improved upon. “That’s why some of us argued that INEC should have started with the state elections instead of the presidential election, you don’t start an election with a national election. People were raising questions when INEC came up with the schedule of the election, majority of Nigerians with the ruling party questioned the interest of the National Assembly in having the states’ elections first, but if we had done that, we wouldn’t have been in this situation”, Johnson added.
Johnson who pointed at the fact that the postponement would have financial implications on INEC’s budget for the election advocated that after the elections, INEC should publish its expenditure in the course of the election process.
The Deputy Provost buttressed that, “with what has happened, INEC would need more money to conduct this election, I’m advocating that the INEC chairman must appear before the National Assembly after elections to present an audited account of the commission.”