President Muhammadu Buhari has once again reassured Nigerians that the 2023 elections will be free, fair and credible.
He discussed this during the celebration of his 80th birthday in the United States where he attended the US-Africa Leaders Summit. He says INEC has no excuse not to conduct credible, free and fair elections despite the attacks on its facilities, as the funds it requested had been made available to it.
But, the commission disagrees with the President on this. INEC says its funds are overstretched by the attacks as it would have to rebuild and replace the destroyed facilities and buy back materials that were also destroyed.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/0Cc-zkbuhg0″ lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.tvcnews.tv/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
According to INEC, since the conduct of the 2019 general election, it has experienced a total of 50 attacks on its facilities in different parts of the country.
In his reaction on TVCBreakfast, Executive Director journalist for Democratic Rights, (JODAR) Adewale Adeoye said the two positions are contraries.
“The President is saying he as made provision, which is true, but INEC is also saying that there are some challenges that we are having at the moment which we did not anticipate.
According to him, Nigeria is a transitional democracy, with around one dollar per voter in regular democracies.
“In a transitional democracy all over the world, it is rated between four to eight dollars, but in post conflict countries it’s about $9.
“We are talking about 100 million voters in Nigeria, for an average voter, we are expected to spend between 4 to $6, that is a lot of money.
“Nobody expected the destruction of INEC offices across the country.
“Provision of security for INEC offices is not the job of INEC, it is job of security officials.
“We must consider both arguments and develop a position to guarantee that the election is held and that INEC’s expectations are realized.
“INEC is requesting 305,000,000,000 naira, which is a large sum of money.
He noted that, aside from the 40 billion provided to INEC each year, this is the greatest amount seen in previous years.
Mr Adeoye added that what is important is that we should also not shy away from the need to audit, to call INEC, to be accountable in terms of auditing the accounts.
“There is no amount spent on democracy that we can say is too much because we need to deepen democracy.
“We need to broaden this democratic space, and all over the world, elections cost money.
Speaking further Mr Adeoye noted that the cost of electoral commissions depends on a lot of factors, The size of the democracy,
Nigeria is the biggest democracy in Africa.
In terms of structure, we are talking about 179, 176,000 polling boots across the country.
“56,000, was recently added which now makes about 179,000 polling boots, we also look at the frequency of elections.
“When you look at all these things, it costs a lot of money and to sustain this kind of democratic structure, we need to invest in it.
“On the other hand Nigeria’s budget is about 20.5 trillion. Most of these projects we want to run, we don’t have the money, we have to finance debts and so on.
” So we have to balance it within the context of our economy. But we should also realise that this election is coming in 2023, We are not going to have another election until the next four years.
“We should be able to provide all of INEC’s needs and give them necessary assistance so that there will be no excuse for us.
Mr Adeoye opined that INEC to a very large extent has been able to establish the fact that it is credible .
President Muhammadu Buhari has once again reassured Nigerians that the 2023 elections will be free, fair and credible.
He discussed this during the celebration of his 80th birthday in the United States where he attended the US-Africa Leaders Summit. He says INEC has no excuse not to conduct credible, free and fair elections despite the attacks on its facilities, as the funds it requested had been made available to it.
But, the commission disagrees with the President on this. INEC says its funds are overstretched by the attacks as it would have to rebuild and replace the destroyed facilities and buy back materials that were also destroyed.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/0Cc-zkbuhg0″ lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.tvcnews.tv/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
According to INEC, since the conduct of the 2019 general election, it has experienced a total of 50 attacks on its facilities in different parts of the country.
In his reaction on TVCBreakfast, Executive Director journalist for Democratic Rights, (JODAR) Adewale Adeoye said the two positions are contraries.
“The President is saying he as made provision, which is true, but INEC is also saying that there are some challenges that we are having at the moment which we did not anticipate.
According to him, Nigeria is a transitional democracy, with around one dollar per voter in regular democracies.
“In a transitional democracy all over the world, it is rated between four to eight dollars, but in post conflict countries it’s about $9.
“We are talking about 100 million voters in Nigeria, for an average voter, we are expected to spend between 4 to $6, that is a lot of money.
“Nobody expected the destruction of INEC offices across the country.
“Provision of security for INEC offices is not the job of INEC, it is job of security officials.
“We must consider both arguments and develop a position to guarantee that the election is held and that INEC’s expectations are realized.
“INEC is requesting 305,000,000,000 naira, which is a large sum of money.
He noted that, aside from the 40 billion provided to INEC each year, this is the greatest amount seen in previous years.
Mr Adeoye added that what is important is that we should also not shy away from the need to audit, to call INEC, to be accountable in terms of auditing the accounts.
“There is no amount spent on democracy that we can say is too much because we need to deepen democracy.
“We need to broaden this democratic space, and all over the world, elections cost money.
Speaking further Mr Adeoye noted that the cost of electoral commissions depends on a lot of factors, The size of the democracy,
Nigeria is the biggest democracy in Africa.
In terms of structure, we are talking about 179, 176,000 polling boots across the country.
“56,000, was recently added which now makes about 179,000 polling boots, we also look at the frequency of elections.
“When you look at all these things, it costs a lot of money and to sustain this kind of democratic structure, we need to invest in it.
“On the other hand Nigeria’s budget is about 20.5 trillion. Most of these projects we want to run, we don’t have the money, we have to finance debts and so on.
” So we have to balance it within the context of our economy. But we should also realise that this election is coming in 2023, We are not going to have another election until the next four years.
“We should be able to provide all of INEC’s needs and give them necessary assistance so that there will be no excuse for us.
Mr Adeoye opined that INEC to a very large extent has been able to establish the fact that it is credible .
President Muhammadu Buhari has once again reassured Nigerians that the 2023 elections will be free, fair and credible.
He discussed this during the celebration of his 80th birthday in the United States where he attended the US-Africa Leaders Summit. He says INEC has no excuse not to conduct credible, free and fair elections despite the attacks on its facilities, as the funds it requested had been made available to it.
But, the commission disagrees with the President on this. INEC says its funds are overstretched by the attacks as it would have to rebuild and replace the destroyed facilities and buy back materials that were also destroyed.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/0Cc-zkbuhg0″ lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.tvcnews.tv/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
According to INEC, since the conduct of the 2019 general election, it has experienced a total of 50 attacks on its facilities in different parts of the country.
In his reaction on TVCBreakfast, Executive Director journalist for Democratic Rights, (JODAR) Adewale Adeoye said the two positions are contraries.
“The President is saying he as made provision, which is true, but INEC is also saying that there are some challenges that we are having at the moment which we did not anticipate.
According to him, Nigeria is a transitional democracy, with around one dollar per voter in regular democracies.
“In a transitional democracy all over the world, it is rated between four to eight dollars, but in post conflict countries it’s about $9.
“We are talking about 100 million voters in Nigeria, for an average voter, we are expected to spend between 4 to $6, that is a lot of money.
“Nobody expected the destruction of INEC offices across the country.
“Provision of security for INEC offices is not the job of INEC, it is job of security officials.
“We must consider both arguments and develop a position to guarantee that the election is held and that INEC’s expectations are realized.
“INEC is requesting 305,000,000,000 naira, which is a large sum of money.
He noted that, aside from the 40 billion provided to INEC each year, this is the greatest amount seen in previous years.
Mr Adeoye added that what is important is that we should also not shy away from the need to audit, to call INEC, to be accountable in terms of auditing the accounts.
“There is no amount spent on democracy that we can say is too much because we need to deepen democracy.
“We need to broaden this democratic space, and all over the world, elections cost money.
Speaking further Mr Adeoye noted that the cost of electoral commissions depends on a lot of factors, The size of the democracy,
Nigeria is the biggest democracy in Africa.
In terms of structure, we are talking about 179, 176,000 polling boots across the country.
“56,000, was recently added which now makes about 179,000 polling boots, we also look at the frequency of elections.
“When you look at all these things, it costs a lot of money and to sustain this kind of democratic structure, we need to invest in it.
“On the other hand Nigeria’s budget is about 20.5 trillion. Most of these projects we want to run, we don’t have the money, we have to finance debts and so on.
” So we have to balance it within the context of our economy. But we should also realise that this election is coming in 2023, We are not going to have another election until the next four years.
“We should be able to provide all of INEC’s needs and give them necessary assistance so that there will be no excuse for us.
Mr Adeoye opined that INEC to a very large extent has been able to establish the fact that it is credible .
President Muhammadu Buhari has once again reassured Nigerians that the 2023 elections will be free, fair and credible.
He discussed this during the celebration of his 80th birthday in the United States where he attended the US-Africa Leaders Summit. He says INEC has no excuse not to conduct credible, free and fair elections despite the attacks on its facilities, as the funds it requested had been made available to it.
But, the commission disagrees with the President on this. INEC says its funds are overstretched by the attacks as it would have to rebuild and replace the destroyed facilities and buy back materials that were also destroyed.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/0Cc-zkbuhg0″ lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.tvcnews.tv/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
According to INEC, since the conduct of the 2019 general election, it has experienced a total of 50 attacks on its facilities in different parts of the country.
In his reaction on TVCBreakfast, Executive Director journalist for Democratic Rights, (JODAR) Adewale Adeoye said the two positions are contraries.
“The President is saying he as made provision, which is true, but INEC is also saying that there are some challenges that we are having at the moment which we did not anticipate.
According to him, Nigeria is a transitional democracy, with around one dollar per voter in regular democracies.
“In a transitional democracy all over the world, it is rated between four to eight dollars, but in post conflict countries it’s about $9.
“We are talking about 100 million voters in Nigeria, for an average voter, we are expected to spend between 4 to $6, that is a lot of money.
“Nobody expected the destruction of INEC offices across the country.
“Provision of security for INEC offices is not the job of INEC, it is job of security officials.
“We must consider both arguments and develop a position to guarantee that the election is held and that INEC’s expectations are realized.
“INEC is requesting 305,000,000,000 naira, which is a large sum of money.
He noted that, aside from the 40 billion provided to INEC each year, this is the greatest amount seen in previous years.
Mr Adeoye added that what is important is that we should also not shy away from the need to audit, to call INEC, to be accountable in terms of auditing the accounts.
“There is no amount spent on democracy that we can say is too much because we need to deepen democracy.
“We need to broaden this democratic space, and all over the world, elections cost money.
Speaking further Mr Adeoye noted that the cost of electoral commissions depends on a lot of factors, The size of the democracy,
Nigeria is the biggest democracy in Africa.
In terms of structure, we are talking about 179, 176,000 polling boots across the country.
“56,000, was recently added which now makes about 179,000 polling boots, we also look at the frequency of elections.
“When you look at all these things, it costs a lot of money and to sustain this kind of democratic structure, we need to invest in it.
“On the other hand Nigeria’s budget is about 20.5 trillion. Most of these projects we want to run, we don’t have the money, we have to finance debts and so on.
” So we have to balance it within the context of our economy. But we should also realise that this election is coming in 2023, We are not going to have another election until the next four years.
“We should be able to provide all of INEC’s needs and give them necessary assistance so that there will be no excuse for us.
Mr Adeoye opined that INEC to a very large extent has been able to establish the fact that it is credible .
President Muhammadu Buhari has once again reassured Nigerians that the 2023 elections will be free, fair and credible.
He discussed this during the celebration of his 80th birthday in the United States where he attended the US-Africa Leaders Summit. He says INEC has no excuse not to conduct credible, free and fair elections despite the attacks on its facilities, as the funds it requested had been made available to it.
But, the commission disagrees with the President on this. INEC says its funds are overstretched by the attacks as it would have to rebuild and replace the destroyed facilities and buy back materials that were also destroyed.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/0Cc-zkbuhg0″ lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.tvcnews.tv/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
According to INEC, since the conduct of the 2019 general election, it has experienced a total of 50 attacks on its facilities in different parts of the country.
In his reaction on TVCBreakfast, Executive Director journalist for Democratic Rights, (JODAR) Adewale Adeoye said the two positions are contraries.
“The President is saying he as made provision, which is true, but INEC is also saying that there are some challenges that we are having at the moment which we did not anticipate.
According to him, Nigeria is a transitional democracy, with around one dollar per voter in regular democracies.
“In a transitional democracy all over the world, it is rated between four to eight dollars, but in post conflict countries it’s about $9.
“We are talking about 100 million voters in Nigeria, for an average voter, we are expected to spend between 4 to $6, that is a lot of money.
“Nobody expected the destruction of INEC offices across the country.
“Provision of security for INEC offices is not the job of INEC, it is job of security officials.
“We must consider both arguments and develop a position to guarantee that the election is held and that INEC’s expectations are realized.
“INEC is requesting 305,000,000,000 naira, which is a large sum of money.
He noted that, aside from the 40 billion provided to INEC each year, this is the greatest amount seen in previous years.
Mr Adeoye added that what is important is that we should also not shy away from the need to audit, to call INEC, to be accountable in terms of auditing the accounts.
“There is no amount spent on democracy that we can say is too much because we need to deepen democracy.
“We need to broaden this democratic space, and all over the world, elections cost money.
Speaking further Mr Adeoye noted that the cost of electoral commissions depends on a lot of factors, The size of the democracy,
Nigeria is the biggest democracy in Africa.
In terms of structure, we are talking about 179, 176,000 polling boots across the country.
“56,000, was recently added which now makes about 179,000 polling boots, we also look at the frequency of elections.
“When you look at all these things, it costs a lot of money and to sustain this kind of democratic structure, we need to invest in it.
“On the other hand Nigeria’s budget is about 20.5 trillion. Most of these projects we want to run, we don’t have the money, we have to finance debts and so on.
” So we have to balance it within the context of our economy. But we should also realise that this election is coming in 2023, We are not going to have another election until the next four years.
“We should be able to provide all of INEC’s needs and give them necessary assistance so that there will be no excuse for us.
Mr Adeoye opined that INEC to a very large extent has been able to establish the fact that it is credible .
President Muhammadu Buhari has once again reassured Nigerians that the 2023 elections will be free, fair and credible.
He discussed this during the celebration of his 80th birthday in the United States where he attended the US-Africa Leaders Summit. He says INEC has no excuse not to conduct credible, free and fair elections despite the attacks on its facilities, as the funds it requested had been made available to it.
But, the commission disagrees with the President on this. INEC says its funds are overstretched by the attacks as it would have to rebuild and replace the destroyed facilities and buy back materials that were also destroyed.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/0Cc-zkbuhg0″ lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.tvcnews.tv/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
According to INEC, since the conduct of the 2019 general election, it has experienced a total of 50 attacks on its facilities in different parts of the country.
In his reaction on TVCBreakfast, Executive Director journalist for Democratic Rights, (JODAR) Adewale Adeoye said the two positions are contraries.
“The President is saying he as made provision, which is true, but INEC is also saying that there are some challenges that we are having at the moment which we did not anticipate.
According to him, Nigeria is a transitional democracy, with around one dollar per voter in regular democracies.
“In a transitional democracy all over the world, it is rated between four to eight dollars, but in post conflict countries it’s about $9.
“We are talking about 100 million voters in Nigeria, for an average voter, we are expected to spend between 4 to $6, that is a lot of money.
“Nobody expected the destruction of INEC offices across the country.
“Provision of security for INEC offices is not the job of INEC, it is job of security officials.
“We must consider both arguments and develop a position to guarantee that the election is held and that INEC’s expectations are realized.
“INEC is requesting 305,000,000,000 naira, which is a large sum of money.
He noted that, aside from the 40 billion provided to INEC each year, this is the greatest amount seen in previous years.
Mr Adeoye added that what is important is that we should also not shy away from the need to audit, to call INEC, to be accountable in terms of auditing the accounts.
“There is no amount spent on democracy that we can say is too much because we need to deepen democracy.
“We need to broaden this democratic space, and all over the world, elections cost money.
Speaking further Mr Adeoye noted that the cost of electoral commissions depends on a lot of factors, The size of the democracy,
Nigeria is the biggest democracy in Africa.
In terms of structure, we are talking about 179, 176,000 polling boots across the country.
“56,000, was recently added which now makes about 179,000 polling boots, we also look at the frequency of elections.
“When you look at all these things, it costs a lot of money and to sustain this kind of democratic structure, we need to invest in it.
“On the other hand Nigeria’s budget is about 20.5 trillion. Most of these projects we want to run, we don’t have the money, we have to finance debts and so on.
” So we have to balance it within the context of our economy. But we should also realise that this election is coming in 2023, We are not going to have another election until the next four years.
“We should be able to provide all of INEC’s needs and give them necessary assistance so that there will be no excuse for us.
Mr Adeoye opined that INEC to a very large extent has been able to establish the fact that it is credible .
President Muhammadu Buhari has once again reassured Nigerians that the 2023 elections will be free, fair and credible.
He discussed this during the celebration of his 80th birthday in the United States where he attended the US-Africa Leaders Summit. He says INEC has no excuse not to conduct credible, free and fair elections despite the attacks on its facilities, as the funds it requested had been made available to it.
But, the commission disagrees with the President on this. INEC says its funds are overstretched by the attacks as it would have to rebuild and replace the destroyed facilities and buy back materials that were also destroyed.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/0Cc-zkbuhg0″ lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.tvcnews.tv/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
According to INEC, since the conduct of the 2019 general election, it has experienced a total of 50 attacks on its facilities in different parts of the country.
In his reaction on TVCBreakfast, Executive Director journalist for Democratic Rights, (JODAR) Adewale Adeoye said the two positions are contraries.
“The President is saying he as made provision, which is true, but INEC is also saying that there are some challenges that we are having at the moment which we did not anticipate.
According to him, Nigeria is a transitional democracy, with around one dollar per voter in regular democracies.
“In a transitional democracy all over the world, it is rated between four to eight dollars, but in post conflict countries it’s about $9.
“We are talking about 100 million voters in Nigeria, for an average voter, we are expected to spend between 4 to $6, that is a lot of money.
“Nobody expected the destruction of INEC offices across the country.
“Provision of security for INEC offices is not the job of INEC, it is job of security officials.
“We must consider both arguments and develop a position to guarantee that the election is held and that INEC’s expectations are realized.
“INEC is requesting 305,000,000,000 naira, which is a large sum of money.
He noted that, aside from the 40 billion provided to INEC each year, this is the greatest amount seen in previous years.
Mr Adeoye added that what is important is that we should also not shy away from the need to audit, to call INEC, to be accountable in terms of auditing the accounts.
“There is no amount spent on democracy that we can say is too much because we need to deepen democracy.
“We need to broaden this democratic space, and all over the world, elections cost money.
Speaking further Mr Adeoye noted that the cost of electoral commissions depends on a lot of factors, The size of the democracy,
Nigeria is the biggest democracy in Africa.
In terms of structure, we are talking about 179, 176,000 polling boots across the country.
“56,000, was recently added which now makes about 179,000 polling boots, we also look at the frequency of elections.
“When you look at all these things, it costs a lot of money and to sustain this kind of democratic structure, we need to invest in it.
“On the other hand Nigeria’s budget is about 20.5 trillion. Most of these projects we want to run, we don’t have the money, we have to finance debts and so on.
” So we have to balance it within the context of our economy. But we should also realise that this election is coming in 2023, We are not going to have another election until the next four years.
“We should be able to provide all of INEC’s needs and give them necessary assistance so that there will be no excuse for us.
Mr Adeoye opined that INEC to a very large extent has been able to establish the fact that it is credible .
President Muhammadu Buhari has once again reassured Nigerians that the 2023 elections will be free, fair and credible.
He discussed this during the celebration of his 80th birthday in the United States where he attended the US-Africa Leaders Summit. He says INEC has no excuse not to conduct credible, free and fair elections despite the attacks on its facilities, as the funds it requested had been made available to it.
But, the commission disagrees with the President on this. INEC says its funds are overstretched by the attacks as it would have to rebuild and replace the destroyed facilities and buy back materials that were also destroyed.
[wonderplugin_video iframe=”https://youtu.be/0Cc-zkbuhg0″ lightbox=0 lightboxsize=1 lightboxwidth=960 lightboxheight=540 autoopen=0 autoopendelay=0 autoclose=0 lightboxtitle=”” lightboxgroup=”” lightboxshownavigation=0 showimage=”” lightboxoptions=”” videowidth=600 videoheight=400 keepaspectratio=1 autoplay=0 loop=0 videocss=”position:relative;display:block;background-color:#000;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;margin:0 auto;” playbutton=”https://www.tvcnews.tv/wp-content/plugins/wonderplugin-video-embed/engine/playvideo-64-64-0.png”]
According to INEC, since the conduct of the 2019 general election, it has experienced a total of 50 attacks on its facilities in different parts of the country.
In his reaction on TVCBreakfast, Executive Director journalist for Democratic Rights, (JODAR) Adewale Adeoye said the two positions are contraries.
“The President is saying he as made provision, which is true, but INEC is also saying that there are some challenges that we are having at the moment which we did not anticipate.
According to him, Nigeria is a transitional democracy, with around one dollar per voter in regular democracies.
“In a transitional democracy all over the world, it is rated between four to eight dollars, but in post conflict countries it’s about $9.
“We are talking about 100 million voters in Nigeria, for an average voter, we are expected to spend between 4 to $6, that is a lot of money.
“Nobody expected the destruction of INEC offices across the country.
“Provision of security for INEC offices is not the job of INEC, it is job of security officials.
“We must consider both arguments and develop a position to guarantee that the election is held and that INEC’s expectations are realized.
“INEC is requesting 305,000,000,000 naira, which is a large sum of money.
He noted that, aside from the 40 billion provided to INEC each year, this is the greatest amount seen in previous years.
Mr Adeoye added that what is important is that we should also not shy away from the need to audit, to call INEC, to be accountable in terms of auditing the accounts.
“There is no amount spent on democracy that we can say is too much because we need to deepen democracy.
“We need to broaden this democratic space, and all over the world, elections cost money.
Speaking further Mr Adeoye noted that the cost of electoral commissions depends on a lot of factors, The size of the democracy,
Nigeria is the biggest democracy in Africa.
In terms of structure, we are talking about 179, 176,000 polling boots across the country.
“56,000, was recently added which now makes about 179,000 polling boots, we also look at the frequency of elections.
“When you look at all these things, it costs a lot of money and to sustain this kind of democratic structure, we need to invest in it.
“On the other hand Nigeria’s budget is about 20.5 trillion. Most of these projects we want to run, we don’t have the money, we have to finance debts and so on.
” So we have to balance it within the context of our economy. But we should also realise that this election is coming in 2023, We are not going to have another election until the next four years.
“We should be able to provide all of INEC’s needs and give them necessary assistance so that there will be no excuse for us.
Mr Adeoye opined that INEC to a very large extent has been able to establish the fact that it is credible .
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Large amount of Chinese ceramics shards unearthed by archaeologists
President Buhari expresses shock over amount of foreign currency in circulation
Police retirement benefits under defunct defined scheme could amount N1.84trn-PenCom
Endorsement of Obi by Obasanjo will amount to Nothing – APC
