BVAS: Impact Of INEC’s Lapses On Presidential Election Will Be Determined By Court – NBA

President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, SAN, has clarified that the NBA has no preferred candidate in the 2023 presidential election and advised his colleagues to await the final decision of the courts on suits challenging the outcome of the poll.

His statement, which was made available to THE WHISTLER on Tuesday night, came after several lawyers vowed to challenge the outcome as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, on the grounds of alleged rigging and failure of INEC to follow due process.

Recall that in its interim report on the presidential election, the NBA situation room indicated that “only a quarter of the electorate were excellently impressed with the conduct of the ballots (27.1%) while the majority of the voters (64.6%) were somewhat satisfied. Only 8.2% rated the election poor or very poor.”

The findings did not go down well with several lawyers, particularly those who claim the election was marred by alleged malpractice.

Due to this, the NBA president had to clarify that the association is not supporting any of the presidential candidates.

“Let me, as a prelude, make it very clear that the NBA has no candidate in this election and would never have a candidate in any election; it is not a political party, has no affiliation with any political party either directly or indirectly and so is not sympathetic towards any political party.

“Therefore, whenever I speak from the privileged position of the NBA President, I do so conscious of these facts and, most particularly, always reminded of our primary responsibility as legal practitioners; to provide direction to the people and advance the cause of this nation.

“With the declaration of the results, it is now left for the court and tribunals, as the case may be, to pronounce on the impact of the lapses allegedly recorded on the use (or non-use) of BVAS and other alleged infractions on the day of the elections,” he stated.

However, Maikyau urged his colleagues not to lose sight of the progress recorded with the just concluded election conducted by INEC.

He cited the fact that for the bigwigs in politics to lose elections and for a party accused of having no structure (apparently the Labour party) to win in politicians’ strongholds, those are proofs that the voice of the Nigerian people was heard at the ballots.

“To be more specific, this was an election where much of what was hitherto thought an impossibility became possible: a sitting President’s party lost elections in his State; Lagos State flipped out of the control of the ruling party and the presidential candidate, now President-Elect; many governors lost their states and their senatorial ambitions; a vice presidential candidate lost in his State where he is a sitting Governor.

“Then we have the incredible story of a political party that was considered to be without grassroots structures, shaking up the political landscape and re-defining politics in Nigeria. While this was not the ultimate objective of the contests, as all candidates desired to breast the tape of victory at the polls, these achievements cannot be ignored, discounted, or discountenanced.

“When all these are put together, it may then be understood why I said that despite all the challenges, I recognize that we have made significant progress in our electoral process. I am certain that when the dust is settled, our politics will never be the same again.

“It remains my view that this particular election, without prejudice to the outcomes of any post-election challenge(s), will go down in history as the most revolutionary of all the elections ever held in this country,” Maikyau added.