Nigerians anticipate peaceful transition regardless of tension

Some Nigerians on Saturday, expressed optimism of a peaceful 2023 election and transition from the outgoing Buhari administration to a new one, to be inaugurated on May 29.

A cross section of Nigerians that spoke with our reporter in Lagos said that the electioneering campaign bar has been raised for people to vote for the best candidate in all elective positions.

It was reported that in spite of the constraining variables such as the subsisting cashless policy and the artificial fuel scarcity, the people are optimistic of a good transition in May.

Dr Wale Adewale, a political scientist and a university lecturer at the Lagos State University (LASU), said that Nigerians have become more politically conscious that enfused fierce competition in the polity.

According to him, the campaigns across parties have been encouraging but lacked desirable agreement between the people, political parties and the candidates.

“Nigerians are patiently discarding those disturbing variables in the system with high hopes of attaining a better society after the election,” he said.

Mr Gab Ireaku, Director, Social Re-engineering Network, said that hard times have awoken people from slumber to begin to pursue an improved system through the forthcoming election.

The social justice crusader, whose organisation has been in the vanguard for good electioneering process in Nigeria, described people’s participation in voting as one that confers legitimacy to the process.

Ireaku dismissed any possibility of election-induced fracas in the society, noting that Nigerians are tired of hard times and so are ready to overturn the nation’s misfortunes through the election.

Mrs Anglia Orji, a business woman at the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, said that everyone that wished to vote must have gotten their voters’ card by now.

She said that the masses were ready to change the system that has held them disadvantaged. Unlike previous elections, the coming polls would be devoid of violence rather there would be mass turnout.

The Lagos chapter Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Stephen Adegbite, called on the faithful to present Nigeria’s election as a supplication to God for a smooth process.

Meanwhile, the electoral body has indicated its readiness to conduct the polls to ensure that Nigerians decide who leads them.

In the same vein, President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday inaugurated the Presidential Transition Council that would oversee a smooth transition after the polls.