Nigerians in US hail polls

Posted by admin Elections 2011 Sunday, April 10th, 2011

Nigerians living in the United States have commended the conduct of the National Assembly elections held across the country on Saturday.

Nigerians, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria in New York, said the elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission across the country were largely peaceful and free of the significant glitches of past elections.

The Nigerians said they relied on local media organisations that gave live multimedia reports of the elections from locations around the country.

Others said they kept tab with foreign media reportage of events and frequent telephone calls to contacts at home.

“I contacted people during accreditation and after voting from various parts of the country. The recurring expression was everything was going or went on smoothly,” a Nigeria living in Dallas, Texas, Dr. Acho Orabuchi, said.

“However, there were pockets of violence in some areas in the nation, depicting the cowardice of the perpetrators of those acts,’’ he said

Orabuchi described the awareness of the electorate as “unparalleled,’’ stressing that voters were “aware of the issues unlike in the past.’’

“People were eager to go out to vote without fear of pockets of violence, particularly the bomb blasts preceding the National Assembly elections,’’ he added.

A Nigerian in New York, Sir Basil Njoku, said initial assessments suggested that the

April 9 elections were largely peaceful and free of the irregularities that characterised the previous elections.

“ But I believe that in the next few hours when the results are called we will know the true nature of the elections and people’s reaction whether their wishes were respected.

He cautioned that “if the will of the people is not respected, it undermines the advancement of democracy and the whole nation suffers.’’

A communication expert based in Maryland, Mr. Chris Malaka, described initial comments made by international observers on the election as very instructive.

-Punchwp_posts