President Muhammadu Buhari says electoral reforms by his administration helped to tame the influence of political godfathers and moneybags, and paved the way for ordinary people to win elections.
Mr Buhari, who is set to leave office on Monday, stated this in his farewell national broadcast on Sunday.
“To ensure that our democracy remains resilient and our elected representatives remain accountable to the people, I am leaving behind an electoral process which guarantees that votes count, results are credible, elections are fair and transparent and the influence of money in politics reduced to the barest minimum. And Nigerians can elect leaders of their choice.
“We are already seeing the outcome of this process as it provided an even playing field where persons without any political God-Father or access to money defeated other well-resourced candidates,” he said.
Mr Buhari signed the amended Electoral Act in 2022, which introduced a number of reforms including the use of technology in the election.
Also, ahead of the election, he introduced the controversial currency redesign policy which created a scarcity of the naira during the elections.
Despite the hardship that trailed the policy, Mr Buhari had justified the policy with the argument that it helped to curb vote buying during the last elections.
Indeed, several upsets were recorded during the last general elections, and many believe that the policy played a major role.
But the policy was widely criticised by members of his party. Three governors in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) – Bello Matawalle of Zamfara, Yahaya Bello of Kogi and Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State – successfully challenged the policy at the Supreme Court. However, the verdict of the court came after the presidential election.
“Then it’s time for the election and you just bring this policy. For God, why is this coming at this time? What’s the importance of doing it now?”, Umar Ganduje, the governor of Kano, had said during a meeting ahead of the election.
I did not want to be just politically correct — Buhari
In his Sunday morning address, Mr Buhari said he was more interested in making “meaningful impacts” than just being politically correct.
“I never intended to be just politically correct but to do the correct things that will make a meaningful impact on the lives of the common Nigerian.
Also Read: Farewell Speech: I’m leaving Nigeria better than I met it in 2015 — Buhari (Full Text)
“This high expectation was not misplaced because, like the ordinary Nigerian, I had grown tired of watching the country progressively moving away from the path of correctness,” he said.
Mr Buhari will hand over to Bola Tinubu on Monday, after eight years in office.
