2023 polls: Avoid acts, utterances capable of overheating polity – NOA urges Nigerians

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has appealed to Nigerians to remain calm and avoid acts and utterances capable of overheating the polity as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) collates the results of the 2023 general elections, especially the presidential election.

The Director-General of NOA, Dr. Garba Abari, made the appeal in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

He urged Nigerians to conduct themselves with decorum especially regarding the still on-going collation of results.

Abari called on Nigerians to be patient and allow for the completion of the result collation process, bearing in mind that there are available legal means for redress of electoral grievances.

In his words: “As a people, we have invested so much in the 2023 General Elections, both as a nation and as individual citizens, to let anything truncate the process at any point. I call on political, religious and traditional leaders and indeed all leaders of thought, to not only exercise caution in their utterances at this time, but also to please use their influence to promote peace, restraint and recourse to legal means alone at this critical moment of our national experience.

“Furthermore, I call on Nigerian youths to shun any voice of temptation urging resort to any unlawful means in ventilating any objections you may have to the election result collation process and its outcome. Remember that no Nigerian, young or old, has anything to gain from setting the nation on the path of violence and instability.

“The survival of the country far outweighs any other consideration and nothing should provoke our people even at this time. We have, as a people, worked together to achieve the peace that we enjoy today. We have worked hard to ensure that this election happened peacefully. We have more to gain as a nation by remaining peaceful and orderly as we await the result of the election.”