2023 Polls showed Nigerians are the ‘political structure’ - Falana

Renowned human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) says the 2023 presidential polls were a true testament that power belongs to the people and the masses are the political structure, contrary to the general belief that political system has to be a big political party.

The pragmatic legal luminary stated this during an interview in a live telecast on Monday, March 13. Femi Falana (SAN) has urged INEC to learn from its shortcomings at the presidential polls to conduct a seamless gubernatorial election.

As reported by the Vanguard newspaper, he noted that despite the negatives recorded during the presidential polls, there were also positives that can be pointed out during the election.

His words: “There are some positive developments that were recorded.

“For instance, the myth of these political structures has been destroyed whereby people have shown that we are the structure, and the people are the structure ultimately.

“Secondly, young people have also shown this time around that we are going to determine the future of our country."

He further noted that Nigeria is becoming a politically mature state, and the 2023 presidential polls also rendered moneybag politics useless despite the problematic challenges inflicted on citizens by the government.

Falana also hailed the outcome of the national assembly elections and how some sitting governors who decided to turn the legislative chamber into a retirement ground lost their elections.

Similarly, he took a swipe at incumbent governors who could not deliver their state and lost woefully at the presidential polls.

He said: “Another development is that whereas the Senate chamber has been converted to a resting home for former governors; this time around, many of the governors lost their seats, they lost in the election and so they won’t be able to go back to the National Assembly.

“The other development is that sitting governors and sitting president could not win their states for their political parties."