On January 12 2023, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, OON, SAN constituted the NBA Election Working Group (NBA-EWG), chaired by Mrs. Linda Rose Bala, the 1st Vice President of the NBA. The NBA-EWG eventually deployed over 1000 INEC accredited observers drawn from the 128 Branches of the NBA. These lawyers-observers observed the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections which held on 25th February, 2023 and which continued in some parts of the country until 26th February, 2023. The NBA-EWG’s observation of the electoral process continued until the final collations and declarations of the results. The NBA President, Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, SAN was also physically present to lead the observations of the elections in FCT, Abuja.
Aside the toll-free lines and NBA social media handles, the NBA-EWG for the first time utilized online forms and analytics tools to collect real-time data from the field during the elections process. This application can identify the geo-location of the observer. With this, reports received in pictorial or video forms were verifiable and confirmed using the app’s features. The form and questions that were filled out by NBA observers can be found in the link here: https://zfrmz.com/pDugaWou61B4YLczjP7d. Also, the NBA President set up the NBA 2023 Election Situation Room at the NBA Headquarters to receive and harmonise reports of the NBA Election Observers from across the country on the conduct of the 2023 General Elections.
