The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has appealed to Nigerians to remain calm and avoid acts and utterances capable of overheating the polity.
Its Director-General, Dr Garba Abari, who made the appeal in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, cautioned Nigerians as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was collating the presidential election results.
Abari urged Nigerians to conduct themselves with decorum, especially regarding the still on-going collation of results.
He 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.
“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 exercise caution in their utterances at this time.
“They should also please use their influence to promote peace, restraint and recourse to legal means alone at this critical moment of our national experience.
“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 NOA chief said.
According to him, the survival of the country far outweighs any other consideration and nothing should provoke 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.
“Finally, we thank Nigerians for their impressive turnout for the election.
“That is why at this time, what is needed is calm and order to ensure that, as one people, we will overcome the challenges we have observed in the process,’’ he said. (NAN)
