Nigeria will be plunged into a constitutional crisis if the March 28 and April 11 elections are postponed any further.
This was the position of eminent lawyer and member of the Situation Room, Clement Nwankwo.
Nwankwo spoke on Tuesday when the United Nations Under-Secretary-General on Political Affairs, Jerry Feltman, visited the Situation Room Secretariat and met with leaders of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room.
Feltman was accompanied on the visit by the UN Resident Representative in Nigeria, Daouda Toure and the Special Representative of the UN on West Africa, Mohammed Ibn Chambas.
Feltman said he was in the country to meet with stakeholders in Nigeria, especially on the general elections.
He stated that the elections were of great international significance.
Feltman said he will be meeting with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, security chiefs, the police, political parties and government officials.
He also said the UN was concerned about the possibility of violence before, during and after the elections and that he will be urging all stakeholders to avoid electoral violence, stating that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has the full support of the Secretary General.
Speaking on behalf of the Situation Room, Nwankwo, the Executive Director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, said that CSOs in Nigeria are holding the Nigerian government accountable to its commitment to support INEC to conduct the elections on March 28 and April 11, 2015.
He said that the country could not afford the fallout and constitutional crisis that would be created by a failure to conduct elections on the set dates.
Other Situation Room members present at the meeting included Cynthia Mbamalu of YIAGA, Esther Uzoma of Proactive Gender Initiative and Agianpe Ashang of PLAC/Situation Room Secretariat.
They all spoke on the work the civil society is doing to promote civic awareness and mitigate violence.
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