The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has denied that it predicted the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 general elections.
In a statement titled: Correcting a Media Error: USIP Makes No Prediction on Nigerian Election Tuesday, the Institute said it’s work on elections was confined to helping nations avoid electoral violence.
Part of the statement reads: “A few Nigerian newspapers reported erroneously this week that the US Institute of Peace has made a prediction about the possible outcome of Nigeria’s 2019 presidential election. USIP never makes predictions about election outcomes and has not done so in this case. The Institute’s work on elections is confined to helping nations avoid electoral violence.
“The erroneous news accounts misrepresent USIP’s recent 20-page report on the risks to a peaceful 2019 election in Nigeria. This study is based on interviews across the country with more than 200 Nigerian respondents—election administrators, political party representatives, security officials, civil society and youth groups, the media, traditional and religious leaders, prominent community figures, business people, academics and others.”
USIP stated that the report noted that, in the interviews, “some respondents” discussed their own views of Nigerian public perceptions about an election outcome. It added that a Nigerian news account mis-reported this passage as a USIP prediction of the outcome, and other Nigerian news organisations repeated the error.
