They Want President Buhari to Intervene in Assuaging Pains. Ten days to the Presidential and National Assembly election, Civil Society Organisations and Stakeholders in the electoral process have identified danger points that could pose a threat to the 2023 general elections with a call on President Buhari to assuage the pains Nigerians are going though
They Want President Buhari to Intervene in Assuaging Pains.
Ten days to the Presidential and National Assembly election, Civil Society Organisations and Stakeholders in the electoral process have identified danger points that could pose a threat to the 2023 general elections with a call on President Buhari to assuage the pains Nigerians are going though as a result of fuel and Naira scarcity.
The Civil Society Organisations who are partners under the European Union Support to Democratic Governance (EU-SDGN 2) project at a joint press conference in Abuja on Wednesday express their worries on several developments in the polity that pose grave danger to democracy and especially the forthcoming election.
Among others, the group identified threats of violence and protests across the country because of the Naira redesign policy and fuel scarcity; intolerance on the part of some state governors, polemics and verbal attacks by some candidates; voters migration, and worrisome judgements from the courts.
But the representative of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) assured the audience that that the electoral umpire was ready to conduct credible elections on February 25 and March 11, this year. “We have done so much by preparing our officials, equipment and deploying them to states. Out of 14 activities, we have accomplished 12. The question is: are the other stakeholders ready? The question is for all Nigerians to answer”, he said.
Setting the ball rolling with a detailed analysis of the political situation in the country, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, Executive Director, International Press Center (IPC) as it affects the media and the conduct of the elections. Hear him; ” the media will not be able to play its role of providing credible information that will make citizens to make informed choices if we have violence as witnessed in the course of the campaigns in some parts of the country. Political rallies were disrupted; in one instance, a presidential campaign was cancelled because of fear of insecurity.
“This will also affect the ability of the media to inform citizens about what candidates are promising that they will do. So, from the point of view of security, its threat to security, we are deeply concerned. There is one issue we cannot run away from that has to do with the whole idea of this economic policy. That it is to prevent certain politicians or members of the ruling class to have access to money to buy the electorates.
“We need to ask a number of questions because sometimes, you have what is called ‘the law of unintended consequences’. Is it not possible for example, that instead, it might even induce vote buying because where people are desperate, they will ask for money to eat and buy biscuits for their children. N500 will become big money and not even N5000 to bribe someone as voter.
“The other issue had to do with apathy. And this has been one of the major concerns of the EU/SDGN in terms of the voter education we have embarked upon to ensure that people collect their PVC and those people collected their PVCs. If people are hungry, they are likely going to be angry and if they are angry, supposedly they are so angry and they say ‘to hell with the elections, why should I go and vote when I have not been able to eat.
“So, we are worried because of this unintended law of the economic policy that have been imposed on the country. We feel that we should speak out because at the end of the day, it is not just about the media doing its work, but it is about having the enabling environment that allows the INEC to conduct credible elections. He said the allegiance of the Judiciary and law enforcement agents should be to the country adding that: “we look forward to adequate protection of journalists. Not like in previous elections where journalists were harassed. We don’t want the media to be blamed for anything untoward”.
Still on enabling environment for the media to do its job, Dr. Akin Akingbulu, Executive Director, Institute for Media and Society (IMS) raised alarm that few weeks after the Zamfara state government sent some journalists out of the state, the state government has also given all Non- Governmental Organisation the red flag to leave the state. “It is a cause for worry. If the instruction stands in Zamfara, election observers, the media may not be able to do their work,” he stressed.
He urged stakeholders to call on the governor of Zamfara state to revoke the instruction and provide a level playing ground for the media and CSO to operate in the state. He expressed worry that some states may want to copy the wrong steps the Zamfara government had taken should the dictatorial instruction is not withdrawn.
Dr. Akingbulu also drew attention to the pathetic situation of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) stressing that Sections 6 and 23 of the NBC Act allows higher political authorities to dictate content to the regulatory body and they are duty bound to obey. He called on the ministerial authority to guarantee freedom and independence stressing that the body should prove that it can guarantee level playing ground for electronic media organisations.
Dr Jake Ekpelle, CEO/ Founder, The Albino Foundation said he was worried by the effects the newly introduced economic policy of government would have on the life of People With Disability (PWD) adding that the execution of the policy should be done in a way that PWD should not suffer untold hardship before they could access their money in banks.
Aside the economic policy challenges, Dr. Ekpelle said he was worried by the darts being thrown by candidates and surrogates to attack themselves. He also condemned the use of surrogates to fight media organisations.
While noting that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had done a great deal of work with inclusivity, he called on the electoral umpire, particularly, the operations department to deploy and use the dashboard in the custody of INEC. “The community of disability believe the BVAS has come to stay and it is the device that will aid free, fair and credible elections”, he said.
For Mr. Samson Itodo, Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, INEC’s preparation and how the scarcity of the Naira will impact on the logistics of INEC was of great concern, stressing that the electoral body needed to give Nigerians update on their meeting with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited.
Similarly, the Civil Society Organisations, are worried about voters migration to some polling units wondering how voters would be able to locate and verify their polling units seamlessly to avoid chaos.
Mr. Itodo expressed worry over the kind of judgements coming from courts stressing that for constitutional democracy to thrive, the citizens must have faith in the judiciary.
INEC Director of Voter Education, Mr.Victor Aluko was emphatic that the electoral umpire was ready to conduct credible elections on February 25 and March 11, this year. “We have done so much by preparing our officials, equipment and deploying them to states. Out of 14 activities, we have accomplished 12. The question is are other stakeholders ready? The question is for all Nigerians to answer”, he said.
He said INEC has started “operation know your polling units “stressing that prospective could access the INEC portals to know their polling units and that those who registered afresh would get a sms from the Commission thing them their exact polling units.
In addition, he said a directive has gone out to Electoral Officers that the voters register should be pasted at polling units adding that; ” most of the polling units are well known, what we did is to decongest polling units with high number of voters. It will not be difficult to locate”. An Assistant Presiding Officer would receive prospective voters and check their names and advice them the appropriate polling unit to vote.
Speaking on preparations for the elections Mr Aluko said tags would be provided and journalists should be able to collect their tags on Friday while INEC would begin daily briefing of its activities from Saturday while Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) would brief at the state level.
His words;” information sharing would be top notch. We’ll not hide anything”.
