It has been a litany of discordant tunes among the political class in the last one week, concerning whether or not Nigeria should go ahead with general elections as scheduled. Assistant Editor (North), CHUKS EHIRIM, writes on the gathering storm.
The last one week appeared to have been the longest since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999. The week was supposed to have been used by political parties, which are serious in canvassing for support from the Nigerian electorate, for the February 14 and 28 elections. But this was not really so. Rather than engage in that last minute mop-up campaigns, the parties got engrossed in petty arguments and debates regarding whether the elections should hold as scheduled or shifted to different dates altogether.
A case for poll shift
The argument was actually sparked off by the appearances, in Abuja and other parts of the country, of some motley crowd of what some people have described as “paid political jobbers”, who were agitating that the elections should be postponed. Their reason for making this demand is that not all registered voters in the country had gotten their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), which the election management body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had made prerequisite for anybody to vote in the election.
At first, not a few people regarded this class of persons as mere noise-makers whose efforts would gather no sufficient momentum to attract the attention of serious members of the public. They were wrong, however. As days rolled by, the agitators continued to increase in number. At the last count, prominent Nigerians, among them, those who were at the last National Conference in Abuja, such as Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, Dan Nwanyanwu, Tony Nyam and Mike Ozekhome had joined in the clamour for postponement of the elections. Their reason, too, was pegged on the non-availability of the PVCs.
Vote against postponement
But their stand equally jolted some other Nigerians who decided to speak up in condemnation of the strange advocacy for postponement of the elections. One of such persons is the former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dubem Onyia. In a press statement in Abuja, Onyia, who was a founding member of the PDP, called for calm and decorum in the run up to the 2015 general elections, stressing that the elections should not be about President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), but about Nigeria.
Onyia also advised politicians and their followers to show maturity in their conduct, so that at the end of the elections, the winner will be magnanimous enough to accommodate the loser and the loser humble enough to accept defeat and congratulate the winner. He noted that Nigeria’s presidency is beyond an individual, but the collective interest of the citizens of the country.
He noted that majority of those who fought for the liberation of Nigeria from the shackles of military dictatorship and later congregated into the PDP are now scattered in both the APC and PDP, adding that members of the two parties are brothers and should eschew violence in the quest for power. The former minister said the collateral damage the current tension in the country will bring will be better imagined than experienced.
He warned that the 2015 elections should not be shifted for whatever reasons, adding that no democrat will ever support a shift of the goal post at the middle of any match, be it football or politics.
“We must keep moving and ensure that we sustain this fragile democracy. We should also learn to put our fatherland first; we don’t want bloodshed. We should emulate Ghana where I have gone severally to observe their elections under the instrumentality of the ECOWAS Commission,” he added.
APC insists on original dates
The APC also joined in condemning the call for postponement of the elections.
Speaking at a forum in Abuja last Wednesday, the party’s National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun said his party had resolved not to accept any postponement of the general elections, insisting: “On February 14 we stand. APC reaffirms its commitment to fully participate in the general elections on February 14 and 28 as planned and will not accept any postponement.”
On the Council of State meeting, he said “The All Progressives Congress is aware that the presidency may attempt to drag members of the Council of State into its efforts to postpone the elections during the scheduled meeting of the Council on Thursday, February 5. Members of the Council of State are Nigerians who are held in very high esteem, and their involvement in a project that damages the democratic process will be a serious disservice to our national assets and leaders.
He added: “Our party is encouraged by the fact that INEC has restated in clear and unambiguous terms its determination and ability to conduct the elections as planned. It is the constitutional prerogative of INEC to set election dates which nonetheless should meet at least the minimum threshold of confidence.
“We recognise that it had challenges, but these are challenges that have been or are being seriously tackled by the Commission, and the engineered clamour for postponement is not helping the situation. Attempts to rubbish INEC’s preparations to achieve a postponement are being seen for what they are: a desperate ploy by the PDP administration to avoid certain electoral defeat.
“Unfortunately, in the process, the polity is being overheated to dangerous levels, with consequences that might be unpredictable at this stage.”
Also reacting to the heightened fears of election postponement, the Director of Media and Publicity to the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Garba Shehu, said there should be no excuse to deny Nigerians the right to exercise their franchise.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission is the custodian of the electoral process and should therefore be given a free hand to conduct the 2015 general elections in line with the laws of the land,” he said.
Other political parties join the fray
Apart from the APC, 10 other registered political parties equally rose in condemnation of the call for postponement of the elections. Addressing a joint press conference in Abuja, the parties, which were represented by their national leaders and presidential candidates, said: “We, the undersigned, on behalf of our political parties, are shocked at the conduct of some of our colleagues who have joined the infamous campaign to scuttle Nigeria’s hard-earned democracy by calling for the postponement of the general election barely a week before the election is to commence. We condemn, in the strongest terms possible, this underhand and undemocratic tactic meant to plunge our country into anarchy, on top of the debilitating state of insecurity which has become pervasive in the land.
“The call for the postponement of the general election has nothing to do with the preparedness of Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct the election or the pace of distribution and collection of Permanent Voters Card. INEC, the authority empowered by law to fix the date of the election, had said, countless times, it is ready and prepared to conduct a free, fair and credible election on February 14 and 28.
“As a matter of fact, Prof. Attahiru Jega, Chairman of INEC, and his colleagues in the Commission had stated at various times that they had four years to prepare for the election and they will deliver better election this time around. The military led by the Chief of Defence Staff had guaranteed adequate security on land and air for a successful and safe conduct of the 2015 general election. This ought to have settled the fears about the security of lives and property as well as of the electorates and INEC officials.
“Governors and citizens of the states under attack by insurgents have not complained either to the Independent National Electoral Commission or the executive and legislative arms of government that their citizens will be disenfranchised if elections were held in their states.
“The call for the postponement of the general election is, therefore, a call orchestrated by one of the political parties which has continued to invest huge sums of money to ensure the elections do not hold as scheduled, out of fear of losing power for the first time since 1999.
“We call on the Independent National Electoral Commission not to be intimidated by desperate elements and to proceed with its preparations for the general election as scheduled.”
The parties, which took this decision and their leaders include: PDM – Bashir Ibrahim (National Chairman), APA – Samaila Umar Sifawa (National Secretary), KP – Umar Mustapha (National Chairman), MPPP – Dale Falade (National Chairman), SDP – Dr. Sadiq Gombe (National Secretary), ADC – Mani Ahmad (Presidential Candidate), HDP – Ambrose Owuru (National Chairman), DPP – Gashon Benson (National Chairman), UPP – Chekwas Okorie (National Chairman and Presidential Candidate), AP – Mohammed Nalado (National Chairman).
By last Thursday, however, the picture of events became somehow clearer when the Council of State, at a meeting in Abuja, encouraged INEC to go about its constitutional responsibility in conducting the election. Many interpreted the Council’s decision as a major setback to the poll postponement agitation.
Among those at the meeting were former Heads of State – Yakubu Gowon, Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar and President Shehu Shagari and former Head of Interim National Government, Ernest Shonekan. Others were Senate President, David Mark; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal. States governors were also in attendance.