PAUL ARHEWE 30/03/2011 03:35:00
The long anticipated wait is almost over with barely two days to the April polls. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured us that all is in position to ensure well-conducted national elections, starting with the parliamentary poll on this Saturday; the presidential poll is slated for April 9, and the gubernatorial and state legislative elections for April 16. Four years after the last general elections, and a hasty preparation that visibly began only last year with a princely 86 billion Naira to fund the exercise in order to avert hitches, should we now as a country, say we have gotten it right? And does the ball now lies in INEC’s court which will bring about a perfect election that the country has dearly sought for? Not at all! Just as OBJ was alleged to have once said; even if Jesus should conduct an election in Nigeria there will still be foul cry; INEC with its staffers and ad-hoc staff cannot alone make us get it right 100 per cent.
The task at hand now is for all Nigerians to make this exercise violence free and obstruct any move geared towards rigging. This would not only save us from shame, as the rest of the world is keenly watching, it will make the country a true symbol African democracy, which has been the aspiration and expectation of other countries in the continent. INEC alone cannot avert violence and prevent ballot box-snatching in the 774 local government areas in the country. It is every Nigerian’s duty to ensure miscreants don’t have a field day in disturbing the peaceful conduct of these polls. The move to use serialised ballot boxes for the elections is a good idea, but, this cannot totally prevent rigging. Any serialised box can be emptied with the legitimate contents to be refilled with forged voters’ materials. Thus, complete vigilance from both INEC staff and the electorate is required to frustrate election mal-practices. The hell-bound riggers won’t stop at nothing than seeing they fraudulently forced their candidates on us. The numbers of culprits nabbed by police with INEC materials in the past two weeks is on the rise. This is the more reason that all Nigerians with the mind-set to see things work for this country should wake up this time around and shun those beggarly incentives some politicians have used in time past in blindfolding electorates. This clarion call is very important at this time that our democracy is yet to move from its nascent stage to a consolidated one. Indeed as a country, there are many issues that should capture our attention as we anticipate a flawless exercise this time around. The last INEC’s registration exercise in January, as expected, was not devoid of discrepancies; multiple registrations were recorded. Report shows that about 870,612 duplicated registrations were uncovered. Even after the registration exercise, many attempts were made with collaboration of some in-house personnel to beat the ‘sophisticated’ computerised system the electoral body established. The Commonwealth Observer team, led by former Botswana President Festus Mogae, recently raised fear that violence in some parts of the country may threaten the nationwide polls. While this proclamation may not come as a surprise to many, it is the duty of traditional leaders, religious clerics and party chieftains to control their followers and our security forces also have a huge role to play here to scuttle any plan for unleashing deadly onslaughts and skirmishes, fast becoming the order of the day in some parts of the country. The Akwa Ibom mayhem last week which resulted in the burning of hundreds of cars and trucks, the frequent uprisings in Jos and other areas in the country would normally give a cause for concern. Though, one does not see these uprisings as a major threat that can totally mar the overall outcome of forth coming elections. But we can’t predict the extent the overzealous politicians will go to attain their ambitions. Notwithstanding, all hands should be on deck to make Nigeria respect the votes of its people, through truly free and fair polls.
The task at hand now is for all Nigerians to make this exercise violence free and obstruct any move geared towards rigging. This would not only save us from shame, as the rest of the world is keenly watching, it will make the country a true symbol African democracy, which has been the aspiration and expectation of other countries in the continent. INEC alone cannot avert violence and prevent ballot box-snatching in the 774 local government areas in the country. It is every Nigerian’s duty to ensure miscreants don’t have a field day in disturbing the peaceful conduct of these polls. The move to use serialised ballot boxes for the elections is a good idea, but, this cannot totally prevent rigging. Any serialised box can be emptied with the legitimate contents to be refilled with forged voters’ materials. Thus, complete vigilance from both INEC staff and the electorate is required to frustrate election mal-practices. The hell-bound riggers won’t stop at nothing than seeing they fraudulently forced their candidates on us. The numbers of culprits nabbed by police with INEC materials in the past two weeks is on the rise. This is the more reason that all Nigerians with the mind-set to see things work for this country should wake up this time around and shun those beggarly incentives some politicians have used in time past in blindfolding electorates. This clarion call is very important at this time that our democracy is yet to move from its nascent stage to a consolidated one. Indeed as a country, there are many issues that should capture our attention as we anticipate a flawless exercise this time around. The last INEC’s registration exercise in January, as expected, was not devoid of discrepancies; multiple registrations were recorded. Report shows that about 870,612 duplicated registrations were uncovered. Even after the registration exercise, many attempts were made with collaboration of some in-house personnel to beat the ‘sophisticated’ computerised system the electoral body established. The Commonwealth Observer team, led by former Botswana President Festus Mogae, recently raised fear that violence in some parts of the country may threaten the nationwide polls. While this proclamation may not come as a surprise to many, it is the duty of traditional leaders, religious clerics and party chieftains to control their followers and our security forces also have a huge role to play here to scuttle any plan for unleashing deadly onslaughts and skirmishes, fast becoming the order of the day in some parts of the country. The Akwa Ibom mayhem last week which resulted in the burning of hundreds of cars and trucks, the frequent uprisings in Jos and other areas in the country would normally give a cause for concern. Though, one does not see these uprisings as a major threat that can totally mar the overall outcome of forth coming elections. But we can’t predict the extent the overzealous politicians will go to attain their ambitions. Notwithstanding, all hands should be on deck to make Nigeria respect the votes of its people, through truly free and fair polls.
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