The first half of the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria that is the presidential and for members of the National Assembly elections is now in few hours. The elections are such that could make or mar the country.
Nigeria’s political history since her independence on October 1, 1960 has not been a blissful one and the journey to nationhood has been characterized with many existential challenges bothering on tribalism, nepotism, corruption, inequality, social injustice and many others. The country witnessed a politically motivated civil war between 1967 and 1970. The intrusion of the military into the governance of the country for such a long period of time also contributed to the woes of the nation. Neither has the return to democratic experiment on 29th May,1999 given the much expected dividends, due to bad leadership and insensitivity of the political class to the needs and demands of the electorate.
These challenges and more are in the front burner in the coming General Elections in Nigeria.
The need for peaceful and credible elections cannot be overemphasized. They foster and encourage good governance. For elections to be peaceful it has to be credible. It is not news that the electioneering process in Nigeria have been marred with irregularities and lack of internal democracies in political parties that have led to imposition of candidates. Issues of rigging of elections and manipulations of elections results are glaring. Compromises of the Electoral Act and inadequate logistics implementation by the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC contributed has also contributed to the set back witnessed before now.
Kudos must, therefore, be given to the current managers of INEC chaired by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu for injecting expertise and technology into the electoral system.
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) introduced by Professor Yakubu and his team has significantly raised hope for peaceful and credible elections in the coming general elections in Nigeria. The Federal Government must also be applauded for signing into law the Electoral Act 2022 to encourage credible polls. The efforts and perseverance of civil society groups, socio-political activists and the media who threw their weights for the passage of these laws by the National Assembly must not be forgotten.
However, despite these positive steps taken, the electoral umpire and security agencies must also pay attention to the existence of so called “CANVASSERS” who are not in the stakeholder chart in Nigeria’s electoral process but instead are monsters who perpetrate vote buying at the polling units. Their existence remains unhealthy and unacceptable as they are not the party agents who are accommodated to monitor the process. Such persons must be arrested and prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others.
To achieve a peaceful and credible elections in Nigeria, all hands must be on deck. It is a collective responsibility.
Everyone must therefore participate actively in the coming general elections to ensure Nigeria records the most peaceful and transparent exercise in its history. The clergy, traditional rulers, presidents general, civil society organizations, election monitors and observers, youths and women groups, students associations and unions must, in their domains and areas of influence, inform and educate others and do their best to encourage peaceful and credible elections.
The electorate should reject vote buying by voting for candidates of good character, competence and capacity who has the fear of God. Political parties’ candidates, officials and agents must be committed to peaceful and credible elections on Saturday and play politics according to the stipulated guidelines. Importantly, the INEC and security agencies must discharge their constitutional obligations creditably.
Written by RT. REVD. DR. OZIOMA OZOEMENA
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