• Friday, March 29, 2024
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BusinessDay

Why parties must resume campaign ahead of Saturday’s election

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By the calculation of most Nigerians, the Presidential and National Assembly elections would by now be referred to in past tense; but the postponement, a few hours to the exercise, has engendered discontent and weariness of heart.

This is in tandem with the wise words of King Solomon as recorded in his Book of Proverbs that Hope deferred makes the heart sickbut a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”

By Friday, the Nigerian voters were upbeat, looking forward to the elections to “come and go”. Many had even fixed other programmes for Saturday, February 23, 2019, without any premonition that such engagements would not hold.

The too much noise and promises that came out of various parties and their candidates were so inundating that people were just expecting normalcy to return. Supporters of some parties or candidates, who had expected to see the emergence of their preferred candidates felt castrated by the news of the postponement.

At the moment, morale is very low and needs to be boosted. Many of the electorates who had travelled very far from their places of residence to enable them exercise their franchise are now counting their losses as a result of the postponement. Such people are now in a quandary over their next line of action.

There are cases of some Diasporean Nigerians, who had to return just to perform their civic responsibility to their fatherland. These Nigerians, who have suffered great losses as a result of the shift in date of the date, are likely to disenfranchise themselves, not possibly by their own fault, but the simple fact that they have to return to their base.

Already, as a result of the seemingly “insensitive” manner, the postponement was carried out, a good number of people are saying that they would no longer vote on Saturday.

Ambrose Dike, a Lagos-resident, told BusinessDay that he had decided not to step out of his apartment on Saturday.

“We do not respect ourselves in this country. It is the same way government threats the citizens with disdain. This is about the only country where citizens are taken for granted, yet, it is the same citizens that vote these politicians into power. What happened in Nigeria last Saturday can only happen in a banana republic, where anything is acceptable. Even as small as Benin Republic it cannot happen there,” Dike said.

“When you say a people or a country is civilised, you know that by the way things are done. How do you explain that an election that had been fixed for years and for which preparations had been on for over three years now was postponed four hours to the exercise? Is that a country? You see, a nation that has no respect for the sanctity of life, it shows in every one of its actions. INEC or whoever manipulated them as people are alleging did not consider the danger involved in people moving from one state to the other for election in a country where roads are death traps.  

“So, no matter whatever it is worth, I am not going to step out of my apartment on Saturday, except I get an internal conviction to do otherwise,” he explained.

It is on this premise that some observers have said that there was the need for parties to return to the streets to cheer up their weary supporters once again.

Obike Amanze, a political commentator, said: “It makes no sense for INEC to insist that parties should not go back to their supporters to awaken them. Don’t forget that what happened last Saturday must have sent many people to slumber; they needed to be awakened or can I say aroused. We must face it; there is no hiding the fact that many people were discouraged at the turn of events.

“I thought it was the INEC that should even be cajoling these parties, having messed up the process and not to be talking tough. I foresee a situation where these parties would drag the Commission to court. Honestly, I don’t see why an institution that brought us to this sorry state should be grandstanding at the same time. It is unacceptable.”

Recall that electioneering campaigns ended Thursday last week, two days and 48 hours to the election in line with the letters of the Electoral Act. But with the postponement, analysts believe that the INEC may be acting outside its powers to insist that there would be no more campaigns before Saturday.

At the weekend, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) threatened that its member-parties would resume campaigns today.

They noted that “Section 99 (1) of the Electoral Act provides that public campaigns shall end 24 hours prior to the day of polling.” They wondered why they would not campaign again from now till an election that comes up on Saturday.

CUPP had also made a case that those who were yet to collect their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs), should be given the opportunity to do so within a few days. This was overruled by Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman.

CUPP is a coalition, consisting 51 of the 91 registered political parties, including the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Although the international bodies had urged cooperation with the INEC, the Commission should also tread with caution at this point in time to avoid overheating the polity.

Following the postponement the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), in separate releases, had urged all stakeholders in the Nigerian electoral process, to cooperate with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to finalise arrangements for the 2019 elections next week.

The US Embassy in a statement issued by its Public Affairs Division said the US mission fully supports the joint statement by the heads of the ECOWAS and other international election observation missions on the postponement of the February 16 Nigerian elections. ECOWAS and other Foreign Observation mission had called for calm and urged support for INEC.

“We join in encouraging all Nigerians to ensure a free, fair, peaceful, and credible election by supporting the Independent National Electoral Commission while it finalises electoral preparations this week and by voting in peace together on February 23,” the US statement said.

In its statement, British High Commission also expressed support to the joint statement made by the heads of the international observer missions on the postponement of the 2019 Nigerian elections.

On behalf of the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, the Senior Communications Officer of the commission, Tinuke Adelegan, in a release, said: “We recognise the frustrations of many Nigerians, including those involved in the delivery, supervision and observation of the election and those who travelled considerable distances to exercise their democratic right to vote.

“We urge the Nigerian people to be patient, support the democratic process and come out to vote next weekend in the rescheduled elections.

“We urge all political parties to exercise moderation and to preserve an atmosphere of peace and calm to allow elections to take place in a secure environment.”