Nigerians have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure he redeems his promise of ensuring a credible election next year.
The call is coming against the backdrop of expectation of free, fair and credible election next year, and Buhari’s continuous assurance that his administration will leave a legacy of credible election in 2023.
The President had on several occasions reiterated his resolve to ensure that the 2023 general election is free, fair and credible and that a level playing field will be created for democracy to thrive in the country.
But despite these assurances, Nigerians have continued to express grave concern over the actualisation, given the incessant attacks on critical national infrastructures, facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and alleged partisanship being exhibited by Abuja.
Also worrisome is the incessant attacks on opposition parties, as well as what is viewed as intolerance of opposition by some elements in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Osita Nwanjo, who spoke with BusinessDaySUNDAY, advised the President to speed up the process of creating Special Courts for electoral offenders.
“We need to speed up the process of creating the Electoral Offenses Commission and Courts that can deal with such issues. The security agencies are doing their best, but you need strong civil institutions to prosecute offenders,” he said.
Nwanjo, who applauded the President for his disposition towards ensuring free, fair and credible election in 2023, added that “the government will need to go beyond words.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council has alleged that the states under the control of the All Progressives Congress(APC ) have continued to heighten political tension through their actions.
The PDP Director of Strategic Communications who spoke with BusinessDaySUNDAY appealed to the Federal Government to intervene in the APC-controlled states to provide the promised level playing field for all the political parties to campaign freely.
“In virtually all the APC-controlled states, it has been practically impossible for us to install our billboards, paste our posters and use APC government-controlled radio stations, especially in Lagos where the candidate of the APC is seen as next to God.
“So, I wish to appeal through you to the Federal Government since they control the APC, that this is not what democracy is all about. I was one of those who fought and suffered for this democracy. We never envisaged that in the civilian regime, we are going to have this kind of harassment, whereby we cannot practise democracy as it should be done.
“In 2014, 2015, I was one of those who supported Buhari, and there was never a time that PDP disturbed us because if they had disturbed us, maybe, there would have been no Buhari. So, we are hoping that Mr. President would help us speak to the security agencies, to protect the lives of our people, to protect our properties wherever they are on the soil of Nigeria, because we are all Nigerians.
“People can see the clear difference between His Excellency Atiku Abubakar and the other challengers. It’s very clear that he is the most experienced, the most detribalised; he doesn’t go anywhere discriminating against anyone, he is prepared. Nigeria cannot afford another sad experiment or experimentation, because if you are not prepared, that is what will happen. He knows what to do from day one,” Momodu said.
The party also views the recent comments attributed to the APC Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, encouraging his supporters to “grab” as being capable of inciting violence and disrupt the smooth conduct of the 2023 Presidential election.
According to Kola Ologbondiyan, a former national spokesperson of the PDP, “Tinubu’s directive that his supporters should ‘fight for’, ‘grab’ and ‘snatch’ political power with a confession that ‘it is what we are doing’ validate apprehensions by Nigerians that the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign is behind the attacks on the campaign rallies of the PDP as well as the series of arsons on the facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”
Ologbondiyan, who is also a spokesperson of the Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation, said: “Nigerians were horror-struck to watch the deflated and demystified APC Presidential Candidate inciting his supporters by stating that ‘political power is not going to be served in a restaurant, it is not served a la carte. It is what we are doing; It is being determined; you do it at all costs; fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run (away) with it.'”
The party believes that the Tinubu/Shettima’s Campaign Organisation’s bitter condemnation of INEC’s decision to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and Results Viewing Portal was part of a “ploy to incite their thugs against INEC, having realised that the direct transmission of election results will scuttle APC’s rigging plans.
“Moreover, the inciting comment by Tinubu substantiates the suspicion by Nigerians that the alarm raised by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Major General Lucky Irabor, concerning pressures on the military to compromise the electoral process is pointing towards the direction of the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign.”
The party also linked the APC Presidential Candidate’s refusal to sign the Peace Accord to an alleged plan to provoke violence during the elections
“After a thorough review of the inciting video in circulation, other inflammatory comments and apparent tacit support for violence, it appears that the ‘The Emilokan of Bourdillon’ (it is my turn) has gone into a wave of ‘if I can’t have it then we destroy it’ mode ahead of the elections.
“Our Campaign charges the security agencies to closely monitor the activities of the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign given its proclivity to violence and apparent plot to derail the smooth conduct of the 2023 general election.”
According to him, “The Atiku/Okowa Campaign commends Nigerians for being resolute in their determination to vote in the PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to commence the onerous task of ’change the change’, rescue our nation and rebuild her prosperity from the misrule of the APC.”
But emphasising the assurances of President Buhari, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina that his principal was intent on leaving a legacy of electoral reforms that would ensure that no one can manipulate elections anymore.
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Adesina, who spoke with BusinessDay, said that the President, being a victim of electoral manipulations when he contested the Presidential elections three times in 2003, 2007 and 2011, before eventually wining in 2015, knew the dangers of electoral heist.
“So, the President has a genuine commitment to ensuring free and fair elections and ensuring also that whoever succeeds him has a credible support of all Nigerians.
“He is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), yet, he has asked his party to work hard and win the 2023 election clearly and creditably. So, the President is speaking truth to power and ready to drive the electoral process.
“Aside from the previous elections in Edo, Anambra and Osun states, the President signed the landmark, 2022 Electoral Act which contains several innovations including the electronic transmission of result and use of BVAs.
“Looking at his statements during his visits to various countries, especially in West Africa, the President has continued to call for free, fair and credible election as a means to entrenching true democracy,” he said.
According to him, “Only recently he told the security forces to remain neutral which is in tandem with his disposition towards ensuring free, fair and credible elections.
“That is why as you can see and unlike the previous positions of the past leaders on this country, President Buhari has refused the pressures to impose a successor unilaterally, but instead, he allowed for free, fair primaries in the APC right from the grassroots to the Presidential primary.
“For us, Nigerians should be rest assured that no one will manipulate the 2023 general election.”
Adesina further said: “He is doing this because he wants to ensure that when the APC wins the Presidency in 2023, no one can fault its outcome, because the process has been free, fair and credible.”
Already, government agencies, including the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Munguno, has in line with the President’s directives, warned that the government would deal with trouble makers, adding that “no one can stop the 2023 general election from holding.”
The NSA, while reacting to the destruction of INEC facilities, assured that perpetrators of such acts would be “brought to book,” adding that “security agencies are currently on the trail of perpetrators of the crime.”
According to Munguno, “We must understand that democracy can only be sustained through free, fair and credible election, which is only possible under an atmosphere of peace. So, no amount of security threats will stop the 2023 general election from taking place as planned as President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to deliver a free, fair and transparent election.”
He further said: “Hoodlums will be hunted down and punished, warning that the Federal Government will not tolerate destruction of its facilities.
He also appealed to religious leaders and community heads to join hands with the government to protect critical infrastructures in their domain from being destroyed by the hoodlums
Similar position was canvassed by the Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor, who also vowed to resist pressures from politicians, who may want to force the military to compromise its neutrality.
Irabor, who spoke with journalists at the State House, in Abuja, on Thursday, admitted that although the Security agencies come under intense pressure to compromise, he assured that they will “resist such pressures to maintain it neutral.”
According to him, “The security agencies and the military constantly come under pressure to compromise elections through various financial inducements.
“We call on Nigerians to anchor their trust in the military as they will continue to strive to maintain neutrality.
“We have put in place, all the necessary contingency plans to assist the Police in the 2023 general election as well as safeguard all critical national infrastructures.
“We remained apolitical and subject to the civil authorities as stipulated in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We have continued to appeal to our people that the security agencies, like all the apparatuses of state are not anti-people.
“There is nothing like partisanship when you are talking about governance. Yes, during political campaigns, various political parties canvas for votes by selling their manifestos, but once a party wins and forms a government, it becomes a government of all of us. You don’t bring partisanship into governance.”
