2015: Once upon an election

Chinyere: I saw it coming when the National Security Adviser started flying kites at the Chatham House event in London suggesting that elections should be postponed because many people had not collected their permanent voters card (PVC). Lucy: He was testing waters and the reaction of Nigerians was overwhelmingly against any postponement. There was no […]

Chinyere: I saw it coming when the National Security Adviser started flying kites at the Chatham House event in London suggesting that elections should be postponed because many people had not collected their permanent voters card (PVC).
Lucy: He was testing waters and the reaction of Nigerians was overwhelmingly against any postponement. There was no need to shift election dates. If government’s concern was about non collection of PVC, it should have declared two days public holiday for everyone who needed to collect PVC to do so.
Ayo: Someone was dangling red herrings and had a different agenda. When the non collection of PVC did not gel, the tune changed, a crowd of rented protesters were mobilised to protest against continuation of elections.
Isa: The speed with which it all unfolded was amazing. I remember 17 political parties out of the total 28 suddenly voted in support of an extension. However opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, rejected any plan to postpone the election saying such calls were sponsored by President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling party to stave their imminent defeat at the polls.
Habiba: I am a non partisan activist but one can see the merit in what APC said. When the Council of State met, it agreed that elections should hold. INEC also said it was ready to conduct elections. In a vote conducted Saturday February 7 2015 by the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, after he met with political parties and the civil society, 21 Resident Electoral Commissioners RECs said the elections should continue as planned while 16 others voted in support of a reschedule. So the majority of the 37 RECs from each state and the Federal Capital, Abuja were actually ready.
Chinyere: Some vested interests wanted elections postponed at all cost so a security dimension was added to the issue. We were informed that soldiers said they would not be available to provide security during elections because they would be busy fighting insurgents! Do we need soldiers to be out there on election day?
Lucy: Like the iceberg, what you see is a small part of the real thing. I attended a meeting the INEC Chairman Professor Attahiru Jega held with civil society organisations. Professor Jega informed the meeting that security operatives told INEC that they were commencing a six weeks’ special operation against Boko Haram insurgents in the north eastern zone of the country and would rather not be distracted by the elections. Professor Jega also said that the security forces announced that the operations were due to commence on February 14 through to February 28 the date INEC had planned for the presidential and federal legislative elections.
Ayo: The security angle of the election postponement is a well fabricated spin. When they knew that we had seen through the smokescreen, the story changed from election security to fighting Boko Haram. The insurgency has been on for five years but the security agencies have only just found the guts to fight it when we are set to conduct elections!
Isa: It is imperative to let the citizens of this country know our views on this postponement of elections. The Nigeria Civil Society known as Situation Room is a coalition of more than sixty CSOs working in support of credible and transparent elections in Nigeria. It issued a statement on Saturday, 7th February 2015 after meeting with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and with all of its 12 National Commissioners in attendance.
At the meeting, Professor Attahiru Jega, conveyed that he had received a letter from the security services advising that he postpones the general elections on the grounds that the security agencies were engaged in a renewed battle against insurgents in the North-East that would require their full concentration. In the letter, the Military demanded rescheduling of elections by at least six weeks in the first instance.
Habiba: Situation Room then conveyed to INEC its disappointment with the letter from the security agencies pointing out that it amounted to the military’s abdication of its constitutional duties to provide security to citizens and to the Commission to enable it conduct elections and appeared contrived to truncate the democratic process in Nigeria. Situation Room is further worried that the Military’s position also aimed to blackmail and arm-twist the election management body away from its constitutional guaranteed function of conducting elections. Situation Room also condemned this advisory by security agents that they cannot guarantee the security of citizens, election officials and materials during the election.
Ayo: The Situation Room called for the resignation of military chiefs and security heads including the Police on account of their inability to exercise their constitutional responsibility to secure lives and property at all times including during the elections. We also called on Nigerians to be vigilant and be ready to protect this hard won democracy!
Chinyere: We are watching the situation and the latest development is a terse press statement from the State House issued February 8 2015 in which President Goodluck Jonathan reassured the nation of his commitment to the sanctity of May 29, 2015 as the terminal date of his first term in office.