Elections must hold in all states

The remarks that caused anxiety and generated instant responses from governments of the three states were made by the INEC chairman at a one day stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, Abuja and the United Kingdom Department for International Development. Professor Jega […]

The remarks that caused anxiety and generated instant responses from governments of the three states were made by the INEC chairman at a one day stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, Abuja and the United Kingdom Department for International Development.
Professor Jega said, “Ideally, you cannot conduct election under a state of emergency. It is my hope that the challenges in the North East will be resolved before 2015. If the security is such that we cannot do the election, then we may need to fall back on the law to suspend it or postpone it.” This was a reference to the three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa where President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency last May in order to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency. The six month emergency period expired in November and has been renewed by another six months.
Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa responded swiftly, saying the idea of suspending elections in the three states was a “sinister plot” to disenfranchise voters in states controlled by the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC. Adamawa recently joined the league of APC-controlled states when Nyako defected from PDP alongside four other governors.
Nyako’s spokesman Ahmad Sajoh said in Yola that President Jonathan’s Political Adviser “Ahmed Gulak was in Yola on Monday, he said 2015 election would hold when Nyako is not a governor. Now Jega is saying elections would not hold in Adamawa. Is the federal government flying a kite for a plan to disenfranchise us from choosing who is going to be the next president?”
Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima’s spokesman also responded swiftly, saying “suspending the elections in any part of the 36 states and FCT on account of Boko Haram activities would amount to making the insurgents supreme over the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It will be defeatist on our part as a nation.” He also said, “The goal of Boko Haram is to impose their beliefs on us, subvert our constitution and our democracy and replace them with inhuman laws that support killings and destruction. Should we suspend any part of the country from taking part in the 2015 elections, the insurgents would presuppose successes on their part and will be itching close to achieving their goals. We cannot allow that to happen.” Shettima added that if Boko Haram were to succeed in stopping elections in three states, they will simply target more states until they stop elections in Nigeria altogether.
Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Gaidam’s spokesman Abdullahi Bego described the possible suspension of elections as “mind-boggling.” He said since the current state of emergency is to expire in April next year, it was presumptuous of INEC to mull suspending elections that are scheduled for 2015.
Bego said, “Is the INEC National Chairman therefore predicting that the emergency situation will extend indefinitely? Significantly, we are concerned about how widely held this pessimistic view is at the federal level…. Yobe State Government believes strongly that there is no reason not to conduct election in the state or in Adamawa and Borno States. The Yobe State Government also believes that there is no reason why Boko Haram terrorists would not be routed, their activities stopped and peace and stability restored within the remaining months of the current emergency rule.”
The opposition APC also reacted to the INEC chairman’s comments.  It said the idea of suspending elections was part of an agenda to weaken its support base. In a communiqué at the end of its Interim NEC meeting, APC’s national chairman Bisi Akande said, “APC has earlier alerted the nation of the strategy of the Jonathan administration to depopulate areas where our party has strong following and suppress voter turnout in the Northern and South-West states through deliberate exacerbation of insecurity. We suspect that wittingly or unwittingly the recent declaration of INEC that elections are not likely to take place in states under state of emergency is in furtherance of this agenda. APC hereby warns that it will not accept the deliberate disenfranchisement of large swathes of our citizenry. APC will fight to defend the right of every eligible Nigerian voter to vote. We also want to alert the Federal Government that any attempt to extend the state of emergency without any justification will be resisted by every lawful and constitutional means.”
INEC however responded to the furore, saying its chairman never said that 2015 elections will not hold in the three affected states. Jega’s spokesman Kayode Idowu said, “Such notion is borne out of a misrepresentation of the presentation by Professor Jega and his responses to enquiries from participants at a Stakeholders’ Forum.” Idowu said several participants asked the chairman what will happen if insurgency persists up to 2015 and he said in response, “It is our hope and earnest expectation that the security challenges in those states will be resolved long before 2015, because a state of emergency is not the best climate under which to conduct free and fair elections. If however the situation persists, the Commission might be compelled to fall back on statutory provisions that allow it to postpone and conduct elections at a later date…”
While the electoral law does well to envisage all possible scenarios, the possibility of not holding the 2015 elections in any state or territory is one scenario that we must all work very hard to avoid in view of its grave implications for this country. No doubt, the security situation in the North East has improved greatly in the last six months and it is to be hoped that with renewed effort by the government and the security agencies, the situation should improve even more by mid next year when the emergency period lapses.
Even if there are security concerns in 2015, one suggestion was made by Governor Kashim Shettima last week which we strongly recommend to INEC. He said the commission could fix separate election dates for a troubled state or states in order to concentrate security resources in that state and enable its citizens to vote. We hope it never comes to that but if it does, this is a very good suggestion that should be explored. The 2015 polls must hold in all states. Let us work out how to achieve that; let us not even contemplate any suspensions or cancellations.