23rd January, 2015
Jamiu Yisa
Nigerians both home and abroad have reacted angrily and rejected the call by the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), for the postponement of the forthcoming general elections to give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) more time to distribute about 30 million permanent voter’s cards (PVCs) to eligible voters.
Dasuki spoke Thursday during a talk show at Chatham House, the London think-tank group in the United Kingdom.
According to Reuters, the NSA said he had discussed the matter with the INEC chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, adding that a delay within the time allowed by the law will not be a bad idea.
But INEC has declared that there was no operational reason, including the concerns over the distribution of the PVCs, to postpone the polls.
Nigerians who spoke with our correspondent on the development, vehemently rejected the call and demanded that the elections hold as scheduled.
Governor Aliyu Wammako of Sokoto State described the plan as a dangerous omen to the survival of the nation’s nascent democracy.
“We will not allow any move to tamper with the ongoing electoral processes,” Wammako old APC supporters at the presidential rally on Thursday.
He said that Nigerians are ready for the election and that the fear of the ‘unknown’ was responsible for Dasuki’s advocacy.
He said that “democracy has come to stay in Nigeria and that we are fully prepared to do all that we can do to protect the nation’s nascent democracy for peace, progress of the nation development.”
The All Progressives Congress, Nigeria’s main opposition coalition, said it would oppose any postponement, and the electoral commission said it had not received any such official communication from Dasuki.
Former vice-president Atiku Abubakar has also warned against tampering with the election time-table.
The elections, currently scheduled for Feb. 14, will be the first where Nigeria’s 68.8 million voters must have biometric cards — a measure introduced to guard against fraud that has plagued past polls.
But there have been technical glitches in data collection and officials have not explained how they will hold the election in parts of the northeast gripped by a violent uprising by Islamist Boko Haram rebels.
How Africa’s biggest economy conducts this poll will be closely watched by investors and foreign powers, amid the uprising and an economic crisis linked to low oil prices.
“It costs you nothing, it’s still within the law,” Dasuki said he had told the INEC chairman about the need to shift the polls.
Dasuki said it was for INEC and not for him to decide.
“Why are they not ready? Why should we postpone? We say ‘no’ to postponement,” Lai Mohammed, spokesman of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), told Reuters. “They know that if they don’t postpone they can’t win. They are just terrified.”
INEC spokesman Kayode Idowu said there were currently no plans to delay.
“It is not a conversation of the commission’s at all. As far as we are talking now, the date is what it is,” Idowu said.
According to Kunle Adebambo, “a man (Dasuki) who hardly speaks when Boko Haram maims thousands who incidentally are his own brothers’ and sisters’ is now canvasssing for election postponement. You are all jokers!”
Danjuma Kaire said: ”for citizens who suffered during the tenure of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, we know that his re-election will only aggravate our hardships and those who benefited from this administration, his defeat at the polls will put an end to what they do gain from him.
“Fortunately, the percentage of those who toil and suffer as a result of corruption and impunity is more than those who prosper under the Umbrella of corruption. Suffering knows no ethnic, tribal or religious group, so with united voices of the helpless and impoverished masses, our votes belong to GMB/OSIBANJO and by God’s grace we say NO to postponement of the election.”
According to Hastel Idowu, “the outcome of the election is glaring. None of the PDP leaders or sympathisers is comfortable. They have all turned pessimists over night. Who told Dasuki that if given one more year that all Nigerians can collect their PVCs?
“He should have told us that the PDP has lost the usual popularity and need more time to rekindle their hope in the forthcoming elections. Simple.”
Victor Olowogorioye said: “Sambo Dasuki is trying to buy more time for his benefactor. For us, we want this country liberated from ineptitude, insecurity, corruption, economic malaise, hopelessness, despair, etc. come FeBuhari.”