Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa
The Director, Institute for Niger Delta Studies in the Niger Delta University, Amossoma, Bayelsa State, Prof Solomon Ebobrah, has said that the spate of insecurity and rampant attacks on the facilities of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in some parts of the country is a major threat to free and fair elections in 2023.
Prof Ebobrah, while delivering the 8th annual public lecture organised by the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bayelsa State Council yesterday said the security threats have affected free campaigns and the voters registration as well as ongoing distribution of Permanent Voters’ Card (PVCs), thereby hampering the principle of free and fair election.
Speaking on the theme of this year’s lecture, “Ensuring Free and Fair Elections in the Face of Security Challenges”, the academic urged security operatives to focus on protecting the voters and not people in government or other important personalities to guide against voter apathy during the next general elections.
He said: “Free and fair election will require credible voters registration processes, now INEC said they have successfully completed voters registration, I don’t know whether the exercise is credible in South-east, because we all know that if you went to the South-east, at least some part of it, as soon as there is INEC banner, there is something like a bomb, or unknown gunmen will suddenly appear, now I don’t how many people are so committed to electoral process in Nigeria that they will wrisk their lives to go outside and register to vote.
“The question is that what if those attacks of the electoral process do not actually come from unknown gunmen but orchestrated by a particular political interest.
“So we need to get that in mind, but just to say, we shouldn’t forget that democracy is not an event but a process, we have to look at what happened before the election, what happened during the election and what happened after the election, including and of course the judicial process.
“By the way, from the perspective of insecurity, it is very easy like we are seeing the threat that anybody that comes out to vote, he is finished, whether it’s is true or not, it’s released into the media space, and so everybody will be afraid for their lives.
“International law requires that elections in this country must be free and fair. Election must involved participation, informed participation, competition during election must be genuine, we cannot have a situation that you see we are in a democracy and everybody must be free to compete.
“The election in Nigeria whether consciously or unconsciously, are super expensive, if you are not in a category of where there is absolutely no way where.
“Candidates or their parties should be able to freely campaign to have free and fair election, now how many candidates will have the audacity to campaign in certain region in this country at the moment, the security situation is such that it is almost impossible for effective campaign to take place in certain part of the country,” he said.
INEC Head of Voters Education in Bayelsa State, Mr. Wilfred Ifogah, said the security situation in any part of the country does not stop the commission from conducting election.
He said the commission has put the necessary modalities in place to conduct free and fair election in 2023.
Chairman, Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of NUJ, Comrade Tife Owolabi, said the chapel, in the past seven years, has been holding the public to brainstorm on salient national issue which are beneficial to the citizens and authorities despite harsh economic realities.
He said the outcome of the lecture series has impacted on the practice of journalism, politics and social interactions in Bayelsa state.
