CHANGE IN POLLS: THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE TRUTH

This write up will be in three segment; THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE TRUTH about the postponement of the elections.

THE GOOD

Taking a look at the issues that made INEC to shift the elections I would say yes INEC might just be spot on for shifting the date even though most Nigerians are not happy with the decision. If the reasons given by INEC are anything to go by then I would yes Professor Attahiru Jega the chairman of INEC did a great job by shifting the election date. With all these excuses shifting the elections is the only sensible thing to do to avoid a situation where those people who have registered won’t be able to vote because they are not able to collect their PVCs. Am sure we would call for the head of Jega and Jonathan if as we are trying to exercise our civil right a riot breaks out things get out of control and there was no security personal to restore peace and order. We know very well that one of the major issues that can cause trouble at polling centres are the ballot boxes, so I can’t imagine a polling centre not having ballot box. If you have voted in Nigeria before you should know what might happen if there are no ballot boxes in your polling centre, trouble most definitely that is what would happen. If truly everything INEC has said concerning the reason why they have postpone the elections are true then I would boldly give INEC a big round of applause for having the courage and boldness to postpone the elections.

THE BAD

It is a shame to know that at this stage in Nigeria we are still going abroad to print stuffs like PVCs I mean it is a total disgrace and a big slap on our face as a nation. Going outside the country to print PVCs show how much corruption has killed our country if not so what is so special about the PVCs that they couldn’t print it in the country unless they want to tell us that we don’t have the resource which I would strongly disagree . The second bad thing about this postponement is the fact that election in this country has gotten so bad that without the army we can’t conduct a free and fair election, I mean we have several security agencies that should be able to control whatever violence that would or might erupt during the elections so why depend on the army? Third bad thing is the fact that INEC itself hasn’t done a great job in preparing for this election, I mean the major function of INEC is to prepare and organise fair and free election and if we are to take issues like Training manual not been ready, No full complement of ballot boxes, 700,000 ad hoc staff not recruited yet, Presiding Officers yet to be trained, Voter Register yet to be printed e.t.c to be true then it only shows us that Professor Jega and his team are incapable of conducting the election considering the fact that they had four years to prepare for this election yet they are giving excuses. The forth bad thing about the postponement of the election is the fact that it has shown us that INEC is not an Independent body after all considering the fact that the military could influence his decision. I mean when has the military activities determine elections dates? The Electoral Act and the Constitution did not say election date should be determined by NSA, Military and INEC. Jega had emphasised that despite the challenges in the distribution of the Permanent Voters Cards, the electoral body was fully prepared for the election come February 14^th and 28^th until the country’s security chiefs told him through a letter, that their men would not be available for the election which was the major reason behind the shift in date. Did I hear you Independent indeed?

The last bad thing about this postponement is that how would the military say it can’t guarantee the security of the nation and the President wouldn’t say anything about it. Part of the job of the military is to safe guard the life and property of the people and if they say they can’t guarantee us that with all the billions that have been invested in them over the last five years and the President can’t even say a word over the matter then there is a big problem.

THE TRUTH

Whoever doesn’t believe by now that the President is the one behind the postponement of the election then that person really has no knowledge about how Nigeria politics is been played. We all know that the President was in support of the postponement of the election considering the fact that 24hours before the announcement by INEC the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs addressed a press conference listing some reasons why the Presidency wanted the elections shifted. From December 2014 which was the moment that the President realise he was losing ground to his opponent he had started to look for ways to bring him down. I know the Pro Jonathan people would not agree with this but what am writing here is nothing but the truth and before you all start saying this person is a Buhari fan let me state it for the record that am not against Jonathan neither am I in support of Buhari but am only writing base on the facts and the reality of what is currently happening. As for my stand on the country situation my view is simple God is in control and only HIM can and would save us.

Now back to my point, I said the President knew he was losing ground and had decided to play tricks just to destabilize his opposition so he too could lose some ground. The Presidency and his Political thinker and chief securities had tried out a lot of strategy to frustrate the opponent but none of them had worked according to plan and the postponement of the election was the last card on the table that they could use. Some of the strategies they had use included a documentary where they degrade General Buhari, the certificate scandal, attempts to prove that Buhari was corrupt when he was chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF)  but none of this had worked according to plan so they had to use the big hammerr.  The two people that first asked for the postponement of the election were Mr. Mike Omire the co-ordinating spokesman of the nation’s security forces and head of the National Orientation Agency on January 6^th and the National Security Adviser in person of Mr. Sambo Dasuki on January 22^nd  though the Presidency denied any involvement with the call made by these loyalist of his saying it was their personal opinion and my question goes does how come their personal opinion both agreed that the polls should be postponed by six weeks? They both asked that the election should be postponed by six weeks, why didn't their view on the time frame for the postponement of the election hold opposing views since it was a personal opinion as it was claimed by the Presidency? The answer is simple they both aired someone else opinion and not their own opinion.

The postponement of the election is a very desperate move by the Presidency to enable them reload and rethink on their next move on how to win the election and they have wasted no time to that effect as the case of the disqualification of Buhari is now back in court and am sure that P.D.P would be pushing really hard for the court to rule in their favour. Just like me, many Nigerians have reacted bitterly to the postponement of the election. A former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili a woman I respect so much, took to her Twitter handle on Saturday night to show are disappointment in the postponement saying Nigerians needed more explanations and to be honest I would yes we actually need more explanation. For example the security chiefs should come and tell us why they waited a week to the election before saying they needed six weeks to carry out a new form of attack on Boko Haram? We all know the amount of threat Boko Haram pose but those threat are not affecting the whole country only the northeast so why didn't they allow us do the election in the states where there are no crisis and when the army are through with their operation they can conduct election in these places just like it is stated in Section 26(1) of the Electoral Act 2010 (amended) which allows for INEC to hold election in the peaceful area of the country and reschedule for the trouble areas at a convenient date. This also brings me to another question why use military for elections? I can remember vividly duration Obasanjo time the military wasn’t involve in election everything started during the era of Jonathan and this is just to show that our military has also been politicalize (pardon me if that isn’t a word).  The final question I would like to ask is the fact that how many soldiers are there in the army that we can’t get even get a solider for the election? Are they saying it is all the soldiers in the country that would fight the Boko Haram come Feb 14^th?

Thank you for your time as I would like to pause here but be rest assured that as other issues concerning the postponement of the election springs up I would definitely be on board to serve you with the fact and reality about it.