The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been urged to persuade all elections to take place on the same day by the Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria (SCSN).
The Council said that by doing this, it would be prevented that a few desperate candidates who were likely to lose the election could wreak havoc and ruin the entire process.
At a news conference on Sunday in Kaduna, SCSN Secretary General Nafi’u Baba-Ahmed stated that there was a significant likelihood that the violence from the first election would prevent a second one from taking place.
It won’t work out to be practical.
“The presidential and National Assembly elections are the first elections. Given the unstable security situation in the nation and the acknowledgment by security services that they are overworked, our greatest concern is that certain desperate politicians who might lose the election will incite political violence to the point that the succeeding elections may not be valid.
“In light of this, we interact with everyone who matters. During our meeting with some of the top security officials, they acknowledged their understanding of the issue and concurred with our assessment that their staff is already stretched too thin. And dealing with political violence will be a difficult issue.
“We thus suggested that INEC be pressured to hold all the polls on the same day,” they said. By doing this, we can prevent a scenario in which a few desperate politicians who are likely to lose can destabilize the nation and leave us with an election that is only partially held.
“Recall that President Jonathan delayed the 2015 elections for a less important reason, yet the polls were still held. We thus appeal to all well-intentioned Nigerians, the government, and INEC in particular, to change their minds and organize the polls to take place in a single day.
The Supreme Council for Shari’a is doing all in its power to urge Nigerians to make the required sacrifice and cast their ballots, regardless of how long it takes. “Let’s vote in one day, let’s hold the elections in one day so that everything is clear to everyone,” it is urging.
The timing of the national population census should also be taken into account; it should be delayed for the time being.
“People in the rural areas may need to go, thus we are in line with the National Assembly for five months for the old naira note exchange. And the exchange of the naira should be widely known.
Even throughout the civil war, Nigerians had never suffered a fuel shortage of this magnitude. given that December of last year. The government claims that trillions of naira are spent each year on importing a resource that is in abundant supply in Nigeria, but it is not accessible to ordinary Nigerians at a fair price and without hassle. This has caused excruciating pain for Nigerians. They have had to wait for hours or even days to buy it.
The immediate result of this terrible circumstance is the acceleration of inflation, a sharp increase in the cost of all products and services, and the unimaginable agony of millions of Nigerians. The NNPC claims to have 1.6 billion liters of refined products, but we have already heard such statements in December, and in any event, nothing has changed save for the situation’s steady deterioration, with a litre of gasoline fetching as much as N800 in some regions of the country.
It will be recalled that the President reiterated a campaign pledge in 2015 to not only lower the price of gasoline at the pump, but also to repair the four existing refineries, eliminate fuel subsidies that he referred to as “fraud,” and build additional refineries.
The fact that no one will be held accountable, as no one has ever been, is the most upsetting aspect of this. Everything will go as usual. which Nigerians now categorically find unacceptable.
We implore our compatriots in Nigeria to be extremely patient, to show restraint, and to use their voting privileges as tools to effect constructive change.