Jonathan Alleges Plot to Scuttle 2015 Polls
Written by Mohammed Abubakar , Azimazi Momoh Jimoh , Ezeocha Nzeh (Abuja) and John Akubo (Lokoja)
Nigerian Guardian
Jonathan• Cautions against unguided utterances
• Jega wants defectors to lose seats
• INEC plans 30,000 additional polling units
• Voters’ registration in states under emergency rule begins August
ANTI-DEMOCRATIC forces are working relentlessly to scuttle the elections scheduled for 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan warned Thursday.
He, however, said that to avert the failure of the elections, all political stakeholders should support his administration with a view to promoting all-inclusive democratic process for the country.
Thursday too, the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, backed calls for elected public officers who defected from the party that sponsored them to vacate their seats.
Jega’s electoral body INEC declared that in its efforts to decongest the existing Polling Units (PUs) ahead of the 2015 general elections, it would soon commence the creation of additional 30,000 PUs across the country.
The commission stated that the plan when completed would raise the number of polling units in the country from the existing 120,000 to 150,000.
Jega, who made this disclosure at a town hall meeting at the National Press Centre yesterday in Abuja, noted that the commission intended to limit the number of voters that would vote at a particular polling unit to 500 as against the earlier situation where over 3,000 voters clustered at one polling unit to cast their votes.
The INEC Chairman also disclosed that states under the state of emergency were put in the third phase of the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise (scheduled for August this year) in the hope that normalcy would have been restored in those states by then. He added that the commission had planned to conduct Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and the 2015 General Elections in all states of the federation, including those under state of emergency.
While addressing participants at the All Political Parties summit, jointly organised by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and that of the Presidential Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs, in Abuja, Jonathan appealed to political actors and other stakeholders against allowing the exploitation of the weak system by bringing it down.
“Our roles should not be limited to the struggle to win elections and acquire political powers but also to handling the demands of patriotism and statesmanship and restoring hope to the Nigerian people. In all this, it is pertinent that the actions, conduct and utterances of all political stakeholders reflect the highest level of commitment to the defence of our social cohesion, our political stability and our sovereignty as a nation.”
Reflecting on the birth of the Fourth Republic, Jonathan said it was the same Nigerian political class that rose to the occasion by coming together to rescue democracy. But he regretted that the attributes that gave rise to those patriotic actions had since been discarded.
He said: “About 15 years ago, our nation found itself at the crossroads of political determination, instability and progress threatened and pushed to the limits. Fear, uncertainty and a near total loss of hope took over the minds of our people. They were close to losing our way in the struggle of building a united, prosperous and democratic nation. At that time, it was the political class that rose to the challenge of rescuing the nation and steering it back to the part of state building and productive enterprise.
“This courageous struggle for our democracy was fought across ethnic and religious divides by politicians and statesmen, who put everything at stake including their lives to bring back hope to Nigerians and the Nigerian state. Nigerians will still recollect the courageous struggles waged by various political associations and pressure groups notably the national democratic coalition, NADECO, the Eastern Mandate Union, the Afenifere and the G34 amongst others.
“These, they did irrespective of tribal, ethnic, ideological and political differences. In the process, quite a number of these gallant men and women paid the ultimate price in restoring the nation to the democratic path. This marked the birth of the Fourth Republic.”
Jonathan quoted relevant section of the Code of Conduct for political parties which was endorsed in 2011 by all registered political parties, but expressed concern that parties’ actions since then had fallen short of the provisions contained therein in the document.
Article 7 of the code states that “No political party or candidate shall during cam78 |paign, resort to the use of inflammatory language, provocative actions, images or manifestation that incite violence, hatred, contempt, or intimidation against another party or candidate, or any person or group of persons on grounds of ethnicity, gender or for any other reason. Accordingly, no political party or candidate shall issue any poster pamphlet, leaflet or any other publication that contains any such incitement”
He said that the existing national political outlook with regard to inter-party collaboration was less than salutary. Indeed, the actions and utterances of leading politicians at home and abroad are rapidly creating and spreading unnecessary tension in the country, he lamented.
“We must never politicise the fundamentals and core imperatives of defending the state as to do so can only embolden the terrorists and other enemies of our republics who will seek to employ any perceived political and social division for their nefarious ends”, he said.
Speaking on the topic “Inter-party Collaboration, National Stability and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria” at a political summit, Jega who described defections as “political normadism”, said when an elected official defected from his party, he was supposed to relinquish his seat to allow for a fresh election.
He said: “If you are elected on the platform of a political party and you cross carpet and change your political party then obviously you have to relinquish the seat and election needs to be conducted to fill that seat. This is an important issue we should address.”
Jega lamented that the negative effects of defection could generate serious rancour in the political system.
He said “INEC has submitted a proposal of the amendment of the Electoral Act to expunge the provision empowering the commission to deregister political parties, but instead empower the commission to determine the criteria for parties to get on the ballot. We believe it will afford the parties space to continue to play their cardinal roles in political development, without challenges posed by election management by the countless ineffective political parties.”
Former Head of State. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, who chaired the occasion, suggested the adoption of a rule that would compel political parties to be responsible for the actions and inactions of their members.
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Ahmadu Mu’azu expressed worry on the attitude of the APC, which uses brooms to sweep out the footprints of their opponents, each time they hold a rally in a state controlled by the APC.
The Kogi State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Olusegun Agbaje disclosed yesterday in Lokoja that 681,131 permanent voters cards had been issued to voters in the state . He said that the figure represented 57 per cent of the total 1.2 million voter cards that were issued for distribution during the exercise.
He disclosed that additional 103, 143 eligible voters were registered across the 21 councils in the state during the voters’ registration conducted between May 28 an June 3, 2014.
 |
| Nigerian President Jonathan warns about elections in 2015. |
Nigerian Guardian
Jonathan• Cautions against unguided utterances
• Jega wants defectors to lose seats
• INEC plans 30,000 additional polling units
• Voters’ registration in states under emergency rule begins August
ANTI-DEMOCRATIC forces are working relentlessly to scuttle the elections scheduled for 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan warned Thursday.
He, however, said that to avert the failure of the elections, all political stakeholders should support his administration with a view to promoting all-inclusive democratic process for the country.
Thursday too, the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, backed calls for elected public officers who defected from the party that sponsored them to vacate their seats.
Jega’s electoral body INEC declared that in its efforts to decongest the existing Polling Units (PUs) ahead of the 2015 general elections, it would soon commence the creation of additional 30,000 PUs across the country.
The commission stated that the plan when completed would raise the number of polling units in the country from the existing 120,000 to 150,000.
Jega, who made this disclosure at a town hall meeting at the National Press Centre yesterday in Abuja, noted that the commission intended to limit the number of voters that would vote at a particular polling unit to 500 as against the earlier situation where over 3,000 voters clustered at one polling unit to cast their votes.
The INEC Chairman also disclosed that states under the state of emergency were put in the third phase of the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise (scheduled for August this year) in the hope that normalcy would have been restored in those states by then. He added that the commission had planned to conduct Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and the 2015 General Elections in all states of the federation, including those under state of emergency.
While addressing participants at the All Political Parties summit, jointly organised by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and that of the Presidential Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs, in Abuja, Jonathan appealed to political actors and other stakeholders against allowing the exploitation of the weak system by bringing it down.
“Our roles should not be limited to the struggle to win elections and acquire political powers but also to handling the demands of patriotism and statesmanship and restoring hope to the Nigerian people. In all this, it is pertinent that the actions, conduct and utterances of all political stakeholders reflect the highest level of commitment to the defence of our social cohesion, our political stability and our sovereignty as a nation.”
Reflecting on the birth of the Fourth Republic, Jonathan said it was the same Nigerian political class that rose to the occasion by coming together to rescue democracy. But he regretted that the attributes that gave rise to those patriotic actions had since been discarded.
He said: “About 15 years ago, our nation found itself at the crossroads of political determination, instability and progress threatened and pushed to the limits. Fear, uncertainty and a near total loss of hope took over the minds of our people. They were close to losing our way in the struggle of building a united, prosperous and democratic nation. At that time, it was the political class that rose to the challenge of rescuing the nation and steering it back to the part of state building and productive enterprise.
“This courageous struggle for our democracy was fought across ethnic and religious divides by politicians and statesmen, who put everything at stake including their lives to bring back hope to Nigerians and the Nigerian state. Nigerians will still recollect the courageous struggles waged by various political associations and pressure groups notably the national democratic coalition, NADECO, the Eastern Mandate Union, the Afenifere and the G34 amongst others.
“These, they did irrespective of tribal, ethnic, ideological and political differences. In the process, quite a number of these gallant men and women paid the ultimate price in restoring the nation to the democratic path. This marked the birth of the Fourth Republic.”
Jonathan quoted relevant section of the Code of Conduct for political parties which was endorsed in 2011 by all registered political parties, but expressed concern that parties’ actions since then had fallen short of the provisions contained therein in the document.
Article 7 of the code states that “No political party or candidate shall during cam78 |paign, resort to the use of inflammatory language, provocative actions, images or manifestation that incite violence, hatred, contempt, or intimidation against another party or candidate, or any person or group of persons on grounds of ethnicity, gender or for any other reason. Accordingly, no political party or candidate shall issue any poster pamphlet, leaflet or any other publication that contains any such incitement”
He said that the existing national political outlook with regard to inter-party collaboration was less than salutary. Indeed, the actions and utterances of leading politicians at home and abroad are rapidly creating and spreading unnecessary tension in the country, he lamented.
“We must never politicise the fundamentals and core imperatives of defending the state as to do so can only embolden the terrorists and other enemies of our republics who will seek to employ any perceived political and social division for their nefarious ends”, he said.
Speaking on the topic “Inter-party Collaboration, National Stability and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria” at a political summit, Jega who described defections as “political normadism”, said when an elected official defected from his party, he was supposed to relinquish his seat to allow for a fresh election.
He said: “If you are elected on the platform of a political party and you cross carpet and change your political party then obviously you have to relinquish the seat and election needs to be conducted to fill that seat. This is an important issue we should address.”
Jega lamented that the negative effects of defection could generate serious rancour in the political system.
He said “INEC has submitted a proposal of the amendment of the Electoral Act to expunge the provision empowering the commission to deregister political parties, but instead empower the commission to determine the criteria for parties to get on the ballot. We believe it will afford the parties space to continue to play their cardinal roles in political development, without challenges posed by election management by the countless ineffective political parties.”
Former Head of State. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, who chaired the occasion, suggested the adoption of a rule that would compel political parties to be responsible for the actions and inactions of their members.
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Ahmadu Mu’azu expressed worry on the attitude of the APC, which uses brooms to sweep out the footprints of their opponents, each time they hold a rally in a state controlled by the APC.
The Kogi State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Olusegun Agbaje disclosed yesterday in Lokoja that 681,131 permanent voters cards had been issued to voters in the state . He said that the figure represented 57 per cent of the total 1.2 million voter cards that were issued for distribution during the exercise.
He disclosed that additional 103, 143 eligible voters were registered across the 21 councils in the state during the voters’ registration conducted between May 28 an June 3, 2014.
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