POLITICS
2023 Presidential Poll: Protesters Storm NASS, Reject Tinubu
By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja
Protesters, in their numbers, under the auspices of Free Nigeria Movement, stormed the National Assembly, rejecting the outcome of the February 25 Presidential election, where Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Mahmoud Yakubu, declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner amidst serious controversies.
The angry protesters are pushing for an Interim National Government, (ING), pending the determination of all litigations arising from the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections held on.
The protesters said the elections fell short of every good standard, even as they accused the Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu of complicity, demanding his arrest.
They wielded placards with diverse inscriptions such as ‘Save our Democracy’, “INEC + Corruption, Politicians are killing our Democracy,” and “INEC killing the Nigerian Democracy”, the protesters called for annulment of the election.
Although they were not granted access into the National Assembly arcade by security agents, as they made use of their spaces by the gate to drive home their demands.
Addressing the crowd, the convener of the protest, Dr. Moses Paul, said the votes of Nigerians must count.
Paul said the protest would also be taken to the court of appeal headquarters in Abuja, from the ministry of justice.
“Today, we mourn the demise of credibility, the rape of trust, the abuse of will. Today, we stand in the ruins of transparency, on the embalming table of inclusion, equity and accountability. Today, we are voices, toneless, stripped of the music of choice. Today, we are Nigerians, broken, calling on INEC to count our votes.
“On February 25, 2023, Nigerians trooped to their polling units with one mission, ‘to cast their votes and choose their next leaders.’ They qualified for this exercise by participating in the yearlong Continuous Voter Registration which witnessed an unprecedented spike as has never been seen in any election since 1999.
”Months later, they returned to collect their Permanent Voters Cards and went home with a commitment to participate and engage with the process. The chain of apathy was broken, tossed to the belly of oblivion.
”We were free, free to experience the full potential of our Nigerianness. Our binding lines were unbroken: in ideology, they held us together; in trust, they washed us like water; in truth, they kept us alive.”
“We breathed the full breathe of what being citizens should be in a progressive, secular society. So, when the day finally arrived, we had no doubt in our hearts, in the portion that always questions truths that our votes must count. But nothing could bolster our belief like the assurances by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, and INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmoud.
“Recall that a little over a year ago, President Muhammadu Buhari appended his signature to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2022. The fanfare that greeted that can well claim recognition as one of the most colourful in our recent history due to its unbroken allegiance to the Nigerian spirit.
”On that day, we were neither Igbo, Hausa nor Yoruba. We were not Efik, Tiv, or Urhobo. No, we were not Gbagyi, Kanuri or Ijaw. On that day, we were Nigerians full of the positive energies of our land.
“I hate to announce that today in the heart of some, all this has gone to waste. You may have seen the video of the diasporan who tore his passport. Some other Nigerians have done same to the fabric of our identity because INEC through Prof. Yakubu Mahmoud chose to silence their voice.
“So I ask, what is the value of democracy if the process that recruits its leaders consistently lacks credibility?
“Perhaps, the answer is at the International Conference Center where Prof. Yakubu Mahmoud began, sustained and concluded collation and declaration of a candidate as winner of the presidential election, based on falsehood, contravening its guidelines and the Electoral Act.
“It is most disturbing that this was done in the full glare of the world. Never has our democracy been so sorely abused by any citizen in either public or private service.
“Prof. Yakubu Mahmood has raised a bar in impunity that will cost our country many years of electoral excellence to correct. This was not the electronic transmission he promised Nigerians and the world at Chatham House.
”Prof. Yakubu Mahmood has lied to Nigerians and abused our right of choice. We pass a vote of no confidence and call for his immediate sack and prosecution. We cannot afford to continue the culture of performing lawlessness without consequences. We are as strong as our laws and as tall as our institutions. We cannot afford to descend any lower than this.
“As microcosm of our demography, the National Assembly represents our collective aspiration, desire, hope, and faith in a country that works for all. The laws you make device the path of our corporate engagement as individuals and institutions.
”The lawmaker should be on the side of justice, equity, and fair play. Our call to you is to take a stand with the people of Nigeria whosen place you hold in these hallowed chambers in their demand for a system that works for all and call on INEC to count our votes. This is the only way the laws you make can hold the deserved essence and effect.
“We, therefore, call on President Buhari, whose commitment to free and fair elections is engraved in the legacy of the Electoral Act 2022, to initiate processes and procedures that will bring Nigeria under the control of an interim government pending the resolution of all litigations pertaining to the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.
“Our country needs healing. It will be counterproductive to allow a fraudulent process to subsist as fraud will eternally birth fraud. We cannot grow our democracy on falsehood and suspicion. The holes in our national fabric must be woven shut.
”One way is to immediately establish a Truth and Reconciliation Committee in Lagos State and other flashpoints of voter intimidation and violence during the presidential, national assembly, governorship and state assembly elections. This will help build trust, confidence and further ethnic cooperation among Nigerians.
“As concerned citizens, we believe that our country is destined for greatness and are hopeful that in no distant time, our faith will nudge our dreams to reality. This is our prayer as we nurse the bruises of hope.
”For though they force us to precipice, we will not curse our country or stand by those who curse it. We will not steal from our country whatever treasures it possesses in dignity. We will hold on to the promise of unity and faith, peace and progress.
“We are not stopping till they arrest Prof Mahmood and give us an interim government that will conduct credible elections”, the protest convener, Paul said.
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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