President Goodluck Jonathan, and General Mohammadu Buhari
Ahead of the February general elections, presidential candidates of all
political parties, including President Goodluck Jonathan of People
Democratic Party (PDP), and General Mohammadu Buhari of All Progressives
Congress (APC) Wednesday signed an accord to ensure non-violent polls
next month.
In the undertaking signed in the presence of eminent personalities such
as the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Dr. Kofi Annan
and former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku,
all the presidential candidates of the parties pledged to refrain from
campaigns that will involve religious incitement, ethnic or tribal
profiling and to get their agents to toe similar line.
All the candidates of their parties also agreed "to refrain from
making, or causing to make our names or that of of our party, any public
statements, pronouncements, declarations or speeches that have the
capacity to incite any form of violence before, during and after the
elections".
Other presidential candidates present at the ceremony include Tunde
Anifowose Kelani of Action Alliance (AA) Dr. Rafiu Salau of Alliance for
Democracy (AD), Ganiyu Galadima of Alliance Congress (AC), Alh. Mani
Ibrahim Ahemad of ADC, Chief Sam Eke of Citizens Popular Party (CPP)
Ambros Albert Oworu of Hope Party, Prof. Oluremi Sonaiya of KOWA party
and Chief Chekwas Okorie of Unity Progressive Party (UPP).
In his speech, President Goodluck Jonathan said contrary to the belief
that past violence was as a result of electoral malpractices, a closer
study of the situation has shown that the issue could be related to
other human factors.
According to the President, politicians more often than not utter
provocative statements and whip up unnecessary sentiments and instigate
violence as soon as they notice that they have lost an election.
He said another factor is that of the religious leaders who preach hate
messages, instigating their followers to be confrontational and
sometimes by labelling some candidates as the enemies if their fate.
On the distribution of permanent voters card (PVC), President Jonathan
called on INEC to ensure that every voter received his or her card and
to educate Nigerians properly regarding the deployment of any
technological innovation intended to improve voting system.
" There are certain things happening now that if not properly handled
could lead to violence. First, a number of Nigerians are complaining
that they don't have PVC. If some people don't have, the assumption is
that from the beginning, INEC is going to rig the election and there is
the tendencies for those people to go violent.
" I have mentioned it to the INEC Chairman to make sure that every
eligible Nigeria vote. If they are not able to make sure that every
Nigerian vote. That is a recipe for violence, he said.
While reacting to critics of the recent disbursement of monies for the
settlement of victims of post 2011 election violence, President Jonathan
said the reason Kaduna got the lions share of N3billion was because the
level of destruction in the state surpassed others.
Buhari in his presentation, said much of the crisis associated with
conduct of elections and its outcome had to do with a flawed process and
inability to secure justice by the affected persons.
He cited several examples of frustrations he had gone through in an
effort to protest what was believed to be flawed electoral processes and
results, including his experiences at the courts.
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