A Civil Society Organization, Social Action S.A. International, has expressed withe the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC for failure to conduct free, fair and credible elections.
The communications manager of the group, Mr Peter Mazzi, conveyed the group’s disappointment with the commission, in an interview session with the media, at the weekend in Port Harcourt, regarding the credibility of the elections, and unity of the country.
“The Social Action as an independent observer, noted that Nigeria is more divided now than ever, since after the civil war. The just concluded general elections brought some negative developments occasioned by the reactions of some individuals, the State and none state actors, that has further divided the country.
He regretted that lot of people were upbeat, hoping the elections would be credible as the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) promised to conduct free, fair and credible elections.
“Unfortunately the elections were characterized by irregularities, massive rigging, intimidations, vote buying, voters’ oppression, ethnic profiling.”
“The INEC failed completely short of people’s expectation, as they did not follow the processes, which they promised they would follow,” he explained.
“The speeches made by some highly placed individuals, especially the INEC chairman, showed that there might be a connivance with or complacency between the INEC and certain persons, because why people thronged in their numbers to vote whereas BVAS, for voting, collating, and uploading process, but they were flagrantly disregarded.”
” A lot of blames should go the INEC, for not following electoral processes. It was not about the result. In elections, every result gains legitimacy from the process. When people perceive flaws, or sort of complacency between the electoral monitoring body and candidates, there are bound to be protests.
“A lot of people are not happy about the outcome of the elections. Until INEC is able to conduct not only free and fair elections, but elections perceived to be free, fair credible, people will continue to protest”, Mazzi vowed.
He affirmed that INEC performed below par, in the sense that, it was characterized by violence and irregularities, explaining that before the elections, people were seen being killed, people being intimidated.
“There was ethnic profiling, because one belonged to certain ethnic group or perceived to belong to a particular political party. In my Local Government Area LGA alone, six people died. Worse still, the State was not saying nor doing anything about it, no caution, no arrests,” he lamented.
On his view about cancellation of the Presidential election in particular, he objected, on the grounds that, the INEC, the police and other security agencies, have not been changed. He however hoped that the court can still administer justice for aggrieved litigants
On the possibility of leadership and economic transformation, the Social Action ombudsman said. “The process of healing and reintegration is very key, for Nigeria to make both social and economic progress.
” As it stands, it’s not going to be on the shoulders of one person. The new and incoming government is yet to gain trust and legitimacy. Until the issue is sorted out, we are going to be in a precarious situation.”
“Once we have credible leadership that has the trust of the people, things will change for better. Trust is a commodity that’s very expensive in Nigeria, but if we agree to invest therein, we ‘ll be able to move our country forward.”
” Until we have a legitimate government, accepted by all and sundry, the issue of transformation will be a mirage,” he summed up.
