By Sunday Ani
Former Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commission (REC) Mr Mike Igini has urged Nigerians to despair but remain resolute, firm and courageous as they use their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in the forthcoming elections, insisting that the future direction of the country is in their hands to decide.
He made the call in his New Year message titled “My 10-point Happy New Year Message to Fellow Nigerians,” a copy of which was made available to the Sunday Sun.
Igini also warned politicians to shun conducts that would undermine the integrity of the elections even as he advised them to understand that the degree of anger and hunger in the country has created such political awareness that the people are eager to vote in the forthcoming elections like never witnessed before in the country. He warned that any attempt to suppress the voters would be resisted because voters are determined to exercise their franchise.
He stated the current electoral process has delivered 105 successful pilot elections and would be used for the forthcoming elections, warning that shock, lamentation and dinosaur experience would be the lot of any politicians in 2023, who would depend on the old method of rigging elections because all such loopholes have been blocked by the 2022 Electoral Act and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) procedures.
Stressing that the 2022 Electoral Act, the INEC processes and procedures have returned the power of the ballot to voters at the polling units and that elections would henceforth be won and lost at the polling units and not at wards, local government areas and other stages or points of result collation, which in the past used to be centres where voters collective will were upturned, he called on Nigerians to make the right choices in 2023. “The current system has empowered Nigerians to determine the fate of politicians, but that empowerment will be meaningless if the people do not come out in large numbers to demonstrate that power on February 25, 2023, in the presidential/National Assembly elections, and on March 11, for the governorship/state Houses of Assembly elections.
“The fear of the people’s power through the ballot during elections is what makes elected leaders pay attention to the needs, concerns and aspirations of citizens and to be accountable. The 2023 elections offer an opportunity for Nigerians to exercise and use their residual sovereignty to fire and hire the right type of leaders they want to govern them to be able to sing a new song of hope of a promising tomorrow,” he stated.
He also urged the electoral umpire to remain true to its core values of integrity, impartiality, neutrality and professionalism to be able to conduct free, fair and credible elections in 2023. “The job of an umpire is not for errant people but a public trust that must not be betrayed. There should be no surrender of the core values of integrity, impartiality, neutrality and professionalism,” he added.
Igini also called on the Nigerian police to replicate in the 2023 general elections the new election security strategies and successes recorded in the various off-season governorship elections. “The exemplary professionalism displayed during the conduct of these elections has given Nigerians so much to hope for the 2023 elections. The election moment is the time when the commitment of personnel of security agencies to democratic values is tested. Security agencies must deal with and be able to contain violent activities of all extra-constitutional and non-legitimized groups planning to curtail voters’ participation and rights to vote on election day. There should be absolute and unqualified neutrality of security agencies,” he charged.
The former REC equally commended President Muhammadu Buhari for constantly charging the police and other security agencies to remain neutral, apolitical, firm, loyal and committed to democratic values as the country goes into the 2023 general elections.
Although he expressed confidence that the 2022 Act and INEC’s innovations exemplified by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and IREV results upload would guarantee credible polls, he however pointed out that the only serious issue of concern to Nigerians and the international community was security, which is within the purview of the president as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
He, therefore, restated that in times and moments of despair and fear of uncertainty by citizens, keeping hope alive remains a major battle cry of a leader. “I urge the president to continue on this part of the charge to the security agencies to maintain absolute neutrality as a statesman for the country to have a successful 2023 election that should lead to a peaceful transfer of power as the greatest legacy that history will record for him,” he submitted.