From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, has appealed for the intervention of the General Abdulsalam Abubakar-led National Peace Committee (NPC) in mitigating electoral violence in the country.
He also pleaded with Committee to engage actors and stakeholders in the political space early enough to minimize incidences of electoral violence in the 2023 general election.
Yakubu made the appeal when he received a delegation from the Peace Committee alongside representatives from the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and Kofi Annan Foundation, led by the Head of the NPC Secretariat, Rev. Father Atta Barkindo, who represented Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, at the INEC Headquarters on Wednesday.
Appreciating the contribution of the Peace Committee to peaceful elections through the Peace Accord initiative introduced in 2015, Yakubu noted that; “nations are lucky when they have moral voices, that their authority does not draw from statutory provisions, it exists purely from moral persuasion, and people listen.
‘That is why I think it is a big plus for us as a nation to have a national peace committee and the calibre of people involved in the National Peace Committee. One of the things that the Peace Committee can help us do in terms of mitigating security challenges is early engagement with some of the actors.
‘Not just signing the peace accord on the eve of elections, but imagine that some of those who perpetrate violence on election day are not necessarily candidates in the election, but are people engaged by beneficiaries of the election. So if we can engage with the actors early enough, I hope that we will be able to turn a new leaf in that respect,’ he appealed.
Recalling its impact on the peaceful conduct of political actors, and how the NPC started in 2015, the INEC Chairman said: ‘When they started in 2015, it is a very good initiative supported by not just people in Nigeria but also by people from so many countries around the world, including the late Kofi Annan himself, he was here for the signing of the peace accord in 2015.
‘We thought that we should replicate it in the 2019 general election and we did. We then started a discussion to see if we can devolve the Peace Accord. At that time our concern was with the incendiary statements not only on social media but even on the traditional media, coming from the politicians, particularly on Edo governorship election in September 2020, and the Peace Committee for the first time agreed to devolve.
‘We were with them in Benin for the Edo governorship election, and very happily I must say, instead of the chaos and anarchy that people expected will follow the outcome of the election, actually, as soon as we declared the result of the election in Benin, people started dancing on the streets of Benin. I actually attribute that to a large extent to the role played by the peace accord.’
Earlier, Bishop Mathew Kukah and Covener of the meeting appreciated the support of the Prof. Yakubu-led Commission towards cascading the Peace Accord from the national level to the states. He noted that the support and the successes recorded endeared the Kofi Anan Foundation and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs to the NPC.
Represented by Rev. Father Atta Barkindo, Bishop Kukah explained that they were at the Commission to seek ways to deepen the existing relationship between the NPC and INEC.