12th April, 2011
West Africa NGO Network, WANGONeT, a non-government organisation, has urged Nigerians to be vigilant and protect their votes so that politicians that are not elected by them will not be rigged into office during the forthcoming presidential and governorship elections.
The group led by Mr Tunji Lardner blamed Nigerians for being complicit by allowing politicians who do not have their interest at heart to manipulate them. He said this has caused high rate of poverty and underdevelopment in the country.
Lardner said Nigerians have been rigged out of the electoral process because they failed to protect their votes. This, according to him, hindered people from voting the right candidates into political offices.
WANGONeT with the support of Department For International Development, DFID, has executed a rare and an eye opening project, a brochure and documentary on How Not To Rig An Election, with the aim of unveiling pathways for ensuring fair and credible elections in Nigeria.
After a comprehensive research and a brainstorming session with political analysts from media houses, civil societies, political party leaders, international development partners, top level police and security delegates and other stakeholders, the group identified how various forces connived and converged to rig the 2007 and other previous elections in Nigeria.
In the documentary which is being used to sensitise the public, WANGONeT broke down the process behind 2007 rigging, how various actors participated in the crime and why Nigerians are complicit in order to prevent repetition of past failures.