13th June, 2014
Kazeem Ugbodaga
Constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, against attempting to rig the forthcoming governorship elections in Ekiti, Osun and the 2015 elections in favour of the ruling party.
Sagay, who spoke at the June 12 Rally organised by the Lagos State Government at the Blue Roof, Lagos Television, Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, on Thursday, also faulted INEC’s 2015 timetable, which places the presidential election first before the governorship election, saying it is an attempt to manipulate electoral votes and called for reversal.
Speaking on the topic: ‘June 12 and 4th Republic Challenges’, Sagay lamented that the nation’s electoral system had been faced with the problems of incessant rigging in favour of the ruling party.
He said as the quality and standard of elections had plummeted, so had the number of election petitions risen astronomically, saying that the elections o 2003 resulted in 574 petitions, while those of 2007 produced 1,475 petitions.
“This is the type of legacy we have been living in the past 53 years. The much touted 2011 general elections were merely an improvement on the 2007 elections. I have been able to establish, using the results published by INEC that the petitions in the southsouth and southeast were largely a sham.
“We must therefore caution INEC that all past malpractices, including those of Edo and Anambra governorship elections in 2012 and 2013 respectively, must be firmly eliminated and completely avoided in the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections. The same applies to the 2015 general elections,” he stated.
Sagay drew attention to INEC’s order of elections for 2015, saying once again, presidential election has been brought forward to the first part of the elections, which he said would guarantee victory for the ruling party through inevitable manipulation which is authentically followed by the bandwagon effect.
He argued that this system would be an unnecessary land mine primed to explode in 2015, but noted that there was still time to reverse “this clearly perverse and mischievous decision.
“I hereby call on the Jega-led INEC, in the interest of peace, order, stability, justice and democracy, to reverse the announced order and make the presidential election the last,” he said.
Elder statesman, Ayo Opadokun decried rising cases of unemployment in the nation, saying that the foundation of unacceptable level of unemployment in Nigeria had to do with inconsistent economic and business policies as well as unintelligent economic measures that had made Nigeria a dumping ground for all kinds of imported consumable goods, including toothpick.
“The National Bureau of Statisitcs has put the figure of unemployed Nigerians in the first half of this year at 23.9 percent, up from 21.1 percent in 2010 and 19.7 percent in 2009. The total number of unemployed Nigerians rose from more than 12 million in 2010 to more than 14 million in 2011, with the figure increasing by 1.8 million between December 2010 and June 2011.
“This statistics indicates that unemployment was highest among youths aged between 15 and 24 and between 25 and 44 and the problem is more pronounced in the rural areas. The NBS data also show that 56.3 percent of the active population, representing 84 million people is in the labour force,” he stated.
Opadokun contended that “we would do our country a lot of good if the current political operators can significantly increase power supply and commence the establishment of an efficient programme of action to lift our agriculture into 21st century global practices.”
Speaking, Governor Babatunde Fashola called on the National Assembly to put machinery in motion to amend some aspect s of the electoral law, saying that the 180 days given for electoral complainants to seek redress is too short.
The governor said enough time should be given for candidates who felt cheated at elections to seek redress.
“I want to use this occasion to appeal to the National Assembly that access to complain about electoral malpractices is as important as the right to cast the vote in the first place and part of the process of securing the vote is that where it is interfered with the right of the complainer to seek redress must not be limited to 180 days.
“By doing so, we seek to encourage those who have the intention of subverting the process and frustrate you in court. Before too long and as quickly as possible, this is one legislative amendment that our legislators must make in order to protect our democracy,” he said.
The governor said the reason for such amendment was to ensure that cases were concluded before swearing in the supposed winner, adding that government chose the 21st anniversary of the June 12, 1993 election annulment, a symbolic date to honour heroes for the struggle for the actualization of the mandate.