Following the events of Saturday’s governorship election across the 21 LGAs of Anambra state, Adopt A Goal for Development Initiative, Youth and Students Advocates for Development Initiative (YSAD) and Eagle Post, would like to appreciate voters who demonstrated great faith in democracy, and came out to exercise their franchise despite earlier uncertainties and apprehension.
Words of commendation are also due to the political parties and their supporters for their peaceful conduct during the poll and for incorporating significantly with the provisions of the Electoral Act.
In the same vein, would like to congratulate the traditional and community leaders and all those who helped in mobilising voters and ensuring that today’s exercise was largely peaceful in most of the polling units.
We would not be deluded into thinking or suggesting that the entire exercise was anything close to the ideal. However, it gladdens us to watch video reports of voters rejecting to be bribed for their ballots, aged men and women lining up to vote and the young patiently waiting to exercise their franchise.
The Anambra election is another proof that although our democracy may be challenged, it is far from being a lost cause. It is our conviction that by keeping faith in the democratic experiment, one day we would get it right to the point where voting and participating in the whole ecosystem of the electoral process would become routine engagements unlike what we have presently.
As partners on electoral governance, we noted with great displeasure that despite weeks of preparations and commitments in terms of human and financial resources, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) did not yield the optimal outcome leading to the extension of voting in several places and the disenfranchisement of others.
While we insist that INEC ought to have sorted out these knotty issues before today’s exercise, our team would like to keep hope alive by believing that these teething challenges can be overcome as we prepare for the general election in 2023.
We would like to encourage all Nigerians to throw their weight behind INEC to overcome these challenges as we work to move away from the old, fraudulent system of voting and recruiting leaders.
While we concede to the people the right to be exasperated by what happened in several polling units today, we would caution against throwing away the baby with the bath water. Electronic accreditation and transmission of results are the way to go if we are to restore hope in our election. We must never move away from these critical objectives because of the challenges witnessed during the Anambra Decides 2021.
What we expect from INEC after today is to sit down with its IT and operational teams and other stakeholders to study the whole events of today and find out what needs to be fixed to get things right ahead of the general election in 2023. Secondly, INEC must institutionalise the training and retraining of poll workers/volunteers and have them in its reserves nationwide.
We are also urging INEC to Partner with commissions overseeing tertiary institutions to introduce compulsory introductory general academic courses on Electoral Matters and technology for final year students. This electoral civic engagement and knowledge should also be extended to the NYSC orientation camps, where practical use of election devices will be learned.
We shall like to summarise by expressing our unalloyed faith in democracy, the emergence of a new Nigeria through the democratic process and the expansion of the electoral field to increase broader participation of eligible citizens and improve outcomes.
Once again, we commend all who, in one way or the other, who contributed to the modest success recorded in Anambra so far, even as we urge vigilance from all and sundry until the process is logically concluded.
We urge the winner of this election to be magnanimous in victory and the runner ‘s-ups to cooperate with the outcome. We encourage anyone not satisfied with the outcome to peacefully pursue the path of litigation at the election petition tribunal.
Ariyo-Dare Atoye
Executive Director
Adopt A Goal for Development Initiative
Obinna Nwagbara
Chief Executive Officer
Youth and Students Advocates for Development Initiative
(YSAD)
Dodoh Okafor
Executive Director
EaglePost
