YOU MUST AVOID POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE, KOFI ANNAN CAUTIONS NIGERIANS

ABUJA—Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, UN, and Chairman of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security, Mr. Kofi Annan, yesterday, urged Nigerians not to resort to violence should their choice candidates fail to win at the forthcoming general elections.
Addressing a coalition of over 60 civil societyorganizations in Abuja, yesterday, on their role in ensuring electoral integrity, Annan warned politicians to be careful with their language to avoid post-election violence, which he described as the bane of elections in Nigeria since 1999.
He said that many elections that were conducted across Africa within the past two decades gave democracy a bad name, noting that “flawed elections have eroded the trust of citizens in the democratic process.”
Annan maintained that Nigerian leaders should think about the next generation rather than focusing on winning the next election at all cost.
He said: “What the experience of the last 20 years teaches us is that elections are not enough if they are not conducted with integrity and able to reflect the real will of the people.”

Debate
A debate stated after the National President of NLC, Mr. Abdulwaheed Omar, insisted that there was nothing wrong with Nigerians collecting back from politicians the money that was stolen from them.
He posited: “Let us determine that money will not control us. Let them bring it; it is our money. Let whoever wants to take money, take it. But let it not influence our decision.”
His position was, however, opposed by NBA, which maintained that it was wrong for the NLC boss to support ‘money-for-vote’ politics.
Represented by its General Secretary, Mr. Afam Osigwe, the legal body argued that politicians should not be allowed to share money, adding that the problem of leadership plaguing the country is traceable to “the corrupting influence of money in our electoral process.”
Supporting the view of NBA, Cardinal Onaiyekan, who contended that there had been no record of free, fair and credible elections since the return of democracy in Nigeria, said it was not proper to encourage electorate to collect money from politicians.
He said: “I agree with you that we should not condone the sharing of money, even though it is ours.
“The President has promised us free, fair and credible elections and I know that it does not cost money to fulfil such promise.
“What he is, however, going to do with those billions of Naira that we heard was contributed for him, I do not know.”
On her part, National Vice-President of Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria, FOMWAN, Farida Yusuf, while lamenting the incessant cases of violence in the North-East, said they would deploy over 2000 Muslim women to monitor the elections.
Source: Vanguard