National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd)
- NSA, DHQ confident Boko Haram will be routed in six weeks
- Jonathan, Buhari lock horns over insurgency, 2015 polls
- N’Assembly will review polls’ delay, says Saraki
Nigeria’s general election will not be postponed
past March 28, National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), said
on Monday, after he successfully lobbied for a poll delay because of Boko Haram
violence.
“Those dates will not be shifted again,” Dasuki
told AFP when asked if the polls, initially scheduled for February 14, could be
pushed back further.
Dasuki had urged election officials to postpone
the vote on the grounds that the military could not provide nationwide election
security because all available resources were being deployed in the North-east
to fight Boko Haram.
His justification for the delay was widely
criticised, in part because the military is not primarily responsible for
election security in Nigeria.
However, soldiers are always deployed as
reinforcement for the police and civil defence corps during elections.


In the interview, Dasuki suggested the main
motivation for the delay was the need to assure safe voting in the North-east
states where Boko Haram is most active and controls some territory: Adamawa,
Borno and Yobe.
But the opposition and some observers said the
poll was delayed to allow more time for President Goodluck Jonathan to revive
his campaign, which was facing a tough challenge from ex-military ruler,
Major-General Muhammadu Buhari.
Dasuki, however, insisted there was no political
motive underlying his call for a delay. “It’s not everybody who does things for
selfish reasons. Some of us have a conscience,” he said.
He said the postponement could easily help the
opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), because improved security could
boost turnout in the North-east, an APC stronghold. The NSA said he believed
the new military cooperation agreed two weeks ago between Nigeria and its
neighbours - Cameroun, Chad and Niger - would prove decisive against Boko
Haram. Nigeria’s military has on its own largely failed to contain the uprising
over the last six years.
Dasuki’s statement came just as the Nigerian
military also gave its commitment to secure the country ahead of the
rescheduled elections.
Defence Headquarters spokesman, Major-General
Chris Olukolade, in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) yesterday
expressed optimism that the goal was achievable, given the increased regional
cooperation that Nigeria is receiving at the moment.
“We have committed ourselves to working to ensure
that we achieve the result of making the whole place secure and every effort is
being made towards that end in the sense that we are improving our fire power,
and improving on collaboration with other forces.
“What should interest you is what is now
different about it. For the period we have said it has passed through different
stages.
“You will recall that when the state of emergency
was initially declared, we were able to curtail them and they simply left our
shores and went elsewhere to improve on their mischief.
“Now we are enlisting the support of other
nations around us and hopefully that should make it difficult for them to have
any other place to escape to after this mission.
“We believe that every hand will be on deck. Not
just the military but everyone involved in securing our country will put in
their best to ensure that we have the right atmosphere for elections to be
conducted.
“The military is equally a stakeholder in the
promotion of our nation’s democracy and anything that is done now is in good
faith,” Olukolade said.
Despite the assurance provided by Dasuki and
Olukolade to the Nigerian public, Jonathan and his main rival in the
presidential election, Buhari clashed yesterday at a conference in Abuja on the
prosecution of the war against the insurgency and on the 2015 elections.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 11th
delegates’ conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Jonathan for the
umpteenth time assured his audience that with current strategies being put in
place, the attacks by the Boko Haram sect would soon be a thing of the past.
The president also promised that the 2015 polls
would be better than that of 2011 which were adjudged free and fair following
the implementation of recommendations for the amendment of the Electoral Act.
But Buhari reminded the audience that $32.88
billion had been expended by the Jonathan administration on defence in five
years but had not ended the insurgency in the North-east.
Jonathan, who was represented by the Secretary to
the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim, said the issue of
insecurity caused by the activities of Boko Haram has dominated the minds of
all Nigerians.
“But with the re-engineering of the security
apparatus of our country, let me assure you that the issue of the Boko Haram
insurgency would soon be a thing of the past,” he said.
He said that his government remained committed to
all issues pertaining to the welfare of Nigerian workers.
Anyim, who disclosed that he had been mandated by
the president not to dwell on political issues or campaign for the ruling People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) while representing him because some of the workers at
the conference may be Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ad hoc
staff, expressed surprise that Buhari was not conscious of the sensitivity of
the gathering when he spoke at the conference.
“I was also surprised that when our elder
statesman and APC presidential candidate spoke, he was not conscious of the
sensitivity of this gathering,” he said.
In his remarks, the presidential candidate of the
APC, who was the special guest of honour, said the sum of $32.88 billion had
been expended on defence in the last five years, yet Boko Haram has continued
to wreak havoc in several states of the country.
He also cited the militancy in the Niger Delta,
communal violence in the Middle Belt, cult wars in the south, and kidnappings,
armed robberies, and common acts of thuggery throughout the country.
“Most Nigerians are left to fend for themselves.
Those who turn to the police, the army or any other state security agencies
usually have the means and personal connections to buy help and protection.
“Those who don't simply move on or resign to the
fate that befalls them. The bitter ones may form vigilante groups, others join
mobs that dispense jungle justice on suspects and scapegoats alike.
“Too many believe they have nothing to lose, and
everything to gain, and the most alienated are easy prey for terrorists,
militant, and thugs. This must change,” he said
Buhari added that with the failing economy, hard
times were ahead for Nigerians, arguing that to reverse this, the country
needed a group of people who know what to do to tackle the impending hardship.
“As you all know, I am aspiring for the office of
president of Nigeria, not just to hold office, but to join you in securing and
rebuilding a nation, our nation. I pray that you will support me in this quest.
“I hope that you will give me a chance. Together,
you and I can start to build a peaceful, secure and prosperous Nigeria of our
dreams,” he said.
Meanwhile, the former Governor of Kwara State and
senator representing Kwara Central senatorial district at the National
Assembly, Senator Bukola Saraki, yesterday hinted that the federal legislature
would review the postponement of the general election by INEC as soon as the
National Assembly reconvenes so as to ensure the nation’s electoral process is
not tampered with in the future.
Saraki, in a statement issued in Ilorin, the
Kwara State capital, also faulted the deferment of the elections using security
as reason for the delay in the polls.
He said the issue of insecurity in the country
was not new, as it had been almost a year since Boko Haram kidnapped over 200
schoolgirls in Chibok, while thousands of men, women and children had died in
the hands of Boko Haram and thousands had been displaced, yet nothing was done
to reverse the onslaught on people and communities in the North-east.
“INEC is expected to act independently but
unfortunately is being guided by government which believes they are about to
lose an election and have decided to stop the election to re-strategise.
“For over three years, President Jonathan has
failed to make national security a priority. How then does President
Jonathan now expect the people to believe him when he says he will tackle the
terrorist group in six weeks?
“The international community has continued to
support our view that there must be peaceful, free, transparent and credible
electoral processes in Nigeria and that the country’s security forces should
remain impartial so that Nigerians can vote safely and without undue delay.
“They are disappointed about the recently
announced postponement. President Jonathan and INEC must be aware that the eyes
of the world are on them.
“I charge Nigerians to be calm, non-violent and
steadfast. We must be determined to make sure the postponement does not
demoralise or disenfranchise us.
“We must see this as a challenge for us to remain
resolute in yearning for a new democratic government, one that will not see
itself as above the people,” he said.
Saraki promised that the postponement of the
polls would be tabled at the National Assembly once the legislators resume to
ensure that the polls are not delayed or deferred under any guise in the
future.
ThisDayOnline
No comments:
Post a Comment