The Christian Press Association of Nigeria (CPAN) has condemned the sudden postponement of the February 16 election.
The postponement, CPAN said, is ridiculous and unacceptable because it came barely hours to the elections after the same INEC Chairman had earlier said INEC was ready and the possibility of postponement was not in the cards.
In a press statement, President of the association, Deacon Bola Adewara, said the human and financial costs of the postponement are incalculable. “Not only has Nigeria lost so much, Nigerians, you and I, have equally been shortchanged.
“So many Nigerians left their jobs and families to travel to their various home states to cast votes. Would such Nigerians go back again next week? So many people shifted their weddings, burials and other programmes from February 16 to 23rd because of the elections. They have printed their invitations, families and friends are ready for the day. How would they now cope with the election coming up on February 23rd?” He asked.
Deacon Adewara posited that such indiscriminate postponement and forceful shutting down of Nigeria because of elections is retrogressive and unacceptable. “The incompetence of INEC should not rob Nigerians of their daily visions and programmes. It is gradually becoming a tradition for INEC to take such liberty for license as several elections have been postponed in the past and Nigerians forced to accept them without batting an eyelid. This oddity cannot continue. INEC should apologise to Nigerians and sit up,” he said.
CPAN, an association of all Christian media practitioners said “Since INEC is gradually making a tradition of election postponement, the electoral body should upgrade its systems such that anybody could vote anywhere in Nigeria and it would be counted as vote cast in the desired locality of the voter. Meaning that you can cast your vote in Calabar and be treated as vote cast in Funtua. Since INEC is specialising in disappointments like artisans, Nigerians can’t be risking their lives travelling up and down to cast votes all the time.”
However, CPAN’s President encouraged all Nigerians to put this fiasco behind them and summon courage to cast their votes wherever they desire to do so. “Nigerians should not feel discouraged by this disappointment and disenfranchise themselves in an election like this that would define the future of this country,’ he said.
Meanwhile, at a news conference Saturday afternoon, in Abuja, the INEC Chairman, Mr Mahmood Yakubu said the commission had been involved in large scale operations in preparations for the polls that “it is therefore not unexpected that such a tremendous national mobilisation of men and materials would encounter operational challenges.”
He listed the key challenges to include delays in delivering ballot papers and result sheets, occasioned in part by flight challenges due to bad weather.
He said apart from the logistical challenges, there were attempts to sabotage the commission’s preparations, listing fire outbreaks at INEC facilities that destroyed smart card readers and voter cars. The fire at Anambra was the most serious of all, he said.
Mr Yakubu said despite those setbacks, the commission rapidly recovered by mopping up available card readers elsewhere.
He said if the polls had gone ahead, it would have meant some states starting well ahead of others with the implication of the elections being staggered.
“Faced with these challenges, we initially thought that we only required a maximum of 24 hours to resolve the logistics issues involved and complete our deployment for the election,” he said.
“This would mean shifting the elections to commence on Sunday 17th February, 2019. However, given the restriction of movement during elections, that could affect many voters who worship on Sunday. While the commission considering the following Monday, 19th February, 2019 as an option, our ICT department advised us that it would require 5-6 days to configure about 180,000 smart card readers earlier programmed to work only on election day, Saturday, 16th February 2019,” he added.
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