The National Chairman of Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) Mr Emmanuel Dania speaking on the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly Elections hours before the commencement of the election queries the process INEC has employed to deliver the elections and charge Nigerians never to give to violence or any act that can cause public unrest but to remain steadfast to seeing that this delay won’t be a denial of the birthing of A NEW NIGERIA.
The announcement of the postponement or rescheduling of an election INEC had spent months planning and preparing on the very day of the election gives rooms to worry and questions the competence of the institutions of government in delivering vital services to Nigeria as much as the general elections.
It is sad that a commission saddled with such a huge task would not be able to preempt the reasons given for rescheduling an election hours to its commencement. The Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu announced the postponement of the election at about 3:00am this morning when majority of Nigerians are asleep and millions have shelved their plans to ensure they can be at their polling units early.
Needless to say that the obvious reality of incompetence in the Nigerian institutions have very grave consequences on the generality of Nigerians. To imagine how much the economy would lose today and how inconvenient it would be for many who had left their homes and families in order to sleep over in hotels and other accommodations so that they can cast their votes today because the same institution of government had found it difficult to relocate them to their new place of residence and closer to their polling units.
Some of these persons have travelled miles to different states for reasons of being within the area where their PVCs are registered and as of this morning the only information they would have is to hear that the election is not holding as scheduled for reasons of logistics that were obviously meant to have been planned and in most climes rehearsed, so they have to start to think of how to raise another money in one week for same travels in a bad economy as we have it today.
It is sad that a country as blessed as Nigeria would struggle at delivering an election as scheduled and almost become a predictable pattern of never keeping to the scheduled date of any general election. When asked during the week, the INEC Chairman confirmed to the whole world and in the front of camera and international observer and monitors that his commission is ready to conduct the elections.
If the above statement is anything to go by and then his announcement following the emergency meeting that produced the postponement, then as opposition to the twin evil of PDP and APC we can conclude that there is more to the announcement than what has been said. And it will be good to know the status of sensitive and non sensitive materials that must have been released between the hours of 7pm on Friday and 3:00am when the announcement was made. It will be good to know what the call back and safety plans are for INEC, it will be good to know that this flaws are obvious dents on the credibility of the entire process.
Dania therefore called on all party faithfuls, lovers, believers and everyone that desires a new Nigeria stay resolute and not deterred by the postponement but ensure that the next one week be used to galvanize every yet to decide voter to brazenly reject the twin evil of APC and PDP on Saturday, February 23, 2019 which is now the new date for the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
