By Adam Alqali
Ahead of the February 2015 General Elections, the Say No Campaign (SNC); a platform for Nigerian civil society activists committed towards ending impunity, corruption, violence as well as election rigging, has launched a campaign aimed at ending electoral impunity and promoting mandate protection.
This was contained in a press statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Thursday and signed by co-conveners of the platform including Ezenwa Nwagu, Auwal Ibrahim Rafsanjani, Jaiye Gaskia and Samson Itodo. The statement raised issues around political parties’ primaries; independence of state institutions; campaign funding and electoral campaigning, the state of preparedness of INEC as well as insecurity and the 2015 elections.
According to the statement, the campaign will be kicked-off Tuesday, January 20, 2015 with rallies in four Nigerian cities of Lagos, Enugu, Lafia and Kano. Moreover, the rallies will be proceeded by town-hall meetings in the respective cities and then followed by “massive nationwide advocacy and media engagements to raise popular awareness among citizens” in the view to preparing them “to resist electoral fraud and violence, while standing firm to protect their votes and ensuing mandate”.
“As the February 2015 General Elections approach,” said the statement, “we are worried by certain unfolding events relating to the elections and with a potential to have significant impact on the conduct and outcome of the elections. As a campaigning platform against impunity, we are determined to raise popular awareness and mobilize popular consciousness to ensure that citizens actively engage with the electoral process in a manner that prevents and mitigates against the manifestation of electoral impunity that gives rise to unchecked electoral fraud, deliberate violation of the electoral and relevant constitutional provisions, and the unfettered orchestration of electoral violence.”
The statement decried the lack of internal democracy associated with party primaries among the political parties as well as the crises it had generated within the parties and the polity in general; the deterioration of the security situation in some parts of the country; ill-preparedness on the side of INEC; as well as the utterances and conducts members of various political parties.
On the independence of state institutions as far as the 2015 elections are concerned, the statement said: “We are worried by the growing popular discourse regarding the perception of the partiality of security and law enforcement agencies towards incumbent governments. Particularly worrisome are some of the utterances and actions of some of the security agencies that seem to be interpreted rightly or wrongly by a growing number of citizens as signs and indications of the erosion of the impartiality of these institutions.”
