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Election Postponement in Kaduna:Will
Two Days Make Any Difference?-By
Ismail Omipidan
Sat April 23,2011
After the February and May 2000 ethno-religious crisis,
precipitated by the attempt to introduce Sharia in the State,
many had thought; never again will the State witness such wanton
killing and destruction of lives and properties. But barely 11
years after the mayhem, Kaduna, which government delegation from
Plateau State
had visited sometimes last year, to copy its peace and security
models, with a view to implementing same in Jos, the
Plateau
State capital, which had been in perpetual State
of unrest for about three years now, erupted again in violence.
But the violence, which started off, as a political one, was
later to snowball again, into an ethno-religious one. While
Christians kill Muslims, burnt their places of worship and
homes, Muslims too did same to the Christians. But while some
Christians, especially around Kabala-West in Kaduna, saved
Muslims, mostly Yoruba, from the rampaging Hausa Muslims from
the Tudun-Wada end of the metropolis, who were bent on attacking
them, just because their kith and kin in far way Lagos, Ekiti,
Ondo, Oyo and Ogun States, rejected Buhari and went for
Jonathan, Hausa Muslims were out for their fellow Muslims,
especially from the North, perceived to be PDP supporters.
In the end, lives were lost; properties were destroyed, with
tension and apprehension still hanging ominously in the air. For
instance, after about 60 hours of curfew, the State governor,
Mr. Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, reviewed it downward on Wednesday,
and said residents would be allowed to move around that
Wednesday, from 12noon to 5pm, while beginning from last
Thursday through Sunday, residents would be allowed to move
about from 8am to 4pm.
However, by last Thursday, barely two hours after some residents
moved out, with many remaining indoors, an alarm was raised to
the effect that fighting again broke out at the popular Central
Market, a situation that left many to scamper for safety, as a
few shop owners who had opened for business, quickly locked them
up and returned home. Although, the alarm may be a false one,
such kind of false alarm will be a recurring thing for at least
another week, going by the experience of 2000.
All these, forced me, beginning from last Tuesday, precisely two
days after the violence broke out in Kaduna, to begin to reach
out to a few very influential Nigerians that I know, including
some top lawmakers on the need to shift Kaduna governorship
election from Tuesday April 26, 2011, to a later date, but
certainly not April 28, 2011.And by last Thursday, the
Independent Election Monitoring Group, IEMG, led by its National
Coordinator, Festus Okoye, who himself is a Kaduna man, met and
reviewed the whole situation. And after its meeting, it called
on the Independent National
Ele ctoral Commission, INEC, not to contemplate
holding the governorship and State Assembly elections in Kaduna
and eight other troubled States, following the post-presidential
election clashes that were recorded in those States.
Instead, the group called on INEC and the country’s top security
hierarchy to reassess the security challenges in the States
concerned on State-by-State basis, and where they feel strongly
that the conduct of the election would lead to further break
down of law and order, the Commission should not hesitate to
consider postponing the elections in such State (s).
Ironically, the group came up with its statement on
Wednesday night and duly signed by the group’s National
Coordinator, Okoye, but the copy was not made available to
Journalists until last Thursday’s morning. And by evening of the
same Thursday, INEC came up with its own position on election
postponement in two troubled States-Kaduna and Bauchi.
I don’t know what the situation is in Bauchi, but in Kaduna,
where I live and work, and where I started my Journalism career
in 1999, I know that just two days shift will not make any
difference, except of course the authorities are saying they do
not care if we kill ourselves, ‘all they want is for them or
their person to be in power.’As I write this piece, many have
not returned home, and many may never return even before April
28, the new date for the election.
By implication, if the authorities go ahead with the election as
planned on Thursday, many Kaduna residents will be
disfranchised. That is one. Two, I am not a pessimist, but with
my knowledge of Kaduna, if the election should go on as planned,
no matter the security network put in place, fight will still
break out after announcement of results, irrespective of the
party that wins.
I am aware of the constitutional constraint of INEC, especially
with regards to section 178 of the constitution, which requires
it to hold governorship election “not earlier than 150 days and
not later than 30 days before the expiration of the tenure of
office of the last holder of that office.”
But section 26(1) of the Electoral Act, empowers it to postpone
election where it believed that going ahead with such an
election will lead to further break down of law and order. The
section reads in part “where a date has been appointed – for the
holding of an election, and there is reason to believe that a
serious breach of the peace is likely to occur if the election
is proceeded with on that date or it is impossible to conduct
the elections as a result of natural disasters or other
emergencies, the Commission may postpone the election and shall
in respect of the area, or areas concerned, appoint another date
for the holding of the postponed election, provided that such
reason for the postponement is cogent and verifiable.”
The question that naturally comes to mind is that if the
election does not hold in Kaduna on April 28, 2011 (the new
date) what happens? Simple! By May 29, 2011, Yakowa’s tenure
naturally comes to an end. You don’t need to declare a state of
emergency. Once that happens, since the State Assembly too would
have gone, without inaugurating the new one, the Chief Judge of
the State, who is naturally the next on line takes over in
accordance with the constitution, and within six months, if we
are sure the State is back to normal, then we can now hold the
election. Anything short of that, to my mind will be a direct
invitation to another orgy of killings and violent attacks. May
God Help us.
Omipidan is a
Kaduna-based Journalist and could be reached on
smileomi@yahoo.com and
iomipidan@gmail.com.
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