By CrossRiverWatch Admin
Ahead of party primaries and the 2019 general elections, concerns about the electoral processes have been raised with several new innovations introduced to reduce the level of rigging at the polls.
A concerned Cross Riverian, Mr. Ogar Peter Ikibunim is one of those seeking to end rigging.
“I think we have argued enough, we have complained enough. It is time for us to do our bits to bring sanity to our polity,” Mr. Ogar said while addressing residents at the Ogoja campus of the Cross River University of Technology where the inaugural launch meeting of the ‘No Rigging In My Polling Unit’ campaign.
He noted that there are many reasons why Nigerians should give up on the electoral system and the country due to, “the consistency of malpractices we have had to endure for almost our entire life.”
He maintained that the campaign has led to the birthing of hope that together, Nigerians can create a “web effect.” He told the story of the man who began a revolution to light up his neighborhood by placing a lantern in front of his house which drew criticisms at first but was hailed later.
Citing the moral of that story, Mr. Ogar averred that: “It is the possibility of this little droplets, little efforts as this, that got me thinking in the year 2011 @fter the generaI elections (where) I got the inspiration of electoral responsibility.
“I conceived that if everyone takes responsibility by putting forward their drops and gets involved in elections and the electoral process, we will have a “web effect” across the country that will result in electoral sanity.”
Continuing, he said that the introduction of the permanent voters card had curbed the menace of results been written before the commencement of elections but lamented that, “desperate politicians have devised other means of malpractices unfortunately through the willing collaboration of the electorates at the polling unit.”
He further explained that: “Since it is nearly impossible to rig elections away from the polling unit, it therefore falls on us to educate the electorates on the need to take responsibility for creating a free, fair, transparent and generally acceptable elections.
“The only way to achieve this is to ensure that as citizens, we refuse to be agents of electoral malpractices. It is in line with this consciousness that the slogan of ‘No Rigging In My Polling Unit, was birthed.
“Today, I call on you, me, everyone, to join this campaign to bring sanity to our electoral process, to our elections, to our country and for generations to come.”
Also, Ogar quoted English singer and songwriter Michael David Rosenberg better known by his stage name, ‘Passenger’ to explain the idea of the campaign.
He stated that: “If we all light up we can scare away the dark. Elections are approaching, let us prepare our minds that at our various polling units, we will say no to electoral malpractices. As individuals taking responsibility, we will, we should be professing with conviction.”
Leave feedback about this