BREAKING NEWS
Nigeria Announces the Postponement of the Scheduled February 14, 2015 Presidential Elections
Commentary
by Tom Okure, PH.D
Date: February 7, 2015
The Nigerian government this Saturday, February 7, 2015 announced
the postponement of the
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| INEC State Offices |
scheduled February 14 presidential elections. The announcement
comes amidst an increase in violence by a 5-year old Islamic insurgency called
Boko Haram, a militant jihadist group that has seized about 30 villages and
towns in the last year in northern Nigeria and is alleged by international
security agencies to be able to go “toe-to-toe” with the Nigerian army.
The supporters of the two major political parties in Nigeria
PDP and APC have been threatening violence should their candidate loose the
presidential elections. Political polling
of the electorate and expert analysis of the campaigning status of the two
major parties suggest a very close race. The PDP led government of President
Jonathan has been in power since the end of military dictatorship in 1999. It
will be recalled that about 800 people died as a consequence of rioting in the
Muslim north soon after the current APC presidential candidate Buhari, a Muslim
and former military dictator himself, lost his bid for the presidency in the 2011
elections to Jonathan, a Christian from the south.
The PDP party in Nigeria has been successful in wining every
presidential election since the end of military rule. It has made significant
strides in infrastructural development in many sectors of the economy but has
been unable to contain the Boko Haram insurgency; and a seemingly growing and
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INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega
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out of control high level corruption among government officials. Nigeria like many other oil dependent
economies is also witnessing a rapid slowdown in growth as a result of falling
world oil prices and a failure in foresight by Nigerian policy makers to build
up sufficient foreign reserves to sustain the economy until world oil prices
rebounds.
The United States and its western allies have voiced concern
over the inability of Nigeria’s military to stop the insurgency in the Muslim
north but have insisted that the elections should proceed on schedule. John
Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State while visiting Nigeria recently remarked that
"one of the best ways to fight back against Boko Haram" was by
holding a credible and peaceful election on time.
Other Relevant links
A postponement also will give electoral officials more time
to deliver some 30 million voter cards. The commission had said the
non-delivery of cards to nearly half of the 68.8 million registered voters was
not a good reason to delay the vote….Read more
Civil society leaders, organized in support of credible and
transparent elections in Nigeria, otherwise called the Nigeria Civil Society
Situation Room, reacted sharply blasting the security chiefs accusing them of
fomenting a surreptitious coup against democracy. Read more….
INEC PRESS STATEMENT
On Thursday, February 5, 2015, the Chairman of the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, was
invited to brief the National Council of States (NCS) on the preparedness of
INEC to conduct the 2015 general elections. He made a presentation titled
“Preparations for the 2015 General Elections: Progress Report.’ The National
Security Adviser (NSA) and Armed Services Chiefs also briefed the Council on
the current security situation….Read more
http://www.inecnigeria.org/?inecnews=inec-press-statement-2
