INEC POSTPONES NIGERIAN'S 2015 ELECTIONS

This post may seem like it came late by many standards, but I'm not a newscaster, I'm a blogger, and as such, delivering news with speed is not my forte. Yesterday, Nigerians woke up to the bittersweet news that the elections scheduled for February 14th has been postponed to March 28th. I say it was bittersweet because, while some people were jubilating, others were frowning.

Prior to the postponement of the elections, many already speculated that it would be so. The initial reason though, was that General Muhammadu Buhari would be disqualified because of the whole school certificate fiasco, (story for another day). When the courts called off the strike, the story hit that the president had ordered them to do so, so that the PDP could sue GMB to court, thereby either disqualifying him or postponing the elections. I don’t know how true this is, but you know what they say, "there is no smoke without fire".

Two weeks later, the news came that indeed INEC (the electoral body) was been asked to postpone the elections. Of course, that was another topic for debate. Many citizens including my humble self were convinced that it would be almost impossible. We wondered as to the possible reasons that the president would have now to be calling for a postponement. We didn’t have to wait for long. The reason was simple, the military and police force said they would not be able to guarantee the security of Nigerians, if the elections were to hold come February 14th since they would be too busy fighting boko haram and overthrowing them. Prior to this declaration, we saw on the news how suddenly the sect released about 190 people, (heard they were actually Camerounians) and how the army had killed about 5000 BH  members. I’m so sorry to say this, but I took those info with a pinch of salt. My simple reason is; they didn’t show us on TV, these 190 people released, or capture of any BH members. I still think it’s all part of the campaign/election rhetorics.

This is the conclusion that I have to, after engaging in some debates and discussions;

• Why did I see on TV that while 30000 troops were sent to battle bokoharam, 75000 troops were sent to Osun state for elections. Are they trying to insinuate that one state could become more violent than the bokoharam sect because of elections? Or maybe it was a typographical error. It probably was the other way round.
• How come the Nigerian government and military can suddenly contain bokoharam, as they have promised us BH will be an issue of the past in the next 6 weeks.  If indeed this happens, then Nigerians, bear in mind that you have a very wicked man as president. Because he has allowed fellow Nigerians perish in the hands of bokoharam for 6 years for no good reason. Ehen, let me ask this question, "was the government finally able to get all the sophisticated weapons they needed to fight the BH? Abi na the same old weapons them wan use? hmmm...... *smh*.
• Another reason sited for the postponement of the elections was that INEC hadn't provided the citizens with their PVC (permanent voters card). As such marginalizing them and a certain percentage won't be able to vote. Almost, the same reason for fighting BH at this time, (to enable people in the north eastern part of the country to vote). They said they didn't want any cause to have to render the elections null and void. I just want to know at this point, if it is job of INEC to distribute these PVCs. Some states declared a couple of days as public holidays so that people could collect their cards. I can almost assure you that lots and lots of people used those days to do house chores and not to collect PVC. Also, many individuals don't even know which centres to go to for their cards.
• The only solid reason I got from my many discussions, to postpone this election was that elections shouldn't be held earlier than 90 days or later than 30 days prior to the swearing-in day. This info is in the constitution, and these political parties and INEC were either not aware of it or they decided to ignore it. Because by my calculations, the previously chosen date was invalid as it was about 2 weeks off the mark.

My people, there is a saying that "when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers". So, as these politicians continue to play their games, keep calm and wait for March 28th (God willing, it would hold), to cast your vote for your best candidate.

Cheers....