As 2023 electoral campaigns assume ethnic and religious dimensions, the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, has reminded Nigerians that democratic governance ensures freedom of worship.
Speaking at a public sensitisation on peaceful co-existence and the need to have a hitch-free 2023 elections, the Research Analyst for CDD, Dengiyefa Angalapu, noted that the 2023 election needs to be managed properly.
According to him, Nigeria will be having its 7th cycle of elections, with about 93.4 million voters which is about 6.7 million more than the combined registered voters of the rest of the 14 West African countries.
Angalapu further stated at sensitization which was organized by the Abuja National Mosque Da’awah and Welfare Foundation, ANMDW, that “Since the program is being driven by a religious organization. We are quite excited about it. For us, we feel that the fight for democracy is not just a fight to help society.”
“It is a fight to help ourselves as a different religious group so whether it is not just Islam, Christianity, and Traditional religion, it is a fight to help ourselves because really if you look at democracy. Is only democratic governance that ensures freedom of worship.”
The Research Analyst noted further that “We are having an election in Nigeria where we have different kinds of conflicts in the North East, banditry in the North West, we have issues of sensation in the South East, we are having different kinds of criminality in the South-South and South West.
In his part, the former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, noted that it is generally acknowledged both at home and abroad that this year’s general elections are the most consequential elections to be held globally.
Jega said “To my mind, the most worrisome challenges going into the 2023 general elections are the attitude and disposition of the so-called political class (politicians and political party bureaucracy or aristocracy); and the attitude and disposition of the electorate, the eligible voting citizens, as they engage with the electoral process.
“The so-called political class, as active partisans and as candidates/contestants in elections, are the category of stakeholders with perhaps the least noticeable improvements in how they engage with the electoral process since 1999.
“Their mindset is to achieve victory at all cost; to win elections deploying ‘all means necessary’; seeing electoral contests as a “do-or-die” affair. As they have done since 1999, they have continued to do, and are likely to do in 2023.
“As their impunity has remained unchecked, so have their criminal and fraudulent predispositions increased. This may constitute the major challenge to the 2023 general elections,” he said.
He noted that the attitude and disposition of the electorate, including citizens who qualify to register and vote, is also a major concern.
Also speaking, the Chairman ANMDWF, Dr. Muhammad Kabir Adam, said it is the responsibility of all Nigerians to ensure the coming general elections.
“If the elections are credible, the outcome would be successful and the leaders that would emerge would be answerable to them and deliver good governance,” he said