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To forestall
possible attempt to rig the forthcoming general elections, the Edo
State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has urged Nigerians to be prepared to
defend their votes by all available means.

He called on all
Nigerians to embark on civil disobedience if the 2011 general elections
were rigged, saying “it is either we have free and fair election in
2011 and Nigeria survives or they rig it and Nigeria will perish.”
Speaking at a lecture, titled ‘Democracy and the Nigerian Media: The
Challenge of Ensuring One-Man-One-Vote,’ organized by the
Correspondents’ Chapel of the Edo State Chapter of the Nigerian Union
of Journalists, yesterday, the governor said “the country is ready for
change, but the people need to knock the door harder for the change to
come.” He said the cost of challenging the system was not as much as
the cost of allowing the system to continue to degenerate. “The
campaign to entrench one man, one vote should be seen as a struggle for
survival,” he said. “It is either we struggle to survive or we allow
Nigeria to go under.”

Recounting his
experience in 2007 when he contested the state governorship election
and the tortuous court processes he went through to claim his mandate,
he urged Nigerians to resist election riggers right from the electoral
ground because “there must be balance of madness for our people to
recognize that there is no more time.” He said Nigeria cannot lay claim
to be a democratic society if the people cannot freely elect those to
represent them, adding that those who claim to have been elected under
a compromised situation cannot be accountable to the people.

An independent INEC

Mr Oshiomhole
argued that the test of the commitment to one man-one-vote must reflect
the way political parties handle their primaries. “A party that insists
on the return of its elected officers irrespective of their performance
in office was indicative of imposition,” he said, adding that this
defeats one man-one-vote. He also argued that multiplicity of political
parties could create situation for some elements to manipulate
elections, just as he observed that factionalization of the opposition
gives strength to the dominant party.

The governor said the apparent danger signs in 2011 electoral
process include attempts by the PDP dominated National Assembly to
encroach on matters that should be within the jurisdiction of political
parties and INEC. He said fixing the order of election by the National
Assembly was an attempt to turn Nigeria into a one-party state. “So we
must begin to notice and connect the media with some of these actions
that suggest some desperation to manipulate the process,” he said. He
also added that INEC should be the only one to make its rules and that
making such rules through legislation makes INEC to cease to be
independent umpire. “When a governor or a president conflicts with the
interest of the people, it must be resolved in favour of the people
because, governors and presidents come and go but the people and the
country remains.”