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The Conference of
Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), in Akwa Ibom State is advocating for
violence-free presidential elections devoid of political, ethnic,
religious or any other form of sentimental colouration that may plague
the election.

The group, which
is advocating that the people of the state and the South-South
geopolitical zone support the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan
by voting him back as president on Saturday, appealed to the electorate
to make their conscience their guide at the polls.

State chairman of
the CNPP, Prince Udofia in a statement in Uyo yesterday, encouraged
voters not to relent in their efforts at ensuring that the remaining
elections were conducted successfully.

Cautioning against
the attitude of making the elections a do-or-die affair, Udofia said,
“the conference appeals to all Akwa Ibom people, South-South
geopolitical zone and Nigerians that they should shun all political,
ethnic or religious sentiments in all its ramifications.

“That they should
vote for good performance, transformation and good governance in
Nigeria, and conduct themselves in a more proper and matured manner. So
the presidential election should be devoid of violence, political
sentiment and rancour.” The group also called on the electorate to
ensure that their votes protected.

The group’s call is coming on the heels of the ethnic tension that
has built up, especially among the Annang and the Ibibio where the
state governor and PDP governorship candidate, Godswill Akpabio and his
ACN counterpart, John Akpanudoedehe, hail from respectively.

Free and fair
elections will elude the nation should political office holders
continue to depend on public funds for electioneering activities, the
national chairman of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Ogbonnaya
Onu has said.

Mr Onu, who made
the remarks during a visit by a delegation of the National democratic
Institute (NDI) to the ANPP’s national secretariat, yesterday in Abuja,
said the act gives undue advantage to candidates who are still
occupying public offices.

“Like in the US, if
the president or a governor is going on any function that is not purely
for the benefit of the state; maybe it is for personal or political
purpose, such a leader will not use public fund. This is not what is
happening here and if election must be free and fair, you must have a
level playing field for everybody,” he said.

“This is very
disturbing because money was being freely given while on the queue in
the last election, especially in the South-East and South-South, which
is against the law. And quite often, this money is public fund which
should have been used for the development of the country.”

Speaking further on
last Saturday’s election, he said the party is worried that the
government is yet to organise elections that can really be said to be
free and fair in the country going by the party’s experience.

“The pre-election
conditions are very important because if you have so much insecurity
leading to intimidation, harassment, then you create a situation where
people will be afraid to participate fully in the process,” Mr Onu
said. “We had instances of a lot of insecurity before and during the
election itself. The level of insecurity is very worrisome even though
it has reduced.”

Objective report

Mr Onu urged the
NDI to ensure that its preliminary and final reports of election
monitoring exercise were objectively carried out to gain the public
trust.

The leader of the
delegation and former Prime Minister of Canada, Joe Clark, promised
that the institute will be impartial in its report, adding that it will
release an interim report on the presidential report next Monday.

“We will be objective,” Mr Clark said.

The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)
in Oyo State has called for the prompt implementation of the new
minimum wage recently approved by the federal government.

The newly elected state chairman of the congress,
Bashiru Olanrewaju, made the request at the governor’s office in Agodi,
Ibadan, on Thursday, when he led other members of the new executive on
a courtesy call to Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala.

Other members of the executive in his entourage were
Ayobami Ajayi (vice chairman), Mrs. Agbaje (vice chairman), Edema
Olorunwa (secretary), Elijah Oluleye (auditor), Eniola Kolawole
(auditor), Mr. Adisa (ex-officio), and Modupeoluwa Arinola (ex-officio).

Mr. Olanrewaju praised the governor for offering to
pay the minimum wage of N18,000 to the state’s civil service. He
informed Mr. Alao-Akala that the state’s workforce shares his vision,
describing him as a worker-friendly executive.

According to him, the governor has worked to ensure
that development is spread evenly across the state during his first
term, particularly in the areas of road network development and
improved healthcare facilities.

The NLC boss also sought the governor’s intervention
to unify the labour unions in his domain, stressing that the effort
would benefit the workers and the government, and increase development
in the state.

A positive response

In his reaction, the governor, who congratulated the
new NLC executive, calling Mr. Olanrewaju a good crisis manager, hoped
that he would be able to achieve the needed unity among the unions in
the congress.

Mr. Alao-Akala said the new minimum wage has become a
law, which his government is willing to implement. He said his
government is always ready to attend to the welfare of its workers, but
offered that it could only act within the limit of its resources.

The governor then counseled the workers against
resorting unnecessarily to strikes every time they want the government
to fulfil their demands.

The Ogun State
chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said it would
head to the electoral tribunal to challenge the national assembly
election results of the Ogun West senatorial district, as well as the
Yewa/Egbado North House of Representatives. The chairman of the PDP
campaign team, Sarafa Ishola, revealed this at the end of the two-day
review session of last Saturday’s election. He said the party was not
satisfied with the so-called victories of the Action Congress of
Nigeria senatorial candidate for Yewa/Egbado West and that of Rasaki
Adewusi of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) for the House of
Representatives.

In a statement
issued by the party, Mr Sarafa said the PDP had incontrovertible
evidence showing that its Ogun West senatorial and Yewa/Egabdo North
House of Representatives candidates won their seats for the party.

“The PDP would be
proving to the electoral tribunal that its candidate, Babatunde Fadu,
won the senatorial seat for Ogun West while Alexander Ajibade won the
House of Representatives seat for Egbado/Yewa North,” he said.

Still in the race

The campaign team
also said its governorship candidate, Tunji Olurin, is still running
for the office, contrary to speculations that he had stepped down for
Gboyega Isiaka, the PPN candidate.

“The PDP
gubernatorial candidate for Ogun State, Adetunji Olurin, is still very
much in the race. This is to put paid to unimaginable wicked lies being
fabricated by PPN and others who do not wish Ogun State people well,”
said the statement, which was signed by Lai Labode, the media committee
chairman.

“The party wishes to confirm to PDP supporters that at no meeting
called by any Yewa Group did the issue of stepping down for a PPN
candidate by Adetunji Olurin came up. It is laughable that the PPN,
which seriously showed very poor outing in the last week elections,
could ever dream that PDP, which did better, would concede to PPN,” it
stated.

In Benue, the
presidential election votes will be split between Nuhu Ribadu,
candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria and President Goodluck
Jonathan, the incumbent, considering last Saturday’s voting pattern.

At the National
Assembly elections which held last week in some zones in the state, the
PDP won the two contested senatorial seats and six of the nine
contested Federal House of Reps seats.

However, an
analysis of the voting pattern shows that PDP won marginally on
aggregate. The PDP polled 373,775 votes, out of the 769,281 total votes
cast, representing 48.6 per cent of the total votes cast. Their closest
rival, ACN, polled an aggregate of 351,209 votes out of the total votes
cast, representing 45.6 per cent of the total votes cast.

The All Nigeria
People’s Party (ANPP) came a distant third with an aggregate of 29,710,
representing 3.8 per cent of the total votes cast in the election. The
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) scored 10,740, a meagre I.4 per
cent share of the total votes cast.

Battle for Benue

The contest is thus
visibly between the PDP and ACN in Benue. The PDP has held the
frontline position in Benue politics since 1999 but its grip on power
is being fiercely challenged.

Some of the
masterminds of the PDP’s previous victories now lead the ACN in the
state. That notwithstanding, loyalists of the PDP in the state believe
the party will keep winning without these masterminds.

The PDP held a
closed-door caucus meeting in Markurdi on Thursday, where the leaders
agreed to go back to their localities to work harder and improve the
size of the party’s victory in the presidential elections.

A political analyst, Benjamin Friday, described the presidential poll as a make or mar one for the ACN.

“If the party loses
this time again, then the people will start thinking they are not as
strong as they claim and that will affect them in the gubernatorial
elections,” Mr. Friday said in Gboko.

“The Tiv speaking
north has always decided the political future of the state with their
lager electorate, and they are the one leading this opposition. So, it
is going to be a strong battle between PDP and ACN on Saturday,” he
added.

Benue INEC ready

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission in the state says it is ready for the presidential polls on Saturday.

Jacob Iyanda,
public relations officer of the commission in Benue, said on Thursday
evening that the state has recieved all the required materials from the
national INEC office and has started the disbursment of same, including
sensitive materials.

“Everything has
arrived, and we have started distributing sensitive materials to the
various local governments,” Mr. Iyanda said.

He added that the
materials arrived quite early from Abuja and they are doing same for
the local government areas so that they too will be properly prepared
for the Saturday polls.

This week’s
distribution comes a day earlier than last week’s. However, last week,
some far flung villages complained of late arrival of materials at
polling centres.

Mr. Ayanda said the commision has concluded the retraining of its officers who will participate in the elections.

The Benue INEC
office has also been put under heavy security survilance by a joint
security team of the Army and Police, ahead of the polls.

Ahead of the presidential poll
tomorrow, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has urged the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, to correct the irregularities and
logistics challenges recorded during the April 9, National Assembly
election.

The group also called on Nigerians to turn out en-mass to exercise their civic responsibility in electing credible leaders.

In a statement signed by, Anthony Sani,
the group noted that the turnout of voters during the National Assembly
election especially in the northern parts of the country was below
expectation compared to the total number of registered voters in the
region.

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Andrew Lloyd who is
also the Permanent Representative of Britain to the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS), talks about Britain’s role in the
general elections, his hopes for future bilateral relations and
delivers an assessment of INEC’s performance.

What is your assessment of the elections so far and is there room for improvement?

The elections have
captured the international community’s imagination. There is a large
number of international observers here. These elections are significant
because Nigeria has proven itself to be a champion of democracy. My
sense is that there will always be room for improvement, no matter how
good the elections are; even in the UK with postal ballots and the US
with electronic voting. My overall sense is that last weekend’s
elections were a significant improvement on any election Nigeria has
ever had.

How would you rate Attahiru Jega’s performance in comparison to his predecessor?

I cannot comment on
Maurice Iwu’s performance because I was not here at the time and it
would be unfair. My assessment is that INEC, under Chairman Jega’s
stewardship, has really turned around the conduct of the elections. He
has built a lot of trust with the people of Nigeria and the political
parties.

When there were
logistical problems, Nigerians were quite right to give him the benefit
of the doubt and stick with his leadership and determination in
ensuring Nigeria gets the freest and fairest elections it can in 2011.

Could the logistical challenges behind the botched elections have been handled any better?

The irony is that,
after all the initial fears about the elections, the biggest problem in
the end was something as boring as logistics.

All of us with the
benefit of hindsight could have made different decisions, perhaps, but
I can’t think of many other Nigerians who would want to swap places
with him. I admire his patience, determination and resolve. I was not
in his shoes so I don’t know what I would have done differently. That
there were logistical problems was a disappointment but that INEC
managed to overcome them for April 9 is a cause for congratulation.

What is the biggest thing you are looking for in these elections?

We are not
interested in parties or the personalities but in the process. Our big
hope is that Nigeria builds on last weekend to demonstrate to the rest
of Africa, that even when democracy is hotly contested or the margin of
victory is very small, it’s possible to run a legitimate, credible and
peaceful process. That’s my hope, building on last Saturday. Yes, there
are areas that need to be addressed but my sense is that they are being
addressed.

Is Britain assisting INEC in any way?

It’s for Nigerians
to decide how to manage their democracy. It is not our policy to try
and interfere anywhere in the conduct of democracy. It is our policy,
however, to support democracy where we can. Therefore we have provided
technical assistance and limited financial support for that assistance.

We will engage with
civic society to play a role and indeed with political parties. Looking
forward, I predict political party reform will be on the agenda of
Nigerians and this is again an area in which Britain traditionally
assists. We have budgeted around 20 million pounds for democratic
programmes. Most of which is directed at election assistance. This
however does not reflect the totality of what we do.

Will Britain intervene if there are repeated signs of violence and electoral malpractice?

Well firstly, I
certainly hope it won’t come to that. However, if one sees Kenya or
Cote d’Ivoire-style intimidation and violence, then there needs to be
Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire-style justice. People who frustrate the
democratic process will be held accountable for that. One needs to only
look at what’s happening in the international criminal court in Kenya
to see the range of options that are available. My sense though, is
that we won’t be in that situation in Nigeria. A poorly conducted
election damages the legitimacy of the outcome.

We have already witnessed two serious bombings and recorded cases of shootings. At what point do you decide to intervene?

What happened in
Suleja and Maiduguri was completely unacceptable and contemptible. I
met with the Inspector General of Police just a day before the Suleja
bombing and he was clear that there should be no impunity for this kind
of extremist violence. It is a huge concern and looking ahead, we share
the anxieties of the Nigerian people. The best way to intervene is to
work with local authorities, to try and prevent and deter extremist
violence.

How strong is the current relationship between Britain and Nigeria?

Well this is my
second stint in Nigeria and I can comfortably say it has never been
better. Nigeria went through a very fragile moment when the former
president passed. But it is a moment in which Nigeria triumphed. A key
question was asked, is democracy irreversible? The answer is that yes,
it is absolutely irreversible.