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The Transition
Monitoring Group (TMG) says only Nigerians and not the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) can make the forthcoming general
elections credible. It said that the only way Nigerians could make the
elections credible is by defending their votes after voting in the
elections, adding that INEC can only provide polling centres and
materials for voting.

The election
monitoring group stated this in a statement jointly signed by its
national coordinator, Mashood Erubami and publicity secretary, Musa
Rasfanjani in Abuja on Tuesday.

“The present INEC
chairperson has used every opportunity to inform Nigerians not to
expect perfect election from its organization, but to see the
achievement of credible election as a collective task of the citizens
and all stakeholders in the electoral process,” the statement said.
“This is not to say that the body is not prepared to conduct credible
election, but it is a call on the electorate to be vigilant, to
register, vote and be ready to defend their votes.” The group notes
that “credible election is beyond mere filling up of the electorate,
but includes the ability to be able to express their trust in the
preferred candidates at the poll.”

Explaining the
constitutional role of the electoral agency, the statement read that
“the function of INEC as stipulated in the electoral act is to conduct
voter and civic education, promote knowledge of sound election
democratic election processes and conduct any referendum required to be
conducted pursuant to the provision of the 1999 constitution or any
other law or Act of the National Assembly. In this regard, INEC is
expected to provide polling centres and materials for voting to be
managed by assigned presiding officers.”

There, TMG opined
that “voting and ensuring that voters exercise their voting rights, to
chose from available alternative candidates and defending the voting
process are beyond what the INEC can do during elections” therefore the
group warned Nigerians that “it is the people and not INEC that would
make election credible.”

It called on the
electorate who have taken the pain to register in the just concluded
registration exercise to troop out en masse to cast their vote during
the coming 2011 election and standby to defend the votes and remain
vigilant throughout the whole process.”

The group argued
that “where election have consistently been conducted to the
satisfaction of the majority, where results have been disagrees or
disputed, where INEC has been distrusted, where politicians have not
played by the rules or where security agencies have been known to be
partisan, citizens vigilance and assumption of their historical duties
to defend their votes, have been the most potent mechanism by which
their genuine electoral aspiration can be voiced.”

TMG noted that in
order for Nigerians to vote and ensure that their votes count and
resist being victims of the consequences of bad and unfair elections,
they must wake up from their slumber, to exhibit better understanding
of their roles in the polls and become a good part of the solution to
unfair election without integrity in the country.

“Only a well conducted election under the watchful eyes of the
voters can guarantee peace and ensure leadership legitimacy that can
remove for all times, the incidence of underdevelopment with its
accompanying vices like unemployment, poverty, insecurity, violence and
political assassination,” it stated.