By Barikui Felix
While the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, says it has finalized plans for the conduct of local council polls in the 23 councils of the state this Saturday, Pastor Tonye Cole, flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2019 and 2023 General Elections in the state has urged them to stop citing insecurity in the state.
Cole, who said this during a live interview monitored from Port Harcourt argued that the credibility of Nigeria’s democracy is at stake when electoral activities take place without a stable security environment or strong democratic institutions to back them.
He said with the emergency rule in place in Rivers State that it is not proper to conduct an election.
“I personally feel that having that election in a time of a state of emergency just says everything wrong about democracy.
“If you have suspended democratic institutions, you cannot be conducting elections under such conditions. Even the perception of it is wrong,” he stated.
Cole argued that conducting elections under such circumstances risks legitimising a flawed process and reinforces public cynicism.He posited that democratic processes should reflect stability and fairness, not desperation.
The former guber candidate accused political leaders in Nigeria of misplacing priorities when it comes to deploying security forces, citing the heavy deployment of military and police presence for elections while communities are neglected under attack from terrorists and bandits.
“How can you have a task force working for a small election in Zamfara with trucks of military, police, NSCDC and all manner of detachments, yet those same resources are not deployed to stop people being kidnapped? When it comes to critical matters, the same urgency is missing,” he queried.
