‘The gladiators in Nigeria are under protective cover, either in the opposition or in the government. They walk around with police or army. You and I are here, and our family members are there in Nigeria’
A Director at the African Development Partnership and Media Expert Mr. Tunde Alabi told Nigerians in London that as we walk towards the 2019 elections our responsibility first and foremost is to ensure the safety of our people in Nigeria. When things breakdown, these guys have private jets and before you say jack, they are out. So, it’s going to be your family, my family, the people we sent money every time that will be the victims of political violence. The gladiators in Nigeria are under protective cover, either in the opposition or in the government. They walk around with police or army. You and I are here, and our family members are there in Nigeria.
Mr. Alabi who spoke to a cross-section of Nigerians at an event put together by African Development Partnership at the House of Commons said first and foremost, we have the responsibility to make sure that both the government and the people in opposition understand that before and after the elections, WE SAY NO TO VIOLENCE IN WHATEVER FORM. And we will not hesitate to drag anyone, using our connections, influence, everything we have, with your support to the International Community for prosecution. This includes anyone in government, the President, his Assistants, anyone in opposition or whatever to face justice. They can escape national prosecution, but they cannot escape international prosecution. We will push for it’.
Mr. Alabi who is also a lawyer said the need for a credible election is important. We can’t play or joke with it. You and I are here today in this country because the elections are free and credible. Nobody works under the intimidation of the army or police. The Nigerian army does not have any business in an election in Nigeria. It is the business of the Nigerian police. Internal security falls on the Nigerian police. And the Nigerian police have a responsibility not to the government but to the people.
The Police, he said, are not there to protect politicians, they are there to protect the electorate and secure our ballot boxes. They are not to be used as instruments of intimidation. They are supposed to encourage people to vote and not to intimidate people. So, you and I in the Diaspora have the responsibility to ring it into ears of the government and anyone in-charge that the police, the security agencies, people who are paid with your money, my money should not be used as instruments of intimidation. The police should be impartial in providing security to the electorate and in securing the ballot boxes especially now that we have a new Inspector General of Police (IGP). The army as far we are concerned except in extreme cases, have no business in elections or electoral processes. The Executive should allow institutions like the Police, INEC etc. to independently function without fear or intimidation.
We are ringing it loud and clear in this noble Houses of Parliament, the Government of Nigeria, led by President Muhammadu Buhari should provide an enabling environment for a free, credible and fair election. No more no less. If the election is not free and fair, winners are susceptible to crisis, intimidation and all manners of evil.
‘Politicians deliberately perpetrate evil in the country by impoverishing Nigerians and when it’s time for elections they start distributing rice, clothes and N10,000.00, that is wickedness. You make people suffer, put them in a state of poverty, there is no food and, in a week, or month to the election you start distributing money or at the polling booths, you start giving people N3000.00 and collecting their data, encouraging them to vote for a Political Party. That’s vote buying. It’s not going to help us and it’s not going to help in this election’ he said.
We must make sure that people are free to vote. And those of us in the Diaspora should empower our people to go out there and vote. We must make sure that they did not become victims of the poverty that have been unleashed on them by the governments of yesteryears and the present government. If we empower our people financially, they will not become victims of vote buying.
We now have issues with the Judiciary, which is, the last hope of the common man. When the chips are down, we run to the judiciary to save us, but when terror is been unleashed on the judiciary, the innocent become jittery. If we want to help the situation, we should not create fear but strengthen the institutions. The judiciary should be allowed to work, function during the election.
