NSA Seeks Postponement Of Feb Polls …APC Reacts

The National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, has called for the February 2015 elections to be postponed to allow more time for the distribution of voter cards.
Dasuki  who made the call yesterday at the Chatham House, London, United Kingdom.
He said the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, needs more time to ensure all qualified Nigerians receive cards for the vote.
The NSA said he told the Chairman of INEC, Attahiru Jega, that a postponement within the three months allowed by the Electoral Act would be a good idea, noting that INEC had distributed 30 million cards in 2014, with another 30 million left.
He said while INEC had assured him the distribution would be completed for the February polls, he believed it would be more meaningful to allow more time for a successful election.
“It costs you nothing, it’s still within the law,” Dasuki said he had told the INEC chairman.
The NSA said, however, that it was for INEC to decide, noting however that
it will be advantageous if INEC postpones the election, adding “That is what we are encouraging at the moment,” he said.
He also added that the system of PVC is the first in Nigeria where voters use a biometric card so as not to rig election.
Dasuki also assured that the missing Chibok girls will soon be located with the help of the international community, particularly from the French, British, Americans and Chadians.
Dasuki maintained the official Baga attack casualty figure released by the Nigerian Army, saying that only an independent verified copy of the satellite images can prove otherwise.
But in a reaction, the APC rejected the proposal, saying that Dasuki was merely speaking the mind of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, which the party said is on the verge of being defeated, and requires more time to prepare.
The party said under no circumstance must the elections be scuttled.
In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said the call by Dasuki, has exposed the hitherto clandestine plot by the Jonathan Administration to push for the postponement of the polls, using all sorts of cheap tricks.
“Now that we have found the smoking gun, we are urging the international community, in particular, to urgently extract a commitment from President Goodluck Jonathan that the elections will hold as scheduled next month, and that he would respect the outcome, just as we have said,” it said.
APC said Dasuki was only seeking to buy time for the slugging Jonathan electioneering campaign to gather steam by hinging his postponement call on the delay in PVC distribution, adding: “They know for sure that if they don’t postpone the elections, there is no way they can win. They are just terrified.”
The party also called on Nigerians to reject in its entirety the ongoing orchestrated plot by the Jonathan Administration to postpone the elections, saying the constitutional crisis that will be triggered by such postponement is capable of undermining the nation’s democracy.
“After realizing it will be rejected by Nigerians who have borne the brunt of its mis-governance over the years, after realizing that its campaign of calumny against our presidential candidate has failed, the Jonathan Administration has now started to play its last card, which is the postponement of the election,” it said.
APC said the importance of elections cannot be over-emphasized, adding: “Election is the lifeblood of democracy, the mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates. It is the only way for the citizenry to renew and refresh the governing process so they can get the most benefits out of democracy. Therefore, anyone that tries to sabotage this mechanism is aiming a dagger straight to the heart of democracy.”
The party accused the Jonathan Administration of using all the tricks in the books to scuttle the forthcoming polls, including the plot to hide under the insurgency in the North-east, the needless controversy over the secondary school leaving certificate of our presidential candidate, the concocted report by the DSS alleging a plan to hack into INEC’s database and the fabricated report of Muhammadu Buhari’s ill-health.
“Now they have launched their last set of jokers, which include hiring willing hands to make the television rounds saying there is no way the elections could hold next month, ostensibly because INEC is not ready, even when the electoral umpire has said it is ready to conduct the polls.
“There are also alleged plans to stage-manage some high profile cases of violence and arson, for which the opposition will be blamed and then its leaders arrested in droves, all in an effort to scuttle the polls. For those who find these hard to believe, we ask them to look at the sheer madness of a state governor placing a newspaper advert wishing our presidential candidate dead! The possible repercussions of this kind of provocative act are better imagined, had our party not been a peaceful party.
“In view of the above, we have decided to take our case to Nigerians and indeed the global community, so they can prevail on President Jonathan to allow the elections to hold as scheduled and to make a commitment to respect the outcome,” it said.
APC said never before has there been so much desperation on the part of any government to remain in office at all costs, even when it is clear for all to see that that government has run out of luck.
The party however called the attention of the President and his party hawks to a quote by the preeminent Indian leader Mahatma Ghandi, hoping they will learn a lesson or two from it: “Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.”

Vice Chancellor, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Prof Barineme Fakae (right) with Registrar, Mrs Daba Constance Odimabo, during the 2014/2015 matriculation of the institution in Port Harcourt, last Wednesday. Photo: Egberi Sampson