Buhari, Gowon, Abdulsalami, Jonathan, Others Sue for Peaceful Elections

•18 parties, presidential candidates sign peace accord

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Barely 48 hours to Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari; former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon; Chairman of the National Peace Committee and former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, and former president Goodluck Jonathan, have asked all candidates contesting at all levels to respect the choice of voters and accept the result of the election as would be announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the end of the exercise.

Buhari and others spoke just as all the presidential candidates of the 18 political parties contesting the presidential election, yesterday, signed the last lap of the peace accord brokered by the National Peace Accord in Abuja.

Unlike the earlier stages of the peace accord, yesterday’s edition saw the signing of the accord by all the presidential candidates in person who were all in attendance.

Also, Buhari witnessed the signing ceremony along with other former Nigerian presidents and that of other African countries.

While addressing the candidates and other stakeholders at the International Conference Centre, venue of the peace accord signing ceremony, Buhari said his administration is determined to leave behind a legacy of peaceful and credible electoral process for the country.

He said: “Since my assumption of office we have worked so hard to ensure that we pass on a legacy of free and peaceful elections in the country. We will continue to emphasise neutrality and allow the rule of law to take precedence over political exigency.

“We have demonstrated that with the off circle elections in Ondo, Edo, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states. We will allow Nigerians to decide who will govern them and we are committed to this legacy under this administration. I want to assure INEC, security agencies and relevant agencies saddled with the responsibility of conducting the election of the administration’s continuous support.

“I urge all to be firm and courageous and to abide by the laws and constitution of the country in conducting the elections”.

Buhari also said Nigeria would continue to consolidate the improvement of electoral process using technology and other positive elements to consolidate the integrity of the elections.

He said any aggrieved candidate not satisfied by results of the election should resort to established judicial process. He also advised the candidates to abide by the spirit and letters of the peace accord they signed

“I urge the candidates contesting the elections at all levels to respect the choice of voters and accept the result of the election as announced by INEC, the agency empowered by the law to do so,” Buhari said.

Gowon said one of the fundamental lessons to be learnt from last event was that the peace and unity of the nation was non-negotiable.

He urged those still bent on disrupting the forthcoming general election to reconsider their steps

Also in his goodwill message, Jonathan whose speech was read by the Co-Convener of the National Peace Accord initiative, Bishop Hassan Kukah, urged INEC and security agencies to ensure that they retain the trust of Nigerians by not compromising in their responsibilities during the elections.

“When the people have confidence in the

involved in managing security during the polls not to compromise the voice of Nigerians and embrace the politics of peace experienced, in the build-up to the elections.”

At this juncture, I take this opportunity to charge the election

elections are free, fair and credible. Whenever doubts build up in governance process. We need peaceful elections to give the

desired leadership that meets the expectations of our teeming population,” he said.

On the peace committee’s expectations, Abdulsalami said: “I want to encourage political parties to respect that only the INEC has the constitutional authority to announce the results and to ensure that their supporters refrain from the temptation of the use of pills that are not credible to cause confusion in the polity.”

He said since the signing of the first leg of the peace accord in September last year, the political parties, their candidates and campaign Spokesmen had committed several infractions.

He said the peace committee monitored the compliance of the accord by the politicians.

“We recorded some of the infractions that were a thing of concern. There was lack of compliance by the major political parties; 44 percent of the violations were carried out by the spokespersons of the political parties;  26 per cent by party members; 19 per cent by the presidential candidates themselves; 11 per cent by hardcore supporters and four per cent by Chairmen of the parties,” he said.

Abdulsalami noted that in January alone, a lot of violence occurred, with at least 15 abductions, including one police officer and at least 30 killings.

He also said there were five attacks at political campaign rallies

On the attacks on INEC offices and facilities across the country, the former Head of State said the commission recorded 50 attacks between 2019 and 2022.

Quoting data from INEC, Abdulsalami said Imo state witnessed 11 attacks on the commission’s facilities, Osun (7), Enugu (5(, Akwa Ibom (5), Ebonyi (4), Abia (4), Anambra (2), Taraba (2), Kaduna (1), Borno (1), Ondo, Lagos and Ogun states one each.

Swedish Envoy, Nicholas Lang, commended INEC’s effort at ensuring peaceful and credible election.

He also hailed the Abubakar-led committees for coming up with the laudable initiative.

The Special Representative of Acting UN Secretary General for West Africa and the Sahel, said the UN was closely following developments in Nigeria regarding the general election.

She urged all candidates and their political parties to strictly the provisions of all the peace accords.

Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Hon. Patricia Scotland

said the eyes of the member states and entire world were on Nigeria with expectations to conduct a free and fair election.

She said Africa and indeed the rest of the world view Nigeria as a great nation waking up to its potential, adding the coming elections would further help to reposition the country to play its role in the comity of nations.

On his part, President of the ECOWAS Commission Umar Tou’re, said the commission had deployed 250 election observers led by former Sierra Leonian president Ernest Bicoroma to monitor the general elections.

Former presidents and ex-Heads of State that witnesses the signing of the peace accord yesterday include: former president South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, former Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyetta.