OUR VOTES MUST COUNT #BIVAS2IREV!!!
#BIVAS2IREV!!!
OUR VOTES MUST COUNT
The disgraceful conduct of yesterday’s presidential, and national assembly elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will convince the stiffest sceptic that the electoral umpire is the worst enemy of Nigeria. With collaborators from the APC and PDP, INEC has proceeded to sit on the will of the Nigerian people to force it from fruition. Reports from Lagos, Port Harcourt, other southern states and the north, show further collusion by security operatives and electoral officials including corps members to prosecute the greatest electoral fraud in the history of our country.
All assurances by President Muhammadu Buhari, to ensure a free, fair, credible and all-inclusive polls grew stale on Election Day coalescing into a seeming grand plan to stifle the chances of the real winner of the the 2023 general election. We wish there was a better way to tell this tragic tale of a nation deeply in search of its soul.
From snatching of ballot boxes, destruction, mutilation and voiding of votes, threatening of voters with ethnic slurs, late arrival of election materials, non-transmission of results to the server, voting by minors,
and many more, these atrocious activities grow in deliberateness. We know what they are about. We expected them. The fall of an old order can hardly pass without a fight. And we did not expect it to be any less shameful. Though these actions tarnish our country’s image, they do not represent us or the New Nigeria that must come. We are aware of their plan to through these actions force Nigerians from the place of love and dedication to country, which has grown since the youth Movement launched into the public eye, thus perpetuating the false narrative that Nigerians hate their country.
As INEC has demonstrated to all and sundry that it is biased, unprofessional, incompetent and incapable, we have no choice than to pass a vote of no confidence on the chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and the entire management team. There is no better time to give Nigerians a credible poll than now when the country sits on what can best be described as a keg of gun powder amidst existential challenges.
The youth of Nigeria are resolute in our desire to see the birth of a New Nigeria. We will not fall to intimidation by anyone or allow the pilfery of our common will. INEC should allow the people of Nigeria
to decide their leaders and protect them while they are at it. President Muhammadu Buhari must live up to his oath of office to see that Nigerians are given their due in terms of their choices this past Saturday.
There can be no other way. Or his legacy, whatever is left of it, is terribly on the line. Yes, he will always be remembered as the president under whose watch our compatriots were massacred at Lekki Toll Gate during the #endsars protest of 2020. We will sure remember him as the president who sat on the worst presidential and national assembly elections in the history of our country. We will never forget his silence
in the face of raging electoral impunity.
We therefore call on all Nigerians whose hearts are seared with the desire for a New Nigeria to rise up and defend our votes. It is our constitutional right to do so and we will do it with every sense of duty. This election is about protecting our right to exist as dignified citizens of a unified country. We spoke on Saturday but INEC and it’s collaborators - certain elements in the police and military, and their thugs, chose the shameful path of dishonesty to disallow us our God-given right to choose our leaders. The world is watching and recording the efforts of Nigerians to protect their votes and defend their choices. We are currently at various polling units, collation centers and online platforms raising our voices against this abomination of an election conducted by INEC. The greatest legacy of democracy is the power of choice. It must be protected with every fiber of the law by those who hold leadership positions.
The journey to a New Nigeria is a movement of the people of Nigeria and no force under this heaven can force it from its roots. We will match for our future, for the good of our country, to protect our choices
and our right to exist. Our votes must count.
Dr. Moses Ogidi Paul,