As the 2015 general elections are drawing near, eligible voters in the crisis-torn North-East Nigeria have said that apart from the security of their lives and children, they need food and home before they would be convinced to vote.
In a conversation with mewsmen, a one-time resident of Mubi, Adamawa State, who had since fled the town due to Boko Haram invasion, Miss Hanah Samuel, said that even though she was eligible to vote, she might not be able to exercise her right if she was hungry.
She said, “Hungry people cannot vote. Since we have been displaced from our home, my parents and I have not had enough to eat; my father cannot go to the farm again. We do not have sound sleep because we are not in a place you can call home; we are hiding in a village until the crisis is over.
“The terrorists are not to be trusted, they can strike anytime. They are making us to be hungry. No food, no water, we feed mostly on vegetables and fruits. We want to vote, at least for the leaders of our choice, but if we are not assured of safety, food and shelter, we cannot.”
A cleric whose church was burnt before he fled Borno State to a neighbouring village, Pastor Yakubu Mohammed, identified hunger as the major problem confronting him and his family.
He said, “As a Nigerian, I have a right to vote also, but we are in a situation where we are still afraid that the terrorists can strike anytime, so we may be eventually disenfranchised.
“We cannot run from these people forever or else we will perish. We want the government to chase them away from our land so that we can go back to our homes and farms.”
A legal practitioner, Mr. Bisoye Odubona, agreed with the residents of the Boko Haram-ravaged states that the government had to step into their case and give them what they need even now.
He said, “The government should not wait till next year before it provides support for the surviving victims of Boko Haram violence; it has to be now.
“The victims are Nigerians and they have rights; it is unfortunate that the crisis has torn them apart. The surviving ones should be catered for, not because of elections, but because they are human beings.”
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission had said that the insecurity in the North-East would not deter it from conducting elections in the region.
The spokesperson for the commission, Mr. Kayode Idowu, revealed that the residents of the affected states should remain optimistic that the crisis in the region would have been over before the general elections in 2015.
“Nigerians should be optimistic that the elections will hold in the North-East. We should believe that before 2015 comes, the crisis would have been over,” he said. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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