The Arewa Consultative Forum has expressed concern over what it termed as the deployment of religious and ethnic sentiments in the just-concluded elections across in the country.
This, the pan-Northern socio-political organisation, said portends danger to the well-being of the country if not checked.
The ACF, according to the Secretary-General, Mallam Murtala Aliyu, in a statement, also decried the difficulties with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System to upload results, scattered violence, vote buying and intimidation during the polls.
However, in summation, the ACF gave the conduct of the 2023 general election by Independent National Electoral Commission a pass mark, saying that there is no perfect election anywhere in the world.
The statement was titled, ‘Dealing with the aftermath of the 2023 elections’, and released in Kaduna on Friday.
According to the ACF, in spite of the outcry of mostly those that did not achieve their goals, the exercise passed off “fairly peacefully” and reflected the broad aspirations of the electorate.
Describing religious and tribal politics as “virus”, the forum noted that elections must come with its difficulties and Nigeria wouldn’t be an exception, urging aggrieved politicians to always seek redress in court as exemplified by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
The statement read, “History will report that the 2023 general elections that held on the 28th of February and 18th of March, 2023, was the biggest and certainly the most keenly contested election ever to be held in Nigeria.
“The figures are tremendous: 87 million voters, 18 presidential candidates, 28 state governors, 469 National Assembly members and 993 members of state Houses of Assembly. Voting took place in 176,000 polling stations in 8,809 wards. Some 1.5 million political party agents were accredited to bear witness to every event.
“Additionally, thousands of foreign and local observers were on hand to monitor and assess the credibility of the exercise.
“Thankfully, in-spite of the outcry of mostly those that did not achieve their goals, the exercise passed off fairly peacefully and the outcomes could be said to have reflected the broad aspirations of the electorate.
“True, there were difficulties and mishaps: polling stations opened late, BVAS failed to upload results real time, there were scattered violence, there were vote-buying, voter intimidation, etc, and yet, while these problems are a serious source of concern and must be investigated and addressed, they have to be viewed in their right perspectives.
“Where in the world do they organise perfect elections? The size of our operations in any event are so vast and complex that isolated incidents of this nature are impossible to prevent.”
It added, “We are pleased to note that candidates that felt dissatisfied with the outcome of the elections including presidential candidates of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, have resolved to go to court, not the streets, to seek redress. That’s the right and honourable thing to do.
“Unfortunately, there is one particular problem thrown up by these elections that cannot possibly be addressed by the courts. It is the deployment of ethnic and religious sentiments as a driver of politics in Nigeria.
“As we have seen in Lagos and elsewhere, ethnic and religious zealots have a way of turning political and election campaigns into life and death struggles. They issue threats of violence and at times actually attack supporters of rival candidates with a view to intimidating and stopping them from casting their votes. It ought not come as any surprise that voter apathy and absenteeism were unusually high in many areas – as well as why voter turnout was very low across the country.
“In Lagos where the problem created by ethnic and religious politics has continued to fester, acrimony and bad blood between the Yoruba and Igbo have become a matter of concern to the security agencies. In the wake of the ethnic crisis, Yoruba and Igbo partisans freely profile one another and accuse themselves of criminal conduct, including as cheats, bandits, kidnappers, land-grabbers, etc.
“All of which underscores the very serious consequences of politics rooted in religion and tribalism. It is a political virus. Nigerians must do everything within their power to eliminate this virus and go on to inoculate ourselves against reinfection in the years to come.
“This time, it is truly a matter of life and death. Let us as Nigerians love and care for one another. Let us focus on the what unites us and not our differences.”
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