Election Postponement

CPAN Condemns Postponement

Of Elections

. .. asks INEC to upgrade so Nigerians could vote anywhere they are and be counted in their desired locations

The Christian Publishers Association of Nigeria (CPAN) has condemned the sudden postponement of the February 16 election. That postponment, CPAN says, is ridiculous and unacceptable because it came barely hours to the elections after the same INEC Chairman had earlier said INEC was ready and the possibility of postponement was not in the cards.

In a press statement, President of the association, Deacon Bola Adewara said the human and financial costs of the postponement is incalculable. “Not only has Nigeria lost so much, Nigerians, you and I, have equally been short-changed.

“So many Nigerians left their jobs and families to travel to their various home states to cast votes. Would such Nigerians go back again next week? So many people shifted their weddings, burials and other programmes from February 16 to 23rd because of the elections. They have printed their invitations, families and friends are ready for the day. How would they now cope with the election coming up on February 23rd?” He asked.

Deacon Adewara posits that such indiscriminate postponement and forceful shutting down of Nigeria because of elections is retrogressive and unacceptable. “The arrant incompetence of INEC should not rob Nigerians of their daily visions and programmes. It is gradually becoming a tradition for INEC to take such liberty for license as several elections have been postponed in the past and Nigerians forced to accept them without bating an eyelid. This oddity cannot continue. INEC should apologise to Nigerians and sit up,” he said.

CPAN, an association of all Christian media practitioners says that “Since INEC is gradually making a tradition of election postponement, the electoral body should upgrade its systems such that anybody could vote anywhere in Nigeria and it would be counted as vote cast in the desired locality of the voter. Meaning that you can cast your vote in Calabar and be treated as vote cast in Funtua. Since INEC is specialising in disappointments like artisans, Nigerians can’t be risking their lives traveling up and down to cast votes all the time.”

However, CPAN’s President encourages all Nigerians to put this fiasco behind them and summon courage to cast their votes wherever they desire to do so. ‘Nigerians should not feel discouraged by this disappointment and disenfranchise themselves in an election like this that would define the future of this country,’ he said.