#NIGERIA DECIDES2023: Remain apolitical while performing your duties, NGOs urged
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Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), particularly those accredited to monitor the on-going general elections in Nigeria have been urged to keep away from the politics of the country and face squarely the duties of observers assigned them.
The advice was contained in a statement signed by Acting Director, Civil Society of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, O’Seun Odewale, and made available to the media in Abuja on Tuesday, February 2023.
The statement entitled: Civil Society should not descend to the political arena; a call for restraint, said, “as a matter of tradition, many organisations were accorded the privilege to observe the elections, and by extension, the electoral process,” adding that, “the widely circulated exit poll reports of the many accredited civil society organisations and international bodies accorded with the fact that the polls went smoothly and orderly.”
The statement stated further that, “indeed, many institutions not only commended Nigerians and Nigeria’s electoral body for the good conducts during the voting exercise, but there were also practical recommendations on ways to improving on future electoral exercises.”
However, the statement nevertheless, observed that many civil society observers, who initially declared the process as credible, “are now backtracking to raise questionable observations demeaning the electoral process, Nigeria and Nigerians,” noting with consternation that, “these organisations have now taken a more than a passing stance against the continued smooth process especially as it affects the collation and announcement of election results!”
“We also note that many of the observer institutions are taking turns on national Radio and TV stations to pass uncomplimentary remarks against the elections and the main elections management body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),” the statement wondered regretting that, “it is curious that civil society institutions that are otherwise approved to ‘observe’ the electoral process and bring up recommendations on how to improve the election systems have chosen to becloud the elections with their partisan alignments!”
According to the press release, it is curious that institutions that had gleefully declared victory after the exit polls have suddenly found fault in the results collation exercise and are all out to unjustly discredit the process, saying, “it leaves much to be desired when civil society institutions take unwholesome advantage of their access to polling and collation centres to side with the objections put forward by a section of opposition party agents during the collation exercises.
The statement further wondered how results that have been declared and pasted and distributed to all agents at all polling centres nationwide are being queried after moving through four multilayer stages to the national collation centre in Abuja?!
The release was of the conviction that, “it is evident that some civil society actors are determined to use their privileged platforms to further their partisan political ends, otherwise, how does one explain an accredited ‘observer’ mission’s transmutation into an election ‘monitoring’ body demanding not just the stoppage but a total reversal of votes already counted and declared?” noting further that, “these bodies have now recruited the support of the otherwise respected partisan-tainted statesmen to further their agenda to delegitimise our electoral process.
The statement therefore concluded thus:
“These rather uncanny attempts at collaborating with opposition political parties at blackmailing everyone into a pre-determined electoral outcome do not only not augur well for our country, but it will further undermine the progress made so far in the course of our democratic project.
“And we hold it that these so-called civil society bodies have a premeditated outcome of these elections which can only be accepted by them. Otherwise, their online and offline theatrics which is a follow-up of the disruptions of the collation process of the joint efforts of the Peoples Democratic Part (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) collation agents is rather unfortunate.
“We therefore call on genuine and creditable civil society leaders to seize the gauntlet and prevent opportunistic elements from high-jacking the civil society space thereby fouling the electoral process and discrediting our hard-won democratic systems. We hold dearly that civil society must never descend into the political arena and must always live above the board in their oversight and complementary role in the Nigerian electoral experience.
“For, in pushing their partisan agendas, the bodies not only spurn all our national efforts and resources but also openly portray themselves as incendiary agents of visions of what our country ought to be. So, we urge extra refrain from all actors and stakeholders during this fledging electoral process.”
