The Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria (SCSN) has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hold all elections same day to avoid a situation where political violence will cause inconclusive election.
Addressing the media on Sunday, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Shari’a in Nigeria, Malam Nafi’u Baba-Ahmed said INEC should be prevailed upon to avoid a situation whereby desperate politicians who lost in the presidential election will instigate electoral violence that would make it impossible to hold the second round of polls, adding that security source have confirmed that they are already overstretched and that security agencies may not be able to withstand any political violence.
“There is high probability of second election not holding because of violence from the first election. It is not going to be feasible. The first election is the presidential and National Assembly elections. Our fear is that in the light of the precarious security situation in the country and the admission by security agencies that they are overstretched, it is quite possible, infact highly probable that some desperate politicians who might lose the election will trigger political violence to the extent that subsequent elections may not hold.
“We engaged all stakeholders, we met with some of the key security chiefs who expressed their understanding of the situation that their manpower is already overstretched, and it is going to be an uphill task to cope with political violence. We therefore advised that INEC should be prevailed upon to hold all the elections on the same day. This way we will avoid a situation where some desperate politicians that are about to lose will not create chaos in the country such that we will be left with elections half held, half on hold.
“We can recall that for a lesser reason President Jonathan postponed the 2015 election, but elections eventually held. Therefore we call on all well meaning Nigerians, government, particularly INEC to reconsider their position and organise these elections to hold in one day.
“We in the Supreme Council for Shari’a will do all we can to appeal to Nigerians to make the necessary sacrifice to vote no matter how long it takes, let’s vote in one day, let’s have the elections held in one day so that all be clear to everybody. Also, it should be considered that national population census should be put on hold for now because the timing is wrong,” he said.
The Council also kicked against the 10-days deadline extension for swap of old naira notes with new notes, noting that the time is too short, while requesting for five months extension to ensure that rural dwellers who don’t have access to banks are not left out.
“We are in line with the National Assembly for five months extension for the old naira notes swap because people in the rural areas may have to travel. And there should be massive awareness for the naira swap,” he said.
Speaking on the ongoing fuel scarcity across the country, the Shariah Council noted that, “Nigerians have never experienced this kind of scarcity, even during the Civil War. Since December last year, Nigerians have been experiencing the excruciating pain of endless fuel scarcity, long hours or even days in endless queues, to buy a resource in abundance in Nigeria which the government claims trillions of naira are spent yearly to import, and yet, it is not available to ordinary Nigerians, at a reasonable price and without any hustle.
“The immediate fallout of this regrettable situation, is the aggravation of inflation, a skyrocketing of the prices of all goods and services and the untold suffering of millions of Nigerians. The NNPC claims it has 1.6 billion liters of refined products, but we have heard such claims before in December and in any case, we are yet to witness any change, except the progressive deterioration of the situation, with a litre of petroleum being sold for as high as N800 in some parts of the country.
“The most disturbing aspect of this is that nobody will be held to account as no one was ever held as such in the past. It is going to be business as usual, which is now definitely unacceptable to Nigerians. We urge our fellow Nigerians to be extra patient, exercise restraint and use their voter’s cards as the weapons with which to bring about positive change.”
