A former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rted), has said that the presidential candidates in the 2019 presidential election will be made to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) against hate speech and unguarded utterances during the course of the campaign.
According to Abdulsalami, who is the Chairman of National Peace Committee, the MoU will also compel the gladiators to carry out violence-free campaigns.
This was made known on Wednesday after Abdulsalami received a delegation from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led by its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, in Abuja.
Abdulsalami further stated that the MoU will also be signed by the chairmen of all the registered political parties.
He disclosed that the meeting was to enable the Peace Committee be briefed about INEC’s preparedness for the 2019 election.
However, the elder statesman expressed concerns about the security situation in the country going into the election and called on the media to educate the populace and politicians on the need to shun politics with bitterness.
Abdulsalami said, “The Chairman of INEC has briefed us on the preparation for the elections, his challenges and what he is going to do to make sure that there is successful free and fair elections.
“We will do our best to help sanitise the political arena. You, members of the press, have a duty to educate our people and politicians so that when they go on campaigning, they campaign on issues and that there should be politics without bitterness.”
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