Former Congress for Progressive Change, Vice Presidential Candidate and Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare has called on Nigerians to suspend the 2015 elections in order to avoid the crises that might follow the polls.
He made this statement at his 60th anniversary thanksgiving service in his church on Sunday.
He warned that the nation needs a transitional agreement before there can be any election. He also stated that the problem of insurgency in the country is a huge hindrance to the coming elections.
He said “in my capacity as a servant of God and a watchman mandated to warn the nation ahead of impending danger, I have already made it clear to the nation that we need a transitional arrangement to pilot our nation out of this chaos before we can talk about elections. He who has ears to hear, let him hear because at this sensitive period in our polity when the nation seems to be tottering on the edge of a precipice, is a general election the solution to our crises or will elections aggravate the problem?”
“With parts of the North under the siege of Boko Haram insurgents in the form of outright territorial control in some cases and guerrilla styled terror attacks in others and with the government failing to bring the situation under control, what is the guarantee that there will indeed be general elections in 2015?
“Even if elections are held successfully in some parts of the country, would results be conclusive without elections in the troubled parts? How would displaced persons cast their votes or are they automatically disenfranchised? How safe would massive campaign rallies be? With politicians and their militant cronies on both sides facing up to one another ahead of the elections and sounding the drumbeats of war should the elections not go in their respective interests, what would be the aftermath of a general election?
“We may argue that elections have been successfully held in some states under heavy military presence but let us not forget that we do not hold staggered elections in Nigeria. We are talking about general elections.”
He also advised that “We need to address firstly the underlying problems by joining forces to deal with insurgency, seeking national reconciliation and integration, forging a new people’s constitution, developing a blueprint for development along zonal lines, organising an accurate census and establishing a truly independent electoral commission whose head is not appointed by the president and whose financial allocation will be obtained from the first line charge of the federation account.
“We must understand at this crucial stage in the history of our nation that this is no time to engage in the blame game that has torn us apart these past 100 years: the blame game between the North and the South, the blame game between the Christians and the Muslims, the blame game among political parties and the blame game between the leadership and the people.”