Prof. Oshita Oshita, Director-General, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), on Wednesday urged contestants in the Sept. 10 governorship election in Edo to ensure peace during the poll.
Oshita, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja, said all those involved with the election must play according to the rules.
“The stakeholders for the Edo State governorship election must respect the rules of the game, play according to the rules and ensure that law and order are maintained.
“In our own position as an Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, we will like to see elections in Nigeria increasingly being platform for propagating peace rather than violence.
“So we are calling on all stakeholders to ensure that they play according to the rules of the game and ensure that the election is peaceful,” he said.
The director-general cautioned the contestants against seeing the election as a do or die affair.
“Every election must be won and lost.
“Whatever happens, as long as the voting process is adjudged fair and transparent, the winner should be magnanimous in victory and the loser should be gallant in defeat.
“You win sometimes, you lose sometimes. Loser today may be winner tomorrow; so everyone must have that as a mindset when you are going into election,” he said.
Oshita also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to do all within its power for the election to be seen as free and fair by the contestants.
“We all expect that INEC will play its own constitutional role so that all the actors in the electoral process will see INEC as an impartial umpire.
“This is so that the result of the elections will be seen as credible.
“That is what we expect since we are building a democracy that we want to see sustainable,” he said.