Patriotic
Obidient Emancipation Movement (POEM), a
movement that was formed out of concern with the Nigerian state and the
electoral systems, has called for the resignation of the Chairman of
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
Speaking with AFICUNIA
TV, the convener of POEM, Mr. Lawman
Nzenwa, stated it explicitly that the resignation of the INEC chairman
became imperative in view of his inability to conduct a free, fair and credible
election, adding that he has been compromised.
Nzenwa also said that the contemporary INEC cannot
come out and claim that they have conducted a free and fair election and that the
entire presidential election has been a sham. He said that after the 2019
election which was marred with violence and rigging, the winners announced by
INEC were surprised that they won the election because they had nothing to show
that they were capable of winning election.
According to him, Nigerians believe that they were
taken unaware and this time around, they will help INEC.
In Nzenwa’s on words “We know that left alone, the
INEC does not have the capacity to conduct a credible election, but Nigerians will
help INEC conduct a credible election in 2023.
“The call for the resignation of INEC chairman is
overdue. It is an overdone thing that ought to have come earlier than now. I am
even surprised that the call is being made now. It was a shock to some of us,
particularly people in the civil society, that the INEC chairman’s appointment
was renewed after the 2019 sham. In 2019, elections results were being collated
manually from all nook and cranny of Nigeria, the results were coming and they
were being collated manually. He was computing them manually.
“Each time Professor Mahmood excused himself to go and
drink water. By the time he is done drinking water and coming back the tempo of
the election and result would have changed. The whole thing would have turned
upside down and everybody will be shocked. He took advantage of that and did
whatever he did well.
“The courts did not indict him. The courts ended up
saying that the election was free and fair, so we couldn't go beyond that
because the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. So, the call now is
not the call to sack him, but for him to step down. People are calling for him
to step aside and we have joined the call.
“The most honourable thing he can do is to step aside.
He is already compromised and I can tell you one of the reasons I say that he
is compromised. You can see that they brought out a memo stating that they are
not going back to electronic transmission of results, but then they didn't tell
us what happened with the manual. When there is a conflict between the manual
transmission and the electronic transmission, what happens? If at the end of
the day, the manual takes pre-eminence over the electronic, then, the
electronic is as good as wasted.
“So if they are serious, they should tell us that they
have done with the manual collation of results completely. We don't need it
anywhere around us. If anybody wants to question the result, it should go into
the system, into the database, and then question the result, not to go and
start counting manually again what has been counted and depleted into the
system.”
Elucidating the rationale behind the formation of
POEM, Mr. Nzenwa stated that the movement came on board in order to mobilize and
educating supporters of the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to ensure that the gargantuan
activism for the erstwhile Anambra State governor translates into actual votes
on the day of the presidential election.
In his own words, “There have been this form of mockery
that people that support Peter Obi are social media giants. Of course, yes. We
are. That they are not on ground, but that is not true.
“However, we didn't want to take that criticism for
granted. So the Patriotic Obidience Emancipation Movement came on board to
ensure that the whole social media activism, street activism, one million man
march, ten million man march and no matter the number of million man march will
not end up on million man marches or social media activism, but will translate into
actual vote on the day of election.
“Hence, the core objective of POEM is to mobilize
voters, mobilize Obidients to ensure that on the day of election, nothing will
stop them from voting and we will do this by bringing them under one umbrella,
educating them, encouraging them and making sure that the election would not be
a day of fear or some form of anxiety, but some form of excitement. It will
look like a celebration.”
On who Nigerians should vote for in the 2023
presidential election, Nzenwa compared the track records of the three major
candidates, Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu and encouraged Nigerians
to vote for Peter Obi as he is the most qualified candidate and the only
candidate without any allegation of diverting public fund to his personal use.
He said, “Let every Nigerian weigh the options that
are available. We undeniably have three major candidates now. Peter Obi ranking
number one. Probably Atiku Abubakar ranking number two and Bola Tinubu ranking
number three. All of the three major candidates have had their own share of
test of power. The only one that can come out and say he served selflessly and
will say go and verify is Peter Obi. No other one. The other ones have reason
to justify converting the national asset into personal asset.
“Let me start with Bola Tinubu who was a Lagos State
governor between 1999 and 2007. He is laying claim to what is currently happening
in Lagos, which is not too wonderful but we yet here to see the indices of the
wonders in Lagos but he is laying claim that he laid the foundation, as if
there was no government before 1999 that laid the foundation upon which he
built. He has not laid claim to any specific thing that he did while in
government.
“Now they are telling us that the IGR is 1999 was so
and so but now it is N50billion per month. What actually constitute the IGR? Is
it not over-taxing of Nigerians who are already impoverished? So, is that what he
wants to replicate? He impoverished Nigerians and over-taxed them in their
state of poverty and counted it that he made money. He did not tell us that the
money he made came from foreign direct investment. They are money from
Nigerians.
“Let me move to Atiku Abubakar. That one sold the
entire state of Nigeria at ridiculous prices and he is the only one that knows
the people who purchased them. I did not buy, Nigerians did not buy. He purchased
them and converted them to his own.
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