By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi
Peering Advocacy And Advancement Centre (PAACA) has said that the conduct of its townhall meetings across the six geo-political zones of the country is to opportune citizens to be excited about the legal regime in which Nigerian elections are conducted.
The meetings, according to the centre, is also to have a mindset shift, because most of the problems in Nigerian elections are not legal, but rather attitudional, hence the need for change of gear.
According to PAACA Executive Director, Ezenwa Nwagwu “The politicians who cast away ballot box, who stock ballot box, who incite violence, the law will not cure it, what will cure it will be for the internally people to accept that we must have free, fair and credible elections”.
Mr. Nwagwu, who was speaking at the end of ‘Citizens Townhall Meeting on Electoral Reform in Bauchi, observed that the only way Nigeria can have free, fair and credible elections is through sensitization and this kind of forum that MacArthur foundation has afforded the participants.
“Interacting at townhall and in this kind of engagement, Iam very clear that ignorance is a big challenge and we need to confront it. Within the political parties, even the candidates themselves who are running elections do not even knows what the law says about the elections in which they are participants’, Nwagwu said.
He stressed the need for engaging the law that elections are law-guided process for any person to engage it as a stakeholder, whether a voter or political party, there must be something that can help the person within the law.
According to him, the electoral act look like a mysterious document which PAACA poises to bring it out for every citizen to understand it, and equally make some inputs for its corrections, assuring that the centre would make it understandable before the next polls.
Mr. Ezenwa Nwagwu further explained that PAACA is poised to effect mindset issues around elections, and across board with a view to mobilize more stakeholders towards successful, free, fair and credible future elections in the country.
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