The presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar said the postponement of the general election by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was “obviously a case of the hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob.” The presidential and National Assembly elections were shifted to Feb 23 and that of governorship and state houses of assembly to March 9.
“The Buhari administration has had more than enough time and money to prepare for these elections and the Nigerian people were poised and ready to perform their civic responsibility by voting in the elections earlier scheduled for Saturday, 16 February, 2019,” Atiku said in a statement on Saturday.
INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, announced the postponement on Saturday at a press briefing morning held at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja. “Following a careful review of the implementation of its logistics and operational plan, and the determination to conduct free, fair, and credible elections, the commission came to the conclusion that proceeding with the elections as scheduled is no longer feasible,” Yakubu said.
Abubakar alleged that the election postponement is a bid to frustrate Nigerians from participating in the election. “By instigating this postponement, the Buhari administration hopes to disenfranchise the Nigerian electorate in order to ensure that turn out is low on the rescheduled date,” he added. “Their plan is to provoke the public, hoping for a negative reaction, and then use that as an excuse for further anti-democratic acts,” Abubakar said.
“As such, I call on all Nigerians to be patient. We have tolerated the maladministration of this government for four years. We can extend our tolerance a few more days and give them our verdict via our votes,” he added.
But the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Campaign Organization has accused the electoral watchdog of conniving with the opposition PDP to scupper the election. Festus Keyamo, spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, condemned the postponement, but urged its supporters to remain resolute, patient and determined. Keyamo said they received the news of the postponement with “great disappointment and disillusionment.”
Keyamo, the Director, Strategic Communications, APC Presidential Campaign Council, said in a statement on Saturday “We condemn and deprecate this tardiness of the electoral umpire in the strongest terms possible. President Muhammadu Buhari had since cooperated fully with INEC by ensuring everything it demanded to conduct free and fair elections were promptly made available to it. This news is therefore a huge disappointment to us and to our teeming supporters nationwide and around the world, many of whom have come into the country to exercise their franchise.
“We do hope that INEC will remain neutral and impartial in this process as the rumour mill is agog with the suggestion that this postponement has been orchestrated in collusion with the main opposition, the PDP, that was never ready for this election. “We note that all the major credible demographic projections have predicted a defeat of the PDP and it seriously needed this breather to orchestrate more devious strategies to try and halt President Buhari’s momentum.
“It did the same as the ruling Party in 2015, when it realized the game was up, by orchestrating the postponement of the 2015 elections by six weeks. Now, it may be up to its old trick again. “We have earlier raised the alarm that the PDP is bent on discrediting this process the moment it realized it cannot make up the numbers to win this election. We are only urging INEC not to collude with the PDP on this. We are truly worried because as early as Friday morning, some known PDP Social Media influencers unwittingly announced this postponement, but quickly deleted the message and apologized to the public that it was fake news.
“We do not want to be forced to a situation of announcing our total loss of confidence in INEC, because we know where that would leave our democracy. It is in the light of the above that we wish to appeal to Nigerians and our supporters to be patient, calm and resolute despite this temporary setback. “Let us not give anyone, especially the PDP, the opportunity to plunge this nation into a crisis, which is what they earnestly desire. Its imminent defeat is just a few days away.’’
Keyamo drew the attention of INEC and the world to of PDP’s plans to announce parallel results through some funny device it had procured or developed. “We wish to re-iterate that it is only INEC that is legally and constitutionally empowered to declare results and it constitutes an offence for anyone to do so. We urge INEC to speak up now and warn the PDP to desist from this ignoble act that is capable of plunging the nation into a crisis of immeasurable proportions.”
