The former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau, has responded to the calls by the governors in the North-East geo-political zone whose states have been under emergency rule as a result of the activities of terrorist sect, Boko Haram demanding that 2015 elections must hold in their states.
Shekarau who was in the State House for a close door meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan, said no elections must be held at the risk of peoples lives.
“You see as a democrat I always insist that let there be elections to allow people to decide their fate, but this does not necessarily mean we conduct elections under a volatile situations. I still believe that it is going to largely be based on practical security reports on ground. If there are threats to lives, who are you going to govern, even if you win the election? So it is not safe and I don’t see anybody spitting fire over it. The truth is that let the state governors, the federal government and all concerned join hands together and assess the situation, what will the federal government gain or INEC gain if they don’t conduct elections in any state? But if it is in the interest of the public the life and security of the people is far more important than any election that you can think of”, he said.
On the President’s visit to Kano next Tuesday, the former All Progress Congress (APC) member insisted on the popularity of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
He said, “Well it is true the President is paying a visit to Kano and it is going to be on Tuesday, the 15th of April for a grand reception rally. It is basically to celebrate our coming into PDP in the best way we can and also to reassure the Kano citizens that Kano is now fully a PDP environment. It is going to be a very grand occasion because if anybody cares to know the political trend in Kano all along ANPP had been in charge. ANPP moved into APC and we had moved the whole of ANPP and largely APC into APC. So it is going to be a great day for all of us and we are waiting for the reception and we are inviting one and all to come and share with us”.
On the belief that APC was fully in charge of Kano, Shakarau sais, “Let us wait and see. Fortunately politics is about people and it is an open thing, you don’t play politics in the backyard or in the bedroom. People will see and it is not just getting the crowd that will be there, but the day we are voting, people will know whether Kano is for PDP or any other party. So we assure you and I want to say with all sense of humility, I was in APC and I have moved away with my supporters to PDP. As for APC, in Kano, the governor is APC, his government is APC, there will always be pockets of other parties. If you go to Kano, you will discover that every other parties will have its shares. Definitely PDP is on the ground we are in charge in Kano”.
On his complains on the forthcoming local government elections, he said, “Not complaining as such, our complaints were basically to raise an alarm, the State Electoral Commission wanted to short change us, they gave a programme in March, a 14-day programme for the purchase of forms and return of forms, changed the date to April and reduce it to only 48 hours, this is wrong. If you are changing the dates, then you must maintain the number of days and fortunately they listened to our protest, they had to open up because they agreed, the chairman agreed they were doing something that was violating the law, so they extended it by another four, five days, in fact they are closing today (yesterday) by midnight.
“On whether the election is free and fair, that is not for me to determine here, and I always believe in people’s court, if results are declared right from the ballot boxes, people will have the result by the time they to declare any other results, we will challenge it where applicable in the law courts and we will see what happens. We have conducted two local government elections and I want to say with all sense of responsibility that we have declared results won by opposition parties. I conducted local government elections in 2004 and some four, five local government councils and they were allowed. I conducted election in 2007, and yet, some three four local governments were won by PDP against the wish of so many party faithful and I never dictated and denied any party its own results”, he said.
It could be recalled that Kashim Shettima of Borno, Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe and Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, had in a joint press statement told the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take a cue from Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission which courageously held the country’s presidential and provincial elections last Saturday despite strong threats from Taliban insurgents, and include their states in the 2015 elections.
They had said: “Afghanistan and its people were celebrated worldwide for liberating themselves from the scourge of fear and thereby sending a strong signal that no amount of threat would deny them from choosing their leaders through democratic processes. This is the kind of courage expected of genuine patriots.”
