Edo State Civil Society Situation Room, an umbrella body that included Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ among other civil society organisations in the South South state have called on all politicians to eschew the act of ethnic campaign ahead of the forth coming 2024 Edo State governorship election.

The civil society organizations made the call at its maiden press conference held in Benin City on Wednesday to enlighten the public on the pre election process as part of measures to ensure free and fair election in the forthcoming Edo guber poll.

Abiola Daisy Igaga, the Chairperson of Edo State Civil Society Situation Room who read the address before news reporters who were in attendance including the Edo State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Festus Alekhe, stated that political leaders always exploit the public through negative ethnic perceptions amongst others to their own gain and thus, undermined the principles of  democracy and freedom for free and fair election.

The Civil society organizations frowned at the situation of Nigeria always having plethora cases of post election matters to settle at the court that do take years to resolve.

“We have the honour and pleasure to welcome you to this inaugural interface with the press as we begin activities of the Edo State Civil Society Situation Room. The situation room was convened by the Justice Development and Peace Centre (JDPC Benin), Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations (CONGOs), Edo State, the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Uromi JDPCI and Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities.

At the moment, other key civil society groups have been co-opted as members of the situation room. All over the world, monitoring elections to determine their validity has become a conventional indulgence.

However, in Nigeria, the post-election relevance of election observers and monitors derives validity from the disputations, altercations or brouhaha that accompany the conclusion of elections in Nigeria.

No doubt, the court is a primary arbiter to resolve issues of disagreement between and among parties, but the absurdity of the Nigerian situation is that at the end of every election, there is a plethora of election cases that sometimes take over three years to exhaust.

In situating this reality, it is either that there is something wrong with the way we implement our democratic process or we have the character of being bad losers.

In whichever way this charade manifests, there is need for a social engineering perspective that would properly situate the process of our democratic delivery or reconfigure the psychological state of our people in the way they respond to losing in an election.

In dealing with this negation, we must evolve enlightenment processes that deal with mindset orientation for our political leaders from various spheres of social expression”, Igaga stated in quote.

THe Civil Society stated further that to address the challenges of the post election cases in Nigeria and the forthcoming Edo State guber poll in particular, there is need to enlighten the public and clearly state the negativity of electioneering campaign based on ethnicity and religious dogmatism. 

“In relating with and interrogating our conventional challenges, we must clearly situate the negativity of ethnicity and religious dogmatism in defining the way our people relate with reality. These are factors that the political leadership exploit in altering the perception of the people in their electoral valuation and conduct.

The resort to violence; pre-election, during and post-election are negatives in our electoral system that must be resituated.

The whole gamut of election rigging devolves from the wrong perception of the purpose and benefit of elective offices.

To correct this anomaly, requires enlightenment campaign on the relationship between development and our electoral choices. These public awareness initiatives are expected to address the capacity ration and moral content that ought to define our choice of personnel for political offices. Thus, the Situation Room, Edo State will indulge in enlightenment campaign that deliver impartation on the voting population, the political elites and the institutions that govern the electoral process.

Drawing from this, Edo State Civil Society Situation Room, as constituted, comes with a lot of responsibilities. It is not just about election day data reporting; it involves ensuring that our democratization process effectively intuits into the foundation and content of our nation.

In other words, we must acknowledge those demographic realities that have found symbolic expression in the way our people see things and the way they chose to relate with realities. We must move away from the blame game and clearly intuit into our peculiarities and fundamental challenges as a nation.

We must accept our faults and our defects and be decided not to sleep with them. We must locate the appropriate arguments that effectively situate our fault lines as well as evolving a solution-based approach that provide their resolution.

It is in this context that Edo State Civil Society Situation Room, articulate stakeholders’ collaboration that will enrich data collection, the synthesis of processes, and resolving the overlaps that is conveyed in the diversity of our state and country in religion, ethnicity and culture.

Therefore, Edo State Civil Society Situation Room, is focused at a holistic approach that will effectively respond to the diverse points which underpins our present contradictions in evolving a genuine democratic process.

We hold that democracy and development trend on common syntax and are symbiotic. Where the democratic process is impaired, it alters the delivery of the political system. Where the democratic process is impaired, harmony and suspicion becomes endemic in its final outcome. Where suspicion is prevalent and harmony is skewed, development cannot have a wholesome expression.

Beyond election day monitoring activities, therefore, the Edo State Civil Society Situation Room, will be active in deepening pious electoral conduct as an expression of good citizenship and patriotism.

In other words, we must affect the psychology of our people behaviorally and in attitudinal self-configuration. Knowing that this requires a lot of effort, we place evolving a working relationship with the media as primary. The media has a lot to give in deepening our enlightenment and civic education programmes.

Like we have said previously, we must give serious attention to improving upon the content of our political office holders. This calls for deepening the consciousness of our political leaders on responsible and responsive leadership delivery.

When our political office holders, who include our elected representatives, understands the innards of being a responsible leader and a responsive leader, it will guide their relationship with the power game and engender in them disposition to good leadership.

More so, when they know that the electorate – ditto – the citizenry have a good understanding of what they expect from their political leaders, a sense of caution will guide the disposition of the political elites.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, in the immediate, we will focus on Edo 2024 governorship election. Pursuant to that, we are building a wide civil society window that will ensure that the electoral process appropriately delivers a people centered and people focused electoral report.

We will hold sessions with the Independent National Electoral Commission to strengthen the organization in neutrality, due process and diligence, insistence on the secrecy of the ballot, mitigating electoral violence, votes selling and buying, and appropriate conduct on the part of electoral officers.

We will maintain a liaison with the security agencies in improving upon security expectations pre, during and post-election.

While we hope for a credible electoral process in Edo 2024, we will ensure that Edo State Civil Society Situation Room, provides a robust, detailed and credible electoral report that will serve immediate analysis and act as a leading light in future evaluation.

We thank you for taking out time for this press conference and trust that you will give it the appropriate social impact that it desires”, said Igaga.