To ensure credible and violence-free elections, the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) yesterday organised a peace road walk in Abuja, calling on Nigerians to conduct themselves in line with electoral law during and after the elections.
The acting director of research, innovations and planning and research, AUDA-NEPAD, Akande Abdullahkim, said the road walk was in line with EU guidelines and SDGs on having an early warning in trying to avert a lot of conflict and crisis that comes with electioneering.
Abdullahkim who is also the focal person for the election-free violence campaign said that in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, the European Union (EU) wants Nigeria to get it right during and after the election, which was why the peace roadway was organised to sensitize Nigerians on the need to have a peaceful election.
“We are trying to curb all the malpractices of elections, vote buying, snatching of ballot boxes, crisis and bitterness. This is why we are trying to sensitise the people that they do not have to die in the election. That Nigerians do not have to take it as a ‘do-or-die’ affair.
“One government will come and the government will go, we cannot always win. But, somebody must emerge to take the mantle of leadership of this country to the next level. So, we need to choose right, or else, the burden will be upon us to survive for the next four years that political party will be in office.
“So, we need to sensitise our people that if they make a right choice, they will live by it, and if they make a wrong choice, they will also live by it. So it depends on your personal choice. We are not telling Nigerians to choose, but choose wisely,” he said.
One of the facilitators of the campaign and former director of African Peer Review Mechanism, AUDA-NEPAD, Mrs. Juwarelu Olumoko, advised the youths, mothers, fathers, and the masses to shun thuggery during the election, and stop ballot box snatching by saying no to the monster called violence.
“Because if we involve ourselves in violence, we stand to lose a lot of things. If anyone decides to sell his or her votes, he or she is selling his civic rights. You are selling your future and the future of your children, because all the development programs that would have been put in place to benefit the youths, and the children at home, you have already sold it out to somebody that has no plans to make any impact in the development of the country,” she said.
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