The Economic Community of West African States, today urged President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that the Nigerian 1999 constitution is respected in view of the recent postponement of the general elections earlier slated to hold February 14, 2015.
This plea was made by president of the ECOWAS commission,
Kadre Desire Ouédraogo in Abuja after leading a delegation to a meeting President Jonathan behind closed-doors at the Presidential Villa.
Ouédraogo maintained that the commission was at the presidential villa to intimate President Jonathan of the findings and recommendations of the commission’s fact-finding mission in Nigeria.
The president of the commission posited that, "ECOWAS by virtue of its mandate is to monitor and observe all the electoral processes in our community. To that effect, we have sent a fact-finding mission in Nigeria led by John Kufuor, former President of Ghana and later on, we have set up a long term observation that came into the country. They were deployed in the five geo-strategic zones of the country and they made their report.
"In spite of the postponement of the elections, there was a de-briefing with them and we thought it is necessary to share their observations with all the stakeholders and it is in that respect that we came this morning to inform His Excellency about the findings and recommendations of our fact-finding mission.
"We are going to engage with all the stakeholders, the APC candidate and INEC to share with them the findings of our observation mission as well.
"We have also issued a declaration following the postponement of elections, appealing for calm and understanding and also appealing to all authorities to make sure the constitution is respected."
Specifically, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Salamatu Suleiman, at the closed door meeting argued that one of their findings was that there are too many hate speeches and campaigns ahead of the elections.
This she said, was not good for the Nigerian polity, with an addition that the observers also looked into the issue of distribution of Permanent Voter Cards.
According to her, "They made observations on issues relating to distribution of Permanent Voter Cards and other issues.
"These issues, as the President of the commission said, we deemed necessary to share with the President of the country, INEC and other leading political party, the APC.
"One of the issues is that our long term observer missions said there was a lot of hate media, hate speeches being distributed which was heating up the polity.
"The President has spoken to all stakeholders to look into lessening this aspect in the electoral process and I think it is an aspect the media can help greatly in addressing.
"This is a very important election for Nigeria, Nigerians are concerned, ECOWAS Community is very much concerned that it all comes out very well and that we all owe it as a duty to say very positive things that can move this nation forward."
Photo: Thenet
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