TheCable

All eyes will be on Anambra gubernatorial election on Saturday for a variety of reasons. I recall that the Indigenous People Of Biafra( IPOB) has called for a sit-at-home on election day while the federal government has encouraged people to come out to vote by deploying massive security agents to the state.

Sadly, the presence of massive security agents may scare some voters.

Indeed, this is set to be a battle of the show of force. Will the federal government allow non-state actors to dictate the direction the people will take? No doubt, the Monday sit-at-home has been hugely successful in the south-east not necessarily because of their love for IPOB but fear of being killed or maimed by unknown gunmen or ungunknown men. Security personnel and citizens are being killed on a daily person in the south-east and all we get are denials and blame-storming.

However this is different, will the people stay at home and allow an unpopular candidate to win the election? Will the people of Anambra allow themselves to be shortchanged for the next four years? The truth is even if 10 people come out on election day and they elect a governor, that election will be endorsed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the person will be declared the winner.

Anambra is the cradle of the south-east, the home of Nnamdi Azikwe, Chinua Achebe, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, Dora Akunyili, Arthur Eze, and many other intellectuals of note and billionaires.

The people should come out and vote.

Indeed, the country has been experiencing voter apathy in recent elections and I think this will be the worst. Sadly, the minority are making major decisions for the majority. I have always advocated one man alone cannot change the fortunes of the country. Suffice to say, many Nigerians put all their energy into who becomes the president of Nigeria. The sooner we realize that we need to start electing candidates with capacity, integrity, and ability in local government, state and federal lawmakers, and governorship elections, the sooner our dreams of utopia will become a reality.

The people should be allowed to choose who governs them at all levels, that’s the essence of democracy. The people’s rights should be respected. The Anambra election should and must hold. The government should not allow non-state actors to stop the election. The government should show its strength and might.

Also, the security agents should not in the guise of enforcing the law start harassing the electorates or start indiscriminate shootings and arrests. They should be neutral.

The United States government had already threatened a visa ban on sponsors of the election violence in the Anambra polls. That’s the language most of our politicians understand -a visa ban to the United States.

I am also impressed with INEC so far and their efforts to make the election credible, free and fair. But trust our politicians to always look for new ways to circumvent the system.