The Northern Youth Leaders Forum (NYLF) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit results of subsequent elections electronically.
In a statement signed by its National President, Comrade Eliot Afiyo, dated July 15, 2021 and made available to our correspondent, the group also viewed the Lagos declaration by the Southern Governors Forum demanding for a Southern President in 2023 as a deliberate and intentional scheming to project the political interest of a few individuals against the collective national interest.
“We viewed the Lagos declaration by the Southern Governors demanding for a Southern President in 2023 as a deliberate and intentional scheming to project the political interest of a few individuals against the collective National interest which has exposed the political inexperience and infancy of the Governors. Going by their declaration, it is now an established truth that the Southern Governors lack political mastery and planning.”
They averred that the declaration is “provocative, insensitive, offensive, challenging and a political war which must be given thorough and intelligent consideration and action.
“The implication of this declaration tends to tell the Northerners that the 2023 Presidential election would be based on North versus South instead of political parties.” (Sic)
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NYLF continues: “The NYLF commends the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) for the introduction of electronic transmission of election results in Ondo and Edo states governorship elections which gives credibility to the process and eliminated ballot box snatching, falsification of results and other election violence (Sic).
“NYLF is of the opinion that this process should not only continue but also be maintained and sustained in all the future elections,” the statement reads in part.
They expressed the view that electronic voting, no matter how good or necessary it seems to be, should not be introduced for now because of the literacy ratio in the country especially in the north.
“To this end, we call on the National Assembly to include electronic transmission of election result but discard the electronic voting in the Amended Electoral Act,” it advised.
Further berating southern governors, they discribed the declaration as “provocative, insensitive, offensive, challenging and a political war which must be given thorough and intelligent consideration and action.
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“No matter how important the 2023 Presidency is to the South, the declaration is indeed ill-timed, ill-advised, wrongly calculated and presented.
“We expect that the governors should have decamped from their respective parties, form a new party or decamp to just one party or at best, lobbying their parties to zone the position to the south and ensure that their aspirants emerge during primaries instead of such pronouncement.
“If at all the southern governors desire the presidency indeed, they should have summoned the courage to specify the geopolitical zone.
“It is a known fact that you don’t get power in a democratic system by coercion or intimidation but through negotiation and understanding,” the statement said.
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They argued that the only zones that are qualified to demand for the 2023 presidency are North-East, South-East, South-South and possibly North-Central.