Afrigather Rabiu Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Political Occasion (NNPP), has expressed confidence within the skill and functionality of the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC) to conduct free, honest, and credible elections on February 25 and March 11.
He primarily based his perception on the enhancements witnessed on the gubernatorial elections in Ekiti State, Osun State, and Anambra State. He added that the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and different improvements of the fee give each political celebration confidence that the election outcomes will likely be a product of transparency and credibility.
He made this comment when interviewed on Channels Tv’s “The 2023 Verdict” programme on Friday.
“Our prayer is that this time they are going to be up and doing the correct factor. Now the little hope we now have as we speak is what they’ve finished in Ekiti, Osun, and even in Anambra state, and that’s giving us somewhat little bit of hope,” Kwankwaso stated.
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He believes that the BVAS revolution ought to clear up many of the issues about double registration, a number of voting, and youngster voting manipulation seen in earlier elections. “The truth that the president signed the electoral legislation, now that we now have BVAS, and that can assist, and we’re retaining our eyes open, and we hope that INEC does so in order that different stakeholders, equivalent to safety businesses, can do their jobs,” he stated.
He made reference to ugly scenes prior to now the place safety businesses connived with the federal government to disclaim the folks their selections. “We have now seen a scenario, particularly in Kano, the place we now have the more serious aspect of the police power and different safety businesses go and connive with the federal government shamelessly and crudely and declare the losers winners and vice versa.”
In the meantime, with statistics revealing that greater than 60 p.c of voters on this election are youths, the previous governor of Kano State believes that almost all of the youth are queuing behind him.
He stated, “The younger women and men have all the time been our strengths, to the extent that we now have increasingly younger males who’re registering and who’re very comfy. We have now an excellent coverage in training—free training from main faculty to even the tertiary degree.
“We despatched over 3,000 younger women and men in 4 years; we established two universities in Kano; we despatched our youngsters to personal universities on this nation by the 1000’s.
“We despatched them to federal universities, and on the time I used to be leaving Kano, there was no one we knew who had the {qualifications} to go to a tertiary establishment that he couldn’t get. You see, we now have been pleasant to the younger women and men.”
On the anticipated consequence of the election, Kwankwaso refused to simply accept the end result of the polls performed. He felt that the polls giving Peter Obi the lead within the election have been closely influenced by Twitter voters, a scenario he believes received’t have a lot influence on the day of the election.
In accordance with him, “so far as we’re involved within the NNPP, we now have locked up northern Nigeria. The truth is, even as we speak, once I obtained a name from Channels TV, I used to be there when the youth wing in northern Nigeria got here collectively and endorsed Kwankwanso.”
“I can inform you many individuals can be shocked,” he stated of the end result of the particular election.
Kwankwaso additionally used the chance to air his ideas on the naira swap coverage, particularly because the Council of State suggested the federal authorities to both print extra of the brand new naira or permit the outdated and new naira notes to coexist.
“On the difficulty of printing extra money or permitting the 2 notes to run concurrently, you see, I believe the entire thing was a mistake. The swapping of the naira was a mistake, particularly the timing—every thing has its time,” he stated.
He made reference to the planting season, particularly within the north, the place each crop had its time. “So we didn’t help the foreign money coverage and redesign at this essential time as a result of this can be a time once we want peace and prosperity so that individuals might be blissful and vote for the folks of their selection.”
He additionally made reference to the shortage of gasoline within the nation, saying that the money swap coverage was worsening the scenario. “Once you wish to do that coverage, you need to do quite a lot of groundwork. We began e-payment in Kano, and once we wished to begin it, we went proper and appeared on the problem of banking amenities in cities, villages, and cities in Kano State and realised that we couldn’t begin until we had extra banks,” he stated.
He added that, in attempting to treatment that scenario, his administration registered 36 microfinance banks in Kano simply to arrange for e-payment in Kano State. He suggested the federal government to do one thing comparable as a result of “the thought is to not punish the folks, the thought is to make sure that the correct factor is completed,” he stated.
He admitted that his celebration helps the cashless coverage however had an issue with its implementation as a result of “this coverage is barely punishing the folks.”
He added that if he wins the election, he’ll abandon this coverage and permit the outdated and new currencies to coexist, as really helpful by the Council of States.
