If ongoing efforts by the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, pull through, Nigerians are expected to witness President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) of the All Progressives Congress, APC, holding a joint broadcast where they would condemn election violence.
Chairman of the commission, Chidi Odinkalu, who revealed this, said the idea is for Jonathan and Buhari to jointly speak to Nigerians and tell them that the election is between brothers and not a war, and that the country belongs to every Nigerian. Odinkalu, who was speaking at the presentation of a pre-election report and advisory on violence in the 2015 general election in Abuja on Friday, noted that an estimated 58 Nigerians had been killed in pre-election violence across 22 states in the country in the past 52 days.
“Let us change the messaging for this election and show we can do better,” he admonished Nigerians, stating that, “We want to show that Nigerians can hold elections without killing one another.” The Chairman restated his commission’s aim of naming and shaming hate-speech perpetrators, saying such people have no business in politics.
Speaking about the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and its chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, he advocated that they should be accorded respect and not condemnation. “Let us respect the man and his team. Let us stop the business of tarnishing INEC and Jega,” he said. Observing that the 2015 elections would be decided by Nigerians who have no memory of past episodes of violence in the country, Odinkalu urged citizens to eschew provocative utterances and comments, particularly on the social media.
