Nigerian media calls for violence-free elections

Fri, Feb 22, 2019 | By publisher


Media

POLITICAL activities in Nigeria will reach new crescendo on Saturday, February 23, 2019 when Nigerians are expected to cast their votes at the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Some stakeholders have, however, expressed disappointments at violent situations in parts of the country on the eve of the elections.

On Friday, February 22 in Abuja, media practitioners who had been monitoring the turn of events in the political terrain, particularly since the INEC postponed the elections from February 16 to February 23 called for a peaceful process to enable the country to achieve free, fair and credible elections.

They expressed dismay at the spate of killings on the eve of the rescheduled elections and called on all stakeholders to sheath their swords and allow for a peaceful atmosphere before, during and after the elections.

The concerned media practitioners were reacting to media reports on Thursday, which had it that 66 persons were killed in Zamfara villagers-bandits clash on Wednesday, 20 farmers and hunters were killed in Benue; Boko Haram murdered 18 firewood sellers in Borno; APC chairman in Imo killed while having dinner with family on Tuesday night just as two persons were killed when PDP and APC members clashed in Kwara.

The media practitioners in condemning these acts of violence enjoined all stakeholders to think about peace whenever they were thinking about elections.

They called on all actors in the political scene – political parties, politicians, the electorate, INEC and security operatives to allow peace to permeate the exercise for the betterment of the country as “there cannot be development without peace.’’

It is the second time in two weeks that the media practitioners were suing for peace preparatory to the polls.

The media parley was facilitated by an international Non-Governmental Organisation, Search for Common Ground which had been at the forefront of seeking peaceful solutions and common ground approach to conflict situations.

The organisation assembled media practitioners from across the country in Abuja a fortnight back at a consultative meeting on ways of mitigating violence in elections.

At the end of the two-day meeting, the Nigerian media declared February 14, 2019 as the National Media Peace Day and made a declaration read by Christopher Isiguzor, the president of the National Union of Journalists, In the declaration, the Nigerian Media enjoined all stakeholders in the electioneering process, to put Nigeria first in all their actions during the build-up to the 2019 general elections and beyond.

The media practitioners also adopted #ThinkElectionsThinkPeace as the theme of this year’s National Media Peace day.

– Feb. 22, 2019 @ 18:05 GMT |

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