One argument presently agitating the mind of Nigerians and heatedly engaging the public space is whether or not the nation’s military should be deployed for the general elections.
The topical issue gained prominence when INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega attributed the postponement of the 2015 elections earlier scheduled for February to the Service Chiefs who claimed the military cannot guarantee security should the elections take place at the earlier fixed dates.
Presently, the courts seem pitched against the deployment of soldiers for elections. Justice R. M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court in his judgment on the suit marked: FHC/S/CS/29/2014 delivered on January 29, 2015, restrained the President as well as INEC “from engaging the service of the Nigerian armed forces in the security supervision of elections in any manner whatsoever in any part of Nigeria, without the Act of the National Assembly.”
Similarly, Justice Abdul Aboki, in his lead judgment in the Ekiti State Governorship Election appeal on February 16, ruled that “Whoever unleashed soldiers on Ekiti State, disturbed the peace of the election on June 21, 2014; acted in flagrant breach of the constitution and flouted the provisions of the Electoral Act, which required an enabling environment by civil authorities in the conduct of elections.”
The contentious issue has not only divided Nigerians but the two major political parties. While the opposition APC has already written to President Goodluck Jonathan and Professor Attahiru Jega on the need for the judgments of the courts to be respected, the ruling PDP through its presidential campaign organization is insisting that the use of the military for the general elections is non-negotiable, alleging that,“the APC and its leaders do not want soldiers deployed just to be able to intimidate voters and unleash violence on the polity once they lose the elections.”
APC may be justified in kicking against the use of soldiers for the elections considering the ripples being generated by what has come to be known as “Ekiti rigging tape” which captured a conversation of how soldiers would be used to intimidate political opponents.
However, pundits argue that since the military are not expected to be at the polling stations, debates on the deployment of soldiers are unnecessary as the conduct of elections should not prevent soldiers from executing their routine responsibility of securing the nation. They also believe that as Nigerians, they have a right to be wherever they want to be at any time irrespective of the event taking place.
So what’s your take on this issue…?
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#PeacefulDebate Please…!