By Patrick Ochei
Children of Prowess International School, Okpanam, Delta State have appealed to government to address the issues of electoral malpractice to curb incessant distrust in the society which ultimately leads to insecurity.
A graduating pupil of the school while on a talk show segment of the school’s graduation activities, Master Igili Dominion Chukwuma dissected the issues and the challenges surrounding electoral malpractices, insisting that such electoral cheating has often led to a lot of economic and social negativities bedeviling the Nigerian nation.
While giving an idea of what politics is all about and the intendment of the drafters of democracy, he submitted that where cheating in election occurs and there is no evidence of justice to restore confidence, it would eventually erode trust and create anarchy.
He suggested that government should put machinery in place to check such occurrences with the intention of preventing it and where it occurs, the judiciary should be able to stand strong as the last arbiter of the common man.
Igili averred that Nigeria’s leadership has lost the people’s confidence and trust as a result of cheating to get into power.
He therefore, proffered that only citizens with proven character and integrity should be appointed into the electoral body for transparency and accountability in the electoral processes. Whereas to avoid any doubt on the capabilities of the electoral managers, he said government should put in place Electoral Offences Commission with legal framework to deal with anyone found culpable both in the immediate and long term.
However, other speakers postulated that because electoral offences and malpractices have gone on unchecked for a long time, a lot of negative tendencies have taken the centre stage of our national space, thereby leading to challenges such as terrorism, kidnapping, banditry, ritual killings, economic sabotages and other anti social crimes. These are the things we get in our nation as a result of reckless political planning, miscalculation of social policies and defeated justice system.
They concluded that Nigeria is in a dire strait because of electoral malpractice, lack of justice, evidence of bad leadership, enthronement of disharmony, economic offences and corruption.
