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What I wanted to see was a return to democracy. We have seen a return to democracy. But has democracy provided us what we were expecting it to provide us? No
Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023, has urged young people in Nigeria to address the issues that are currently confronting the electoral process in the country.
One of these challenges is the manual collation of election results using manual means.
A political movement known as Nigerian Youths for Atiku (NYFA) held its inauguration and conference yesterday in Abuja. Atiku made this statement during the event.
According to Atiku, it is quite unlikely that the current National Assembly would be able to successfully adopt a new Electoral Act that will make it possible to electronically compile the results of elections.
Atiku said, “I remember the last Turkish presidential elections. I was sitting and watching the results coming electronically. By the Turkish constitution, you must score 50 per cent to be elected as a president.
“The current president scored 49.5 per cent. There was no manual collation, but they said he didn’t score 50 per cent. We all know that in our arithmetic or mathematics, we say if you get 49.5, you round it up to 50, not so?
“That was what we were taught in school. They didn’t round it up to 50. Instead, they ordered another round of election.
“The guy who came third with about 4 per cent now endorsed the first candidate, and when the results were counted it came out exactly 49.5 plus 4 per cent and Erdogan was declared winner.
“No INEC chairman, commissioners writing result. There was absolutely nothing like manual collation. So, we really have a long way to go.
“There are challenges, but you must dedicate yourselves to confronting those challenges. If you don’t dedicate yourself to confronting those challenges, you have no future.”
Atiku said he entered politics as a student to improve Nigerian youth futures, challenged them to stand up and defend the country. He said youngsters must come up and preserve their future since it’s in their control.
“At my time, what we wanted to see was a return to democracy. We fought the military. I was nearly killed. I went on exile. There is nothing they did not do to me.
“What I wanted to see was a return to democracy. We have seen a return to democracy. But has democracy provided us what we were expecting it to provide us? No.
“That now becomes your own responsibility. Ours is to guide you and give you the necessary leadership.”