As preparations for the Ondo state governorship elections reached an advanced stage, the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) has called for violence-free election.
The institute said there was need for a robust sensitisation campaign focused on the achievement of a peaceful process, adding that peace was imperative in electoral systems, irrespective of locations and geographies.
A statement by Dr. Joseph Ochogwu on behalf of the institute, said that it was very important that aside being peaceful, the election must also be credible and acceptable by the local and international community.
The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), the Nigerian government agency responsible for the promotion of peace and conflict management, has since inception in 2000 been playing the pivotal role in nation-building, mobilizing and sensitizing the Nigerian citizenry towards the pursuit of, and conduct of peaceful elections devoid of acrimony and impliedly, any form of volatility.
On the imperative of violence-free elections in Ondo state, the IPCR said peace remained the stimulating and sustaining energy driving the socio-economic and political development of all organised states.
“It can be argued that it is the relative peace attained in the democratic space over these years – as fostered by IPCR and other Peace building actors – that has guaranteed the stability of the Nigerian electoral system beyond its shaky beginnings.
“This notable achievement is, no doubt, connected to the recently celebrated 25 years of unbroken democratic culture in the country.
“The Nigerian democratic experience is unique because it pursues the overall interest of the public, in addition to guaranteeing citizens’ rights to demand accountability from elected officials in honour of the tenets of the social contract covenant as universally prescribed by classical socio-political and moral thinkers like Grotius, Kant, Hobbes and Gentili.
“No doubt, this is what justifies and gives credence to the system. Also, this necessitates the urgency for securing the process by ensuring that nothing related to violence occurs during the Ondo elections.
“In order to ensure a smooth and violence-free electoral process, the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolutions proffers the following recommendations;
“All stakeholders to the Ondo state elections should collaboratively ensure that the space is detoxified so that characteristically, provocative utterances and accompanying hate speeches that fly across political party divides during important electoral cycles like the forthcoming elections are checked.
“The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) equally considers it necessary to request that the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) rise to their responsibility by ensuring an effective monitoring of the Ondo electoral spaces towards guaranteeing that arms proliferation before, during and after the elections are indeed controlled.
“In the same spirit, the NDLEA and the NAFDAC should work assiduously while heading-towards the achievement of their noble goal of cutting-off access to illicit drugs flow whiles at the same time severing the networks that service the drug needs of would-be violent actors before, during and after elections.
IPCR has, however, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over its role in the conduct of elections.
