Advertisement

A group, the Initiative for a Better and Brighter Nigeria, IBBN, has urged political parties to zone their presidential ticket to the South in the spirit of fairness and equity.

Advertisement

The organisation, which noted the creation of additional 56,872 Polling Units ahead of the 2023 general elections, said it had been mobilising Nigerians to collect their Permanent Voter Cards.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, the group’s President, Prophet Dr. Isah El-Buba, said the North has had its fair share of the nation’s leadership and should therefore yield the presidency to the South.

He said, “As political activities hit the crescendo, we call for political actors in the country to play the game, putting Nigeria first over any parochial interest.

Advertisement

“Among other things, for the purpose of advancing equity and putting the national interest first, we call on all Political parties to in all sense of fairness, zone their presidential tickets to the southern zone of the country, especially that the North will be concluding a full eight-year term by 2023.”

According to El-Buba, fairness and equity were all that would be required to service and continue to make every union work.

“Indeed fairness and equity are what it will take to keep the Nigerian union as one indivisible great country under God,” he submitted.

The IBBN described as astronomical the National Assembly’s increase of campaign spending limits of political parties and their candidates by 300% in the recently passed Electoral Act Amendment Bill which is awaiting presidential assent.

Advertisement

El-Buba said, “We call on the National Assembly to consider and review section 91 of the Electoral Act Bill, which dramatically and astronomically increased campaign spending limits by 300 percent, which suggests that the 9th National Assembly intends to entrench a heavily monetized and merchandising political system- and this has dire implications for elections violence, youths exclusion, good governance and the economy.”

Meanwhile, the group noted that the nation was already overwhelmed by insecurity and other social and economic challenges, warning that any further delay in the deployment of the Super Tucano Fighter Jets in flushing out terrorists would compound the nation’s woes.

Prophet El-Buba said, “Beyond preventing deepening attacks, we need reclaim forests and ungoverned spaces already occupied by terrorists, when will we deploy the much-celebrated Tucano jets and other Airforce platforms procured to extinguish these terrorists? It better not be when the terrorists are done with killing Nigerians. We call on Government to Deploy those Tucano jets to use, now.”

Advertisement

On the abduction and murder of little Hanifa Abubakar in Kano State, the group lamented that any country devoid of safe spaces for children was is a society with a bleak future.

“From wave of mass abductions for ransom at schools over the last year, carried out by terrorist elements nicknamed bandits, to the recent abduction and murder of this little promising 5-year-old Hanifa Abubakar by the Proprietor of her own school who demanded a ransom of six million naira ($14,500) last month only to later kill Hanifa with rat poison and bury her in a shallow grave in the city of Kano; there couldn’t be more endangerment of education and violation of the right to life in Northern Nigeria.

“For the act of terrorism against children alone, Nigerian Government need not show mercy to domestic terrorists & terrorpreneurs alike. We must stand up to the active defence of the right to life in Nigeria because the life of Nigerians matter. May God comforts the family of little Hanifa and all others who have lost loved ones in the hands of terrorists and terropreneurs in Nigeria,” El-Buba said.

(Vanguard)