Chidi Odinkalu, former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction with the level of preparation for the 2019 elections, noting that going ahead without adequate preparation may result in crisis in too many deaths.
Mr. Odinkalu, said this in Abuja at a town hall meeting during the presentation of the findings of a post- 2015 elections research conducted by Action Aid Nigeria.
He acknowledged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recorded some gains in 2015 elections, however, Mr. Odinkalu said 2019 may be different.
Odinkalu said:
“Today, the executive has gone into lax mode; judiciary has become lawless; National Assembly is lacking in credibility; INEC is troubled; politicians have gone unruly. Government says it has no money to run the economy. Every element that made 2015 is currently missing,” he said.
“There is absolutely no reason why the executive should allow the number of vacancies we have in INEC to be. By next month, INEC will have 28 vacancies among RECs (Resident Electoral Commissioners) and seven commissioners. The Executive is carrying on as if this normal. It isn’t.
“Citizens are carrying on like: ‘We will tweet it on social media’. We should do more than that, because our country is at stake. The way we are carrying on, 2015 is history; 2019 may not happen, if we don’t reset. We‘ve got to take our country very seriously. There will be no elections in 2019.
“I’m sorry to sound alarmist. But, continuing the way we are going, we will not be able to have elections in 2019. If it happens, there would be too many broken heads and dead people”, he said.
