A Non-Governmental group, Igbos for Progressive Nigeria (IPAN), has called on eligible voters for the November 6 Governorship election in Anambra to be vigilant to perform its civic responsibility by voting right.
IPAN advised Anambra electorate to evaluate all the candidates based on their pedigree either in private or public life to determine who can manage the tiny resources of the state better.
Mr. Lawrence Onuzulike, IPAN National president, made the charge at a press conference on Sunday in Awka.
Onuzulike charged the Anambra electorate to shine their eyes, as it was time for the voters to reintegrate into national polity.
IPAN said that implementable manifestoes by the candidates should be evaluated to aid the voters well before casting their votes to a managerial-drained candidate.
“Anambra cannot afford to make the mistake of voting in one who has no serious agenda for the people, who just wants to be called governor but does not have a purposeful vision,” he said.
He said that the Anambra November 6 election is an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past, regretting that Anambra leaders in the past paid little attention to the issues that matter most.
Onuzulike said that there are traces to decayed education, health institutions, poor water facility and refuse disposal system due to poor managerial skills directed to these sectors.
The IPAN believes that time for a new beginning has come in Anambra to revamp the sectors believed to be poorly handled and said it is up to the voters to vote right.
He said that voters should be able to elect a candidate that will be capable of seeing the Igbo at the center to project timely the election of an Igbo person as president in 2023.
IPAN said that the new governor needs a political base with a general spread.
Also contributing, Mr. Michael Chibuzo, the national secretary of IPAN, “lowered superficial grouse” by some non-state actors against the planned election, and warmed against voter apathy.
Chibuzo said that the electorate needs to guard against any plan to promote voter apathy as that would create room for the election of a candidate that does not have directional ability of the voters’ aspiration.
Chibuzo appealed to major gladiators across the parties to check their overzealous supporters, so as not to mar the smooth conduct of the polls as being planned by the electoral umpire.
He said that IPAN would be on ground to monitor the polls to ensure that it is hitch free and fact of events reported.
The group expressed worry over non-release of Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, to those that participated in the last registration exercise, few weeks to the poll, and described it as a dangerous signal.
He said the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should urgently distribute the PVCs to prospective voters.
“I call on us all to be committed to a peaceful electoral participation by all – the elderly, young, and special persons, the future is ours to make,” he said.