The Citizens Centre for Democratic Governance has added its voice to what the group revealed in a statement to be reluctance on the part of the National Assembly to pass the 2019 elections Budget.
A statement signed and sent to Kogi reports by Osagbemi Anthony, the National Coordinator reads in part: “It is no longer news that the 2019 election budget passage and approval has been on the snail move. However, our attention has been drawn to the deleterious effect which this trend may portend for the 2019 general elections. We understand that effective preparation begets efficient outcomes. Therefore, it is worrisome and a serious cause for concern, that INEC is getting locked to the corner of lack of effective preparation against the 2019 general elections. For us at the Citizens Centre for Democratic Governance, it is unacceptable and something must be done about it quickly”.
Osagbemi said had recalled that funds came through quickly for INEC in 2015 and the result was efficient.
According to him, “We recall that at the build up to 2015, quick release of the funds targeted at the general elections was ensured and to that extent we can attribute the success of the 2015 general elections to this funds that enabled good preparation and a fantastic outcome. Although the regular funds for the running of INEC have been approved, the budget for the 2019 general elections is yet to see the light of the day at a time like this when we have less than 268 days to the said elections”.
The Group continued that, “We call on the National assembly to do the needful in passing the budget to avoid pushing INEC into a fire brigade approach situation. As it is, a lot of things require financial attention, some of which are: the continuous voter’s registration, registration of political parties, purchase and payment for sensitive and non sensitive voter materials, and many other logistics requirement. The National assembly should not endanger our democracy by this act of delay. The budget should be handled as a matter of urgency so that possible crisis as a result of the delay will be averted by the immediate release of funds for the 2019 elections”.
On a final note, Osagbemi that it is clear to Nigerians what NASS may be trying to achieve from this slowdown. As he puts it “Nigerians are all witnesses to this seeming prank and INEC will be vindicated in the case of poor performance as this is perceived by us, as a calculated attempt to frustrate all efforts by the commission to deliver on its mandate. We call on other civil society organizations to rise to their primary function of speaking to institutions by providing intellectual and moral supervision were necessary, especially in this case of threat to our democratic consolidation”.
