Suspending 2015 Elections In Emergency States Means Boko Haram Has Won - Borno State Governor

The Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, today reacted to the plan by the Independent National Electoral Commission to exclude the states currently under emergency rule from the 2015 elections, saying the decision has grave repercussions for the country.

The governor made the remark while responding to questions by journalists, during which he noted that 2015 remains very far away for all mortals.

“Only God, our Creator, knows who will get to 2015 and in what state of health,” he said. “It is also Allah that gives power to anyone He wills at the time He will and how He will.”

Of the proposal, he paid compliments to Professor Attahiru Jega, the electoral commission chairman, describing him as “a man associated with honour, integrity, an erudite and respected scholar” who has not committed any sin by his proposal, and commending him for INEC's early preparations for the elections.

"I also think he is being sincere because if he had an ulterior motive he wouldn't reveal the issue now,” the governor said. “He could have waited till when Allah spares our lives in 2015 and he would announce the exclusion of the States, by which time politics could be intense and every segment would be dealing with its own political issues.”

He noted that the INEC chairman has not foreclosed the participation of the three affected States in the 2015 elections, adding that the proposal is dependent on hopes that security will improve in those states.

"But one important thing we should not ignore as a sovereign country is that suspending national election such as the 2015 in any part of the 36 States and the FCT on account of Boko Haram activities would amount to making the insurgents supreme over the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it will be defeatist on our part as a nation.”

He stressed that the objective of Boko Haram is to impose the group’s beliefs on Nigeria, subvert its constitution and its democracy and replace them with inhuman laws that support killings and destruction. In that regard, he observed that should any part of the country be suspended from taking part in the 2015 election, the insurgents would presume themselves to be successful and to be inching closer to achieving their goals.

“We cannot allow that," Governor Shettima emphasized.

He said that as a strategy, Borno and Yobe States and indeed any place affected by the insurgency should be the electoral commission’s main focus for conducting the 2015 elections in order to send a clear message to those who want us to go into extinction that we will not cave in to their violent needs.

He said that suspending the elections even in a polling unit mainly on account of Boko Haram would be a setback in the fight against terror and that it will not be good for us as a country or for our reputation abroad.

“I therefore call on the Federal Government all stakeholders in the country and friends of Nigeria to look at the issue with analytical mindset far beyond what reasons we might be talking about now,” he said.

"If Boko Haram is able to stop elections in three States, they might in no time, simply target additional States and gradually, they might stop elections in Nigeria. We can't allow that."