Sharia council wants presidential and government elections on the same day

The Supreme Shari’ah Council in Nigeria has asked both the federal government and well-meaning Nigerians to push the Independent National Electoral Commission to hold both presidential and gubernatorial elections on the same day.

The council noted that the call became necessary to prevent violence in staggered polls.

Elections for the president and National Assembly are scheduled for February 25, 2023, while elections for the governorship and state Houses of Assembly are scheduled for March 11, 2023.

However, the council said there could be violence if the election was staggered, adding that some desperate politicians were already heating up to create a crisis to stop the election.

The secretary-general of Nigeria’s Supreme Shari’a Council, Nafi’u Baba-Ahmed, said at a news conference in Kaduna on Sunday that a security source confirmed to the council that security forces may not be able to deal with the impending violence. to resist. political violence.

Baba-Ahmed said: “There is a high probability that the second election will not take place because of the violence of the first election. It won’t be feasible.

“The first election is the election for the president and the National Assembly. We fear that, in light of the precarious security situation in the country and the fact that security services have admitted to being overstretched, it is quite possible, in fact very likely, that some desperate politicians who could lose the election will resort to political violence will provoke insofar as the next elections cannot take place.

“In light of this, we involve everyone who matters. We met with some of the top security chiefs, who expressed their understanding of the situation and agreed with us that their manpower is already overstretched. And it will be a tough task to cope with political violence.

“We therefore advise that INEC should be persuaded to hold all elections on the same day. In this way, we will avoid a situation where some desperate politicians on the verge of losing cannot create chaos in the country, leaving us with elections half held and half postponed.”

The council also appealed to Nigerians to make the necessary sacrifice to vote, however long it takes.