The Women’s Situation Room (WSR), a
non-governmental organization has advocated that any perpetrator of electoral
violence should be made to face the International Criminal Court (ICC) reports ITRealms.
The National Coordinator, Women’s
Situation Room, Joy Onyesoh made this call in a press statement made available
to ITRealms on Sunday in Lagos,
saying they are in a process that engages women in collaboration with youth, and
lobby key stakeholders to actively support their call for peaceful elections.
According to her, WSR got its
mandate from UNSCR 1325 which reaffirms that women must be involved in peace
processes and peacebuilding. The process culminates in a physical Situation
Room where an all women observer team is trained and deployed to observe
elections and send to the Situation Room incidents from the field which are
analysed by our team of analysts and which our team of Eminent Women from
Africa and Nigeria act upon in a timely manner.
For women, she said, the key issues
in this election are security, inclusiveness and participation. With regards to
the issue of security besides the peace accord signed by the candidates and the
media messages, security should be provided at the polling units to prevent
violence from erupting. This is because any time violence erupts women and
children suffer most.
The law enforcement agencies should,
apart from providing security at the polling booths deal with situations of
breakdown of law and order promptly and prosecute offenders. Unfortunately the
Amendment to the Electoral Act 2010 which would have birthed the electoral
offences tribunal has not been signed into law.
As it is the prosecution of election
offenders therefore still lies with the Police and the Attorney General’s
Office. But Nigeria is obliged under the African Union Declaration on the
Principles Governing Democratic Elections 2002 to do things that will safeguard
the safety and security of the people.
On the issue of inclusiveness, the
Police are mandated to take care of internal security this is a civic and civil
responsibility. The High Court in Sokoto, the Court of Appeal and recently the
Federal High Court Lagos gave Judgment against the deployment of the Military
during elections. In disregard to the Judgment, soldiers have taken over the
civil space instead of safeguarding territorial integrity. With the combat
ready mood the soldiers are displaying, how will this affect the women in terms
of confidence building and intimidation?
Yesterday, pictures were shown on national
television of soldiers whipping people and making them frog jump in Lagos.
There have been opposing views on the effect of the scenario playing out. Some
people have argued that the presence of soldiers on the streets will engender
confidence while others have argued that people will be intimidated. The use of
the Military in the elections raises the issue as to whether women will be
afraid to go out and vote.
We welcome the ICC’s statement that
any person fingered in electoral violence will face the wrath of the Law. With
the multiplicity of security forces including the military deployed to cover
the elections, the question again arises as to who is in charge (is it INEC,
the Police or the Military?). For the women is important for them to know the
command structure with regards to who is in charge and who to report to when
there are problems. This will lead to confidence building in the process.
Again Nigeria’s obligation under the
African Union Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections 2002
comes into play
Finally again on the issue of
inclusiveness, The United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with
Disabilities and the Optional Protocol obliges member states to protect people
with various forms of disability. We are confident that INEC will upscale
her commitments to the marginalized groups in terms of making them priority in
the election processes. Apart from women with Physical disability, older
persons and pregnant women suffer varying forms of disability e.g. standing for
long periods of time and cannot run fast in emergency situations. It’s
essential they are given priority during accreditation, voting and counting.
We pray for tomorrow’s elections to
be peaceful and enjoin to remember that “Peace in our hands.”
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