PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has in his native village Otuoke, Bayelsa State explained the circumstances that would warrant a declaration of state of emergency in any part of the country, saying it would only be considered when every other option at peace has failed.
President Jonathan told journalists after he cast his vote that because his understanding of the declaration of state of emergency means suspension of development as every resource would be devoted to security.
He said election in Kaduna and Bauchi have been deferred to Thursday, April 28, 2011 in order to make more security personnel available to hold the two States during the voting process.
According to the President, "Kaduna and Bauchi elections are deferred. Elections will take place there on Thursday. Let us observe what will happen today first before the state of emergency. Sometimes people don't even understand State of emergency . I got to know that when you impose a state of emergency by law, the Governor is not supposed to leave. That is what my AGF (Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice) told me. We will find out.
"You declare a state of emergency in a State. You can also declare a state of emergency in the country based on our Constitution, that is when the social circumstances create an environment that governance becomes extremely difficult. You want to militarise the whole place, no development there and every money goes for security. If you declare a state of emergency in any State, invariably what you are saying is that there is nothing like development in that state.”
President Jonathan however stated that if after every effort the election does not hold, State of emergency could then become a card on the table or "alternatively if by 29th of this month we are unable to conduct election in any State, then by law you can't conduct any election in any State again until after inauguration because we need 30 days. In that case, we have no choice than to declare state of emergency."
He explained further that, "It should be the last option when everything fails because this is the state of emergency that is probably for six months. Or, even if it is three months, these are three months of stagnation, we cannot just rush that. That is why we deferred the election for Kaduna, Bauchi till Thursday."
The President said he has been monitoring the election on television and from security agencies, adding that from reports at his disposal, the election was progressing peacefully in a free and fair manner.
Jonathan also promised that 2015 elections would be better than that of this year and gave all the credit to Nigerian electorates who he said have demonstrated steadfastness and faith in the process.
No comments:
Post a Comment