From: Femi Oyelola ,Kaduna
Vice-Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria Professor Kabiru Bala has advocated for more engagement of academicians during the electioneering processes for sustainable elections in Nigeria.
He made the remarks in Zaria during the 3rd International Conference organized by the Department of Political Science and International Studies in collaboration with Mambayya House, Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies, Bayero University Kano yesterday.
The conference has its theme “Beyond sustainable elections: interrogating the challenges of leadership and governance in Nigeria”.
The Vice-Chancellor said that democracy was about good elections and good elections may lead to good governance.
According to him, academics are one of the groups of people that you can have confidence and trust in; if we want a good election we have to ensure that the process is sanitized.
“If we think that academicIans were one group of people that can sanitize the election processes they should be given the chance to do so.
“I know there are mixed reactions from the academics on the involvement of our members during general elections in Nigeria”.
“It makes me shiver when I hear some of our colleagues saying `people who rig elections’. I participated in the process and I know what I did,’’ he said.
Professor Kabiru Bala said 95 per cent of the staff of ABU who participated in the electioneering processes did well and we have their reports.
He also noted that many academicians, politicians, civil servants and most people were honest but there were a small number who were dishonest and the tendencies to generalize from the small number was unfair.
“We are researchers; we report facts only, unfortunately a number of academics say people rig elections without adequate facts, data and other validation methods and so on.
He, therefore, urged Nigerians to be more honest and charged the electorates to resist vote buying and other misconduct during elections.
Earlier in her remarks, Dr. Rahanatu Lawal, Head, Department of Political Science and International Studies said the conference would spark interest in getting election right to bring about worthy leaders and good governance.
