By Efe Onodjae
As Nigerians prepare to vote in the presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, the President-General, of the African Football and Other Sports Supporters Club (AFOSSU), Dr Raufu Oladipo, has advised candidates not to see the exercise as a do-or-die affair.
Rather, he charged politicians to act as sportsmen by embracing themselves irrespective of the outcome of the result.
He gave the admonition during a solidarity walk on a violence-free election, to the office of the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide snow-Olu, in the Alausa area of Ikeja, Lagos, organized by Prayer and Support for Nigerian Armed Forces and Other Security Agencies, PSNAFSA, yesterday.
He said, “ in less than 48 hours, we shall be going to the polls to vote. In the end, some candidates will win the elective posts while others will not. My advice to politicians is to behave like sportsmen and women. When there is a competition, two sides meet, and the two sides cannot win the match at the same time. One will win while the other will lose. But the one that loses today should live to fight for another day, we should not make this election a do-or-die, it should be a peaceful one. When the election comes, it will go and we will witness another four years again.
On her part, the Convener, Mrs Mary Abayomi-Fatile, said the walk was necessitated by the worrisome dimension in the rise of violent attacks on parties’ campaign trains, INEC facilities and orgies of killings in some of the states of the federation.
She added that “ the frightening phenomenon has elicited fears, trepidation and anxiety in the electorates. We are therefore here to appeal to every Nigerian Youth to desist from being used as political thugs to shed blood, snatch ballot papers, or harass electorates at polling units.
“Every Nigerian owes himself the responsibility of ensuring a peaceful, tranquil and secure environment, as stakeholders in the security architecture.
“We have the assurance of our security agencies including the Military to be protected as we go out to vote for candidates of our choice on Saturday. On our part, we should endeavour to make their duties less cumbersome by ensuring violence-free polls”.
One of the leads, Ilo Usman, explained that the advocacy group was formed to appreciate government security agencies in their fight against acts of criminality.
She said, “ Our support to them is to pray while they are in the different theatres of war, ensuring that Nigeria is not beseeched by our enemies and that we have a safe haven. To reciprocate this gesture, as Nigerians, we should give our Armed Forces the necessary information that will help them in the fight against terrorism and other forms of criminalities”.
Those who participated in the solidarity walk on Violence-free 2023 general elections included traders, members of transport unions, artisans, students, members of the African Football and other Sports Supporters Club among others, while Police and Military personnel and those of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA provided security and ambulances .
Source: Vanguard