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Elections 2007: Niger Delta Civil Society Support National Mass Action

The Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition (NDCSC), unequivocally call on the peoples of the Niger Delta and all patriotic citizens of Nigeria to participate in the mass action across the country to protest the disenfranchisement of the Nigerian people with the corrupt, stolen and ungodly mandate of the April 14th and 21st 2007.

The right to effective Participation and Vote is the issue. The mass concern of the poor, a people hungry for a place in the sun and a voice in their destiny were stolen with utter barbarity. The ugly pattern of denial flourished with dire consequences in the Niger Delta region communities. In the region over the last fifteen years, civil society groups have through capacity and peace-building activities tried to eliminate the evil forces that bar the way of the citizens to the all-important ballot box.

They lay bare for all the nation to see, for all the world to know, the nature of tyranny, bad governance – poverty in the midst of plenty – corruption with impunity, which resulted from the absence of a people’s mandate in 1999 and 2003. The elections of April 2007 shattered hope and confidence in the system. It was a complete system failure. If we are not to become a completely modern day slave society, we must join others nation-wide in the peaceful campaign to reject enslavement.

First, there was the Gestapo-like control of the region by agents of electoral darkness, made up of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), The Police, Willing Militants, and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). There was a mystique behind the power and brutality of these dark forces against our freedom.

The gun, the machetes, the club, non-registration of voters, non-arrival and availability of electoral materials, outright stealing of election result sheets, political thugs as ad-hoc staff of INEC - produced the fear and intimidation that was the main barrier to voting – a barrier erected since May 1999, with incredible level of small arms proliferation by politicians – exposure to the psychology and brutality of oppression and executive lawlessness. It was a fear rooted in feeling of getting slaughtered for venturing to ask questions.

The Nigerian Police Force, today is invoking a dead Colonial Legislation – The Public Order Act, as an instrument to crush and kill Nigerians who turn up for protest of their rights violations on the streets of the country. We cannot be intimidated from joining our colleagues and fellow citizens on the 28th and 29th of May 2007 in a peaceful protest, simply to say GIVE US LIBERTY OR GIVE US DEATH.

After so many years of intimidation and grave threat to democracy in Nigeria, civil society change agents have learnt that its only salvation is in united action. When one group stands up, it would be ran out of town; if a thousand concerned groups and citizens stand up together, the situation is bound to be drastically overhauled.

Clearly, the heart of the chain of disenfranchisement lay in the fact that the machinery for enforcing these basic rights are in the hands of state selected officials, answerable to the very people who believed they could continue to wield power and rob their own people in the Niger Delta, specifically and nation as a whole, so long as the majority of ordinary people are disenfranchised.

No matter how many loopholes were plugged, no matter how many irregularities were exposed, it is plain fact that nothing is ever going to change, unless there is a fundamental constitutional transformation in the land. WE NEED A CONSTITUTION FOR NIGERIA, that has the command of the people.

The patchwork reforms brought about by the electoral laws have not helped this ugly denial and deep hurt for the oppressed. What is needed is a new Constitution with fundamental changes which would bring about truly independent institutions such as Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), the Nigeria Police etc; that is representative of the feelings and aspirations of all Nigerians.

This call for action is aimed at peacefully attacking the very heart of the political structure of the State through a peaceful mass campaigns for the right to participate in the government of our country and vote.

The Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition (NDCSC) strongly call on all groups and citizens who think and believe that our tomorrow is worth protecting peacefully, and not through violence to come out and join this two day campaign as evidence of our collective abhorrence of the recently stolen, corrupt and illegal elections. This parasitic elitist class must be challenged, if we must not live another eight years of a future without hope in the region. The Judiciary through all the Election Tribunals must redeem what has been lost in the system: OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE AND CONFIDENCE IN THE SYSTEM.

The NDCSC calls on all concerned to be mindful of the fact, that this call for peaceful action is not aimed at condensing the poverty ravaging the lives of our people by keeping them out of their businesses and jobs indefinitely. It is rather an initial signal towards a groundswell which eventually shall pull these looters, primitive accumulators of illicit wealth, slave drivers and democracy destroyers out of the leadership of our society. We are not born to ruin.

The NDCSC also call on people of the Niger Delta to wear black this Friday to visibly mark our opposition to this abuse. Any person who must move around on May 28 and 29th we kindly urge to also wear black as a sign of solidarity.

Finally, the NDCSC calls on the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, to take the ideals and principles of a responsible people oriented police service most seriously, and shun threats of use of maximum force against citizens right to protest against the gross violations of their civil, political, economic and social rights during the April 2007 elections.

He should accordingly signal his officials to allow the voices of the people sing aloud their songs of freedom, as bottling up in the face of threats and intimidation could lead to uncontrollable chaos. Mr. Ehindero as Inspector General of Police must bear full responsibility for any harm occasioned by any act of Police overzealousness on the days of these protests.

Our victory will mean that the many in our land would grasp power from the few, the silent would have succeeded in making themselves heard, democracy would have displaced despotism. Never again would our country be the same.

Anyakwee Nsirimovu
Chair
NIGER DELTA CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION (NDCSC)
C/O IHRHL, 2b, Railway Close, D/Line. Port Harcourt. Rivers State. Niger Delta Region

1. Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law(IHRHL)
2. Social Action
3. Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People
4. Environmental Rights Action
5. Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development
6. Stakeholder Democracy Network, SDN
7. Kebetkache Women Resource and Development Centre
8. ChildLife Project
9. Gender and Development Action(GADA)
10. Ijaw Council for Human Rights (ICHR)
11. Niger Delta Program for Women’s Human Rights