The Coalition for Northern Groups (CNG) has stated that unless immediate action is taken, there is a risk of voter apathy in the 2023 general elections in the Northern region of the country.
Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, the coalition’s spokesperson, told journalists in Kano on Monday that the coalition’s observations showed that there is lesser participation in the ongoing voter registration update in the North than in other regions of the country.
This, according to the coalition, is linked to Northerners’ dissatisfaction with President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
With the “monetization” of the process, the coalition added, the outcome of party primaries, particularly in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had further pushed a large percentage of northerners to a position of caring little about who wins the 2023 election.
Northerners, on the other hand, were urged by the alliance not to be discouraged by the turn of events, but to register in droves for their “Permanent Voter Cards as the only sure way of ensuring leadership that will address our limitations.”
The coalition also “reminded the northern voter to be vigilante with the direction of his voting by refusing to be pinned to political party specifics and go for candidates with pronounced credibility, competence, capacity and with the antecedent of expressly identifying with their problems around security, the economy and education.”
It also requested a “thorough investigation into whether election funding in recent primary elections by parties followed the prescribed protocols as indicated in the Electoral Act” and also “an enquiry into the extent to which adherence or otherwise to the electoral guidelines contributed to the monetization of the electoral contests in the various parties and its implication for future electoral integrity.”
