By Marie-Therese Nanlong

Jos – As the Presidential and National Assembly elections are held on Saturday, citizens have been urged to shun apathy and go out en mass to vote for candidates of their choice as failure to do so amounts to giving room for bad leaders to emerge.

The citizens were also tasked to be orderly in their conduct as security agencies have assured of a safe and secure environment for voting.

Stafford Bisong, of the Intercontinental Leadership Initiative on behalf of a coalition of INEC accredited Observer groups towards a peaceful and credible 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections gave the charge at a press conference with the theme, saving our democracy, held on Friday in Jos, Plateau State.

He said, “Our vote is precious, it is the most powerful nonviolent tool, and we must use it. Pat Mitchell said, “If you don’t vote, you are ignoring history and giving away your future,” bad leaders are elected by good citizens who don’t vote.

“Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, our country, and the world at large. Nobody will deprive you of the right to vote except you deprive yourself by not voting. We are using this opportunity to encourage every Nigerian of voting age who has a PVC to go out and exercise their franchise by voting for the candidate of their choice in Saturday’s elections.

“The security team led by the IGP, Usman Baba has assured us of a safe and secure environment for voting. The Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmud Yakubu, and his team have put all modalities in place from accreditation, voting, counting of ballots, announcing, and real-time viewing of result sheets on the INEC portal. This means every vote will count.

“We are calling on all stakeholders to avoid every form of electoral malpractice (vote buying, over voting, underaged voting) because our team of observers is watching keenly to report accordingly… Let’s move Nigeria forward by voting rightly.”