Elder statesman and a former Secreatary General of the Nigeria Union of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Chief Frank Kokori, has said despite the high rate of insecurity across the country, the 2023 general elections should not be delayed.
Kokori, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, however, raised the alarm over the attendant risk of moving from one part of the country to the other under the circumstances, describing it as “one of the worst security situations we’ve ever experienced in this country.”
He said, “As for the elections, the process will have to go on. There is no question as to whether the election will go on or not. If you boycott elections in Nigeria, you are just wasting your time because your opponents will go to the polls and they will win.
“If you boycott elections, you boycott yourself. It has no effect on your opponents. Your opponents will even be very happy. They will just be there unopposed. So, nobody will boycott elections in Nigeria. They all want power.
“If they want to go to the Senate, will they boycott elections when they know they want to be senators? Or you want to be governor, or go to the House of Assembly, will you boycott elections? No! The elections will be held. Security or no security, the elections will go on.”
He, however, stated that for one to travel by road, one had to pray because one could easily be kidnapped and taken into the bush.
The elder statesman added, “These are heartless people. How can you kidnap small children and students? Now, it has got a level where they kidnap children of four and five years and the government (officials are) sitting down there, saying they are running a government. It’s a shame!
People who are destroying the country in terms of security are not human beings. These are animals! The armed Fulani herdsmen from Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal are not the normal herdsmen we have. These are terrorists from the Sahel. They can’t speak your language.
“These are animals, they are the people giving us problems in this country. Fulani from Nigeria are different from those Fulani. There are many Nigerians who have joined them as bandits in the South. You need a strong government to wipe it out and we don’t have that type of government.”
