Kaduna North Senatorial Election Postponed Thrice, Now to hold April 26

[Salihu Moh. Lukman]

First, disrupted from holding April 2 and postponed to Monday, April 4, then postponed to April 9, and the Kaduna North Senatorial election is now, hopefully, finally to hold April 26. We are confident that victory is ours. This was so indicated in the April 2 attempted elections. From the few places where elections held, we were clearly leading convincingly, in spite of the challenges that led to the postponement. Some of the identified challenges, apart from the missing result sheets that led to the postponement were:

 

a.      INEC officials and materials arrived polling units late, resulting in late commencement of accreditation process;

 

b.      There is inadequate security at the voting centres. Many places have no police presence;

 

c.       Vote buying was very much noticed in many polling units, many by agents of the PDP;

 

d.      The INEC procedure on accreditation was poorly observed as in many polling units names were called instead of voters cuing;

 

e.      In two LGAs of our constituency, the election was completely disrupted due shortfall in provision of ballot papers. These were Ikara and Kubau LGAs;

 

f.        In Makarfi and Kudan LGAs, CAN was not listed in the ballot for House of Representatives elections in spite of the fact that we have a candidate for that constituency

 

Notwithstanding these challenges however, voters turnout was very high. We have continued to work hard to maintain our popularity and continue to gain more followership in the constituency. We are confident that victory is ours come April 26.

 

Just before the April 2 attempted elections, I prepared this last message but couldn’t send it out due to combinations of pressure of last minute preparations and the reality of having to operate in environment with lots of IT challenges. I am therefore sharing the message below although late but very relevant.

 

Once more I want to thank everyone for the wonderful, humbling support. Arising from the postponement, our elections expenses so far is N37 million. Our projection is that by the April 26 date, it will be in the region of N39 million.

 

SMLukman

 

March 2011 Final Update on Kaduna North Senatorial Bid (2): Victory Hour!

 

It is now less than seventy-two (48) hours to the elections and victory celebrations have already begun. We have concluded the campaigns and we are basically now putting finishing touches to arrangements for elections. At this point, I only wish to present key highlights as follows:

 

1.      We have gone round all the eight local governments for the last time and we have visited traditional rulers, religious and community leaders, etc. We have been humbled once more by the overwhelming support of people across all the local governments. In addition, we are shocked by the level of negligence. For instance, in Lazaru village of Lere Local Government, we found empty electrical poles that have been planted without cables for more than eight years. In Mubuga village of Kubau Local Government, electrical poles and cables have been installed for more than six (6) years but yet to be powered. This is besides being confronted with shocking revelations of poor living conditions in our so-called urban areas such as Kwarin Dan Goma in Zaria.

 

2.      The demands of most of our people are mundane, it mostly revolved around fixing mosque, churches, for youths, it is first about football and Jaycees and hardly around education.

 

3.      There is the intriguing case of Panga, a Fulani community which is just less than 15 minutes drive from Zaria City without electricity and water. With a population of more than 15,000, their children hardly complete primary education.

 

4.      All segments of our population have been mobilized, and they are all very supportive.

 

5.      In terms of preparing for the elections, we have recruited 2,000 polling agents and 95 Wards and Local Governments Supervisors. Training will be concluded on Thursday, March 31, 2011 (today).

 

We are ready for victory. My family, friends and associates have all made wonderful and tireless contributions. The challenge today is to justify these contributions and in sha Allah the electoral victory with selfless services. Our target is to secure over 70% of the votes on Saturday. I will in sha Allah come back to you within the next two weeks immediately after the elections with clear proposals on how to actualize our Roadmap.

 

So far till this moment, we have expended slightly above N36 million. I proudly, want to state that almost 100% of this was realized through contributions by friends and associates. I will for the rest of my life remain indebted to all those who made contributions.

 

Thanks you very much

 

Salihu Mohammed Lukman

Senatorial Candidate, Kaduna North

 

 

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Salihu, thanks again for this update. Two things caught my attention in your briefing:

1. That the people in your constituency are merely asking that mosques and churches be refurbished, that youths be provided with soccer jerseys, among other seemingly simple requests, and that their demands hardly include education. This is rather surprising and instructive. As you say, the needs of our people at the grassroots may be more mundane than we textbookish people assume. Your findings illustrate the value of being organically connected to the grassroots and discerning their actual as opposed to assumed needs. They also point to the drawbacks of top-down, distant, and overly textbookish understandings of the needs of African peoples. Political ethnography is important, but generic ethnography is also important for development practitioners. Food for thought for aid delivery and development industry folks.

2. You stated that by the date of the election, you will have spent 39 million Naira on your campaign expenses. This strikes me as a very modest figure compared to amounts reportedly being spent by candidates on senatorial contests in other parts of the country--although I would not sneeze at 39 Million Naira. Sounds like you're running your campaign on a shoestring budget and are determined to win the contest on the strength of your platform, not your pocket. If so I must commend you. I have read reports about senatorial campaign expenses in the some Southern constituencies running into hundreds of millions of naira!! Which makes one wonder about what governorship candidates are spending, not to talk of presidential candidates. I wonder if this increased monetization of legislative campaigns has anything to do with the $1 million monthly remuneration (not counting other perks) for federal lawmakers. At this rate the monetary side of our democracy will soon become its own justification.

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There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.


---Mohandas Gandhi