₦airaland Forum

Human rights lawyer and Professor Chidi Odinkalu has argued that holding Nigeria’s elections on January 16 could unintentionally disenfranchise many voters and expose deep flaws in the country’s nation-building efforts.

Speaking on The Mic On Podcast, Odinkalu said scheduling the polls for January 16 because of the Ramadan calendar ignores the travel realities of many Nigerians, particularly Igbos who traditionally return to their hometowns during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

“If you fix elections on January 16, you’re telling Igbos who go from where they live, ‘You must not come back,’ because if you do, you’re in trouble.”

According to him, many Igbo voters registered in cities such as Kano, Kaduna, Lagos and other parts of the country would still be in their hometowns after the festive season, making it unrealistic and unsafe to return solely to vote before travelling back again.

Odinkalu argued that shifting the elections to late January rather than mid-January would make a significant difference while still avoiding a clash with Ramadan, which is expected to begin around February 7 or 8 next year.

He added that the same challenge affects many Northerners living in Southern Nigeria, saying they also tend to remain in their home states until after the festive period.

The professor said the issue goes beyond election dates, describing it as a reflection of Nigeria’s unresolved questions of national identity, belonging and equal participation, stressing that electoral planning should accommodate the movement patterns of citizens rather than unintentionally excluding them.

benardtotti:
One Obidient said building roads is not important oh, so this your video is a waste of time.

BrightAhiah99:
Every human on earth is beautiful and beauty is in the heart of each individual not the facial looks

seunmsg:
lol. Send me a dm if you are broke, i can spare you some little cash I am currently not using from the 30K i get monthly from my pay per post work. Don't be shy.

Isobug:
This could be a particular point of axis.
Why are you people praising this road? At least wait let them go far on the road before all this praises.
A road i ply every week. This road is terrible from Enugu Artisan Axis to Okigwe. The only good axis is from Okigwe to Aba. You can not drive one lane up to 4 kilometres without crossing to the other lane because the one you are plying is no longer drivable. I'm surprised

simpleseyi:
Jonathan is PDP, Tinubu is APC, so how did Tinubu betray Jonathan? Jonathan already spent 6 years as President, who was he looking for again?

Anyway, you can collect form fir him and let him contest against the god of Politics and Infrastructure, Emilokan JAGABAN so that he (Jonathan) will be humiliated once again

Dogalmighty17:
Forget the long English. This is an attempt to blatantly grab land by you know who. Read what the article wrote about the supposed Saudi capital injection. It is not substantive and guaranteed. This is all smoke and mirrors.

fnep2smooth:
all this ones are agbado and cassava eaters ..... we dont take their words serious.

FSBoperator:
Liar.

You are not happy..

You wanted those children to remain in captivity and even killed by their abductors so you can weaponize their abduction to the fullest.

Also, when are you dragging the FG to the UN for clamping your car for wrongful parking ?

ClassicMan202:
The middle square without a borderline, the rest all have 2 things in common, a fill colour and border, except the middle square.

Bosman17:
Did you listen to the first guy that was interviewed? Maybe you should go back and listen! It was a death trap before it was fixed

Mbanda:
Which residents dey rejoice?
Where are the pictures and videos of the residents that are rejoicing?

Freshtruth:
If anything happens to Peter obi Nigeria will burn
Is not a prediction is a reality

writetopoker:
This is a useless thread and need to be shut down asap.
sometimes joblessness makes Nigerian youths to reason upside down.

I now understand why Buhari called the youth Lazy Youths.

The day Terrorisism and hunger will faceyou face to face, then you will understand that Terrorisism, corruption and hunger knows no tribe or religion.

90% of Nigerian youths are hopeless

seunmsg:
Apart from delusional Obidients, who else doesn't know this?

Richtaiwo:
The topic is about Peter Obi and biafra, but how you swing to Benue is what I can't wrap my head around.

For your information, Peter Obi, the agulu con artist and the most useless fraudster, will never ever be president of my beloved country, Nigeria.

Pootle:
data boys hustling for their 40k grant.

they are remote workers as well

Richtaiwo:
Listen to Peter Obi for just a few minutes and the illusion evaporates. Every sentence exposes an empty-headed buffoon, leaving you wondering how he ever became a governor. Anyone who bought into the laughable hype peddled by his clueless followers only needed to hear him speak once to realize they had been sold a complete fraud.

Sonofgod1990:
How I wish Moto go just fail brake and crush dat man spiting trash over there