Elections Don't Count In Nigeria ~Amaechi.

Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, yesterday declared that elections don’t count in Nigeria. He said all a candidate needs to do to win an election was to be in the right party, and the “results declaring you as the winner will be sent to you in your house.” The governor, who criticized the country’s electoral process, said it was full of fraud, intimidation and rigging,” hence people’s vote do not count anymore. “In Nigeria, it does not cost much to be a governor, it is only a matter of being in the right party, and God helping, you become a governorship candidate. During election, you sit down and someone writes your result for you, and you become a governor,” he stated. Governor Amaechi made the disclosure, during the opening of the Port Harcourt/UNESCO World Book Capital, where he praised Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and other dons, who he said worked hard to become what they were, unlike Nigerian politicians. He condemned the level of corruption in the country, saying that in those days people stole public funds with fear, now, public officers loot funds with impunity, and when one asked, he would be arrested for asking or challenging fraud and impunity. Former Head of State and Chairman, Port Harcourt World/UNESCO Book Capital, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, in his speech, called for peace in the country. “Without peace, there will be no security to read books, without peace there won’t be any opportunity for political and economic advancement, therefore it is the collective responsibility of all Nigerians to fight this scourge called terrorism to an end,” he said. Prof. Soyinka challenged Nigerians to rise up against terrorism, noting that the members of Boko Haram sect were in the people’s mindsets. “They are not Muslims, for the Koran does not preach killing of innocent children. We must rise up to condemn the Nyanya bomb blast and abduction of our daughters. We cannot fold our hands to watch our innocent daughters become sex slaves to hoodlums and terrorists".