Eligible voters in Anambra State have a date with history on Friday, November 6, as they file out to elect a new governor, to take office in March 2022 when the tenure of the incumbent Willie Obiano lapses. The state got off-season in the Nigerian election cycle with the judicial victory of Peter Obi that displaced Governor Chris Ngige in March 2006.

All is set for the imminent poll, which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it is fully prepared to conduct in Anambra’s 5,720 polling units spread across 326 wards in the state’s 21 local government areas. Some 2.52million registered voters are on the commission’s roll to choose from among 18 contenders being fielded by political parties. The poll will involve at least 25,000 core personnel, aside from cadres manning logistics, security, collation support and results verification.

With the election holding amidst a security scare occasioned by separatist agitation of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the police have said they are deploying some 36,000 personnel to secure the poll environment. Meanwhile, other security agencies, including the military and paramilitary formations, are chipping in to complement the police.

INEC said it had delivered all non-sensitive materials to all Anambra council areas. About now, the commission should be delivering sensitive materials state-wide. It also pledged to deploy relevant technology to enhance the integrity of the poll, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) – a multipurpose device for biometric verification and voter facial recognition (i.e. voter authentication). It also entails result upload as well as e-voting when circumstances arise, among other uses.

According to INEC, the device will be used to upload polling unit results to its central result-viewing portal during the Anambra poll. So, Nigerians with access to the Internet can log in and view those results realtime as they are being uploaded. It was apparently in that regard the commission recently boasted that the Anambra election would be ”embarrassingly transparent” – a boast to which it will be strictly held and on which its performance tomorrow will be measured.

This governorship election offers the Anambra electorate an opportunity to make a choice of who leads them, and it is an opportunity they must not let go to waste. True, the poll is holding under the shadows of a threat of disruption by IPOB to protest the detention of Nnamdi Kanu, its leader, but Anambrarians shouldn’t give in to this threat. On the contrary, they should turn out enthusiastically to exercise their franchise as a compelling civic duty.

Security operatives must conduct themselves with utmost civility and professional decorum. That is imperative so that their massive presence around the polling environment can bolster voters’ confidence, not intimidate them from the process. The security people are there to scare off trouble makers, not peaceful voters.

Power gladiators themselves have a vital role to play in ensuring a peaceful conduct during the poll. They have just signed up to a peace accord, and it is incumbent on them not only to operate in the spirit of that accord, but also to hold their supporters to same. Political hooligans typically act on instigation by power gladiators, and those in the Anambra poll must not provide such instigation.

It is perhaps pertinent to call on IPOB as well to give peace a chance and refrain from disrupting the poll. If people are not allowed to elect their leader, they would have no basis to demand accountability from whoever gets into office by other means than majority will.

But if IPOB proves too heady about its threat, security agents should leverage necessary force to deter it. The Anambra poll must not only hold, but peacefully so.

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