The Governor’s call for peace is timely, commendable, and should be embraced by all stakeholders. At this critical moment, every community and interested party must exercise restraint and allow due process to prevail. No one should seek to play a fast one on anyone, and there must be no attempt to impose political solutions through backdoor arrangements that undermine transparency, fairness, and public confidence in the process.
However, peace must be built on justice. Genuine and lasting peace can only emerge when all legitimate concerns are fairly addressed and stakeholders are assured that the process is transparent, accurate, and equitable.
No community or stakeholder wants to be shortchanged, and no one should be. Yet concerns have emerged regarding anomalies in the delineation exercise, technical oversights, and areas that were either omitted or not properly captured during the fieldwork. These concerns raised by stakeholders deserve careful consideration and objective review.
INEC must urgently address these issues. Any community names that were altered or renamed in a manner that has generated controversy should be reviewed and, where necessary, restored to reflect established realities. Likewise, concerns regarding boundary adjustments linked to previous National Population Commission (NPC) exercises should be thoroughly examined to ensure that historical inaccuracies are not carried forward into the current process.
More importantly, the revelations and discoveries arising from the GPS mapping and related cartographic data presented during the delineation process should be thoroughly examined and addressed. These findings have raised questions about aspects of the fieldwork and the accuracy of certain outcomes. Rather than being dismissed, the issues identified through the GPS and mapping exercise should be independently verified and subjected to professional review. INEC should engage qualified geospatial and mapping experts to assess the observations, validate the data, and recommend necessary corrections where discrepancies are established. Addressing these concerns transparently will strengthen confidence in the process and ensure that the final outcome reflects the realities on the ground.
Fairness must also apply to representation. Where an area has legitimately increased from two units to four based on established criteria, then another area with comparable circumstances should equally be considered for an increase from four units to eight where justified by the same standards and principles. Equity demands consistency, and similar situations should be treated similarly.
The people deserve a delineation process that is transparent, credible, and free from manipulation. The objective should not be to create winners and losers but to ensure that every community receives fair recognition and representation in accordance with the law, verified data, and established facts.
Errors should be corrected where they exist, concerns should be addressed where they are valid, and justice should remain the guiding principle throughout the process. There can be no real peace without justice, and no lasting justice without fairness and truth.
