PUAN AG Addresses Members

Polling Unit Ambassadors of Nigeria (PUAN).

Thursday November 23rd, 2022.

My Dear Ambassadors of PUAN Worldwide.

I address you all today as your Ambassador General from the National Headquarters of the Polling Unit Ambassadors of Nigeria (PUAN) Abuja, Nigeria.

First, I must commend all PUAN Ambassadors in Nigeria and in the Diaspora for your commitment, determination, passion and dedication towards building a better electoral system in Nigeria.

Your faith, patience and love towards the PUAN project is highly commendable and appreciated. Many thanks to each and everyone of you.

Your sacrifices and worthy contributions towards driving the PUAN aims and objectives without any financial gratification is noble, outstanding and worthy of commendations.

Your sacrifices in especially this regard is what sets you apart from just any Nigerian.

I urge each and everyone of you to maintain and refine this spirit of patriotism, true leadership and nobility.

We must understand that our committment, competency, dignity, integrity and reputation as PUAN Ambassadors must not be compromised.

We must strive to maintain the professionalism with which our operations are carried out – we mustn’t forget that as political change agents, our loyalty lies with the people. Our projects must continually be executed with the interest of the people in mind.

We must understand that we’ve achieved so much in such short time because we have been able to leverage integrity and neutrality in our fight for the oppressed, the voiceless and the downtrodden Nigerians who have suffered the brunt of a messy electoral system for the longest of times.

Our place in the spotlight, ahead of other prominent electoral reform organisations and groups in Nigeria, is as a result of our insistence on fighting for the rights of the common man.

As we journey on in this new era of our general election in 2023, we must be reminded of the goals and objectives of PUAN as outlined below:

• To Liberate Nigerians from the shackles of bad leadership and artificial poverty by focusing on the issues of bad electoral system in Nigeria.
• Promoting democratic principles and encouraging equality in our national democratic processes.
• Promoting transparency and accountability in governance by sensitizing, encouraging and mobilizing the Nigerian electorate at the Polling Unit Communities to vote for credible leaders that will deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.

As we keep at our journey to the promised land, we must understand that many will be called but few will be chosen. PUAN is not an organization with much interest in numbers.

PUAN shall build its organizational strength and structure on commitment, competency, dignity, integrity and everything that’s premium-character related.

This is a journey of God’s vision for Nigeria in particular and the continent of Africa at large.

Having suffered for far too long from bad leadership and all its attendant problems, it’s time we rescue our continent out of the shoel of bad and near autocratic leadership.

NATIONAL SENSITISATION ROAD WALK

THEME: SAY NO TO VOTE BUYING & VOTE SELLING.

The National Sensitisation Road Walk against Vote buying and Vote Selling will commence in Abuja November 30th, starting with a press conference on November 29th.

The National Sensitisation Road Walk is scheduled to start from the Unity Fountain Abuja to the National headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, where a RED FLAG will be handed over to the INEC CHAIRMAN symbolising the collective will and power of the people against Vote buying and Vote Selling in the 2023 general election and beyond.

The RED FLAG also empowered the INEC CHAIRMAN to deal decisively without any fear or favour to all who indulge themselves in such nefarious activities.

The walk will proceed from INEC National Headquarters to the National Assembly where the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of representatives will also be handed the RED FLAG.

The RED FLAG here is also symbolic.

PUAN is cautioning Nigerian politicians on the danger associated with Vote buying and Vote Selling especially with regards to the 2023 general election.

We must congratulate INEC for the successes recorded with the Bvas machine.

We must together STOP the VOTE TRADING.

All our Inaugurate State Chapters are advised to commenced this National Sensitization Road walk within the first 2 weeks in the month of December by presenting RED FLAGs to the States Resident’s Electoral Commissioners (REC) and Speakers of State House of Assemblies.

Vote buying and Vote Selling must be stamped out of our democratic process.

INAUGURATIONS

I congratulate all inaugurated States of the Polling Unit Ambassadors of Nigeria, and I deeply appreciate your commitment and doggedness towards the success of these inaugurations.

It’s a known fact that preparations for inaugurations could be very challenging and a bit stressful but the ingenuity of especially our planning committee made the financial responsibility of these inaugurations less cumbersome.

Although PUAN has established its presence in all the 36 States in Nigeria, and the FCT, she has also been able to officially inaugurate 30 States, along the levels of National Executives, Zonal Executives, State Executives, Senatorial Executives, Area Executives (LGA), Ward Executives and Polling Unit Ambassadors.

Please find below the number of Inaugurated States in Nigeria and dates.

1. PUAN Akwa Ibom State Chapter was the first to be Inaugurated on Wednesday 14/02/2019.
2. PUAN Lagos State was Inaugurated on Saturday 27/07/2019.
3. PUAN Rivers State was inaugurated on Saturday 30/11/2019.
4. PUAN Taraba State was inaugurated on Saturday 14/12/2019.
5. PUAN Delta State was inaugurated on Monday 23/12/2019
6. PUAN Ogun State was inaugurated on Wednesday 12/02/2020
7. PUAN Borno State inaugurated on Saturday 07/03/2020
8. PUAN Zamfara State inaugurated on Sunday 15/03/2020.
9. PUAN Ondo State Inaugurated On Friday 04/09/2020
10. PUAN Katsina State Chapter Inaugurated On Wednesday 02/12/2020
11. PUAN Oyo State Inaugurated on Friday 04/12/2020
12. PUAN Kwara State Inaugurated On Saturday 05/12/2020
13. PUAN Cross River State Inaugurated On Thursday 10/12/2020
14. PUAN Yobe State Inaugurated On Wednesday 16/12/2020
15. PUAN Kaduna State Inaugurated On Sat. 30/01/21.
16. PUAN Kano State Inaugurated On Sun. 31/01/21.
17. PUAN Sokoto State Inaugurated on Sat. 20/03/21.
18. PUAN Osun State Inaugurated On Friday 26-03-2021
19. PUAN Adamawa State Inaugurated On Thursday 01-04-2021
20. PUAN Plateau State Inaugurated On Saturday 22-05-2021
21. PUAN Benue State Inaugurated On Saturday 10–07–2021
22. PUAN Ebonyi State was inaugurated on Thursday, 14/10/21
23. PUAN KOGI STATE was Inaugurated on Saturday 23/10/2021
24. PUAN Anambara state was Inaugurated on Friday 17/12/2021
25. PUAN Ekiti State was Inaugurated on Thursday 10/02/2022.
26. PUAN Bayelsa State was Inaugurated on Wednesday June 1st, 2022.
27. 27 PUAN FCT Abuja was on the Inaugurated on Saturday 22/10/2022
28. 28 PUAN IMO State was Inaugurated on Thursday 27/10/2022
29. PUAN Enugu State was Inaugurated on Saturday 29/10/2022
30. PUAN Edo State was Inaugurated on Saturday 19/11/2022

By Saturday November 25th, Bauchi State will be Inaugurated to join the PUAN family.

By December 2022, PUAN plans to recruit and train 884,230 Polling Unit Ambassadors (PUAs) to cover effectively the 176,846 Polling Units across the 774 LGAs in Nigeria. This is in preparation for the 2023 general elections.

These Ambassadors would be trained on the how, where and why of carrying out electronic observations and reporting from the polling units to a cloud server in real time.

This is to enable us capture all election proceedings and activities in real time on election Day.

Addressing Electoral Malpractices is our ultimate priority and goal.

The electorate must be the ultimate deciders of every election process in Nigeria.

These Ambassadors would be exposed to electoral matters on sensitisation and mobilization of electorates for the goal of promoting democracy and good governance.

For a very effective work, concerned Ambassadors will be equipped with an electronic data capturing device for a real time data capturing and transmission of election results and other election proceedings to our hosting platforms for the pursuance of a free, fair, transparent and people oriented election.

Just like the layman would say, “No magu magu, no compromise.”

Nigerian electoral system must change for the greater good of our people.

PUAN has a strategic plan of adopting all PVC’s holders in various Polling Unit communities as PUAN members, NOT as PUAN Ambassadors.

PUAN plans to build Polling Unit Community Structure to tackle election malpractice, promote good governance, encourage youth and community political participation, promote democratic dividends at community levels and deepening democratic process at polling unit communities.

1million voluntary community Ambassadors will be recruited to manage and trained community leaders at community levels for Ownership and development of their community.

We will inturn issue them a PUAN membership card as stipulated in the PUAN constitution, article 7.1 to 7.2.8.

PUAN is a project for the people, and it is only fair that it is ran and managed by the people. Ours is a systematic takeover of the Nigerian political architecture for the Nigerian masses.

As we make the necessary strides towards the achievement of our goals, it is important that Ambassadors and intended ones are fully committed to very few financial obligations.

For all intended inaugurated Ambassadors, it is expected that you pay a sum of #1500 NGN to get PUAN identity card and inauguration certificate.

Other financial obligations that may come up will be for the planning of the inauguration ceremony.

All PUAN materials including inauguration materials are produced by PUAN National Headquarters.

No PUAN materials MUST be produced outside the National Headquarters of PUAN.

Violators of this law will be prosecuted.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PUAN CONSTITUTION
Starting January 1st, 2022, the PUAN constitution has come into full gear on all PUAN Ambassadors, home and abroad.

All Deputy Ambassador General’s (DAGs) and Diaspora Chapter coordinating Ambassadors are hereby advised to commence collation and compilation of personal data of all PUAN Ambassadors in their respective zones for onward transmission to PUAN National Secretariat.

A copy of this personal data should also be made available in all Wards, LGA, Senatorial, State and Zonal Secretariats of PUAN for administrative purposes.

Starting January 1st, 2022, all PUAN Ambassadors from National Officer’s to Polling Unit Ambassadors shall commence the payment of monthly dues.

All categories of dues and penalties are specified in article 19.2.1 to 19.2.13 of the PUAN Constitution.

As we move into the next phase of the PUAN project for performance, partnership and benefits to all committed chapters of PUAN, it is important that we create a financial system, no matter how small, to help us secure meaningful grounds.

All PUAN inaugurated chapters should have had their bank accounts opened and operational for all PUAN financial-related transactions.

Financial transactions to personal accounts relating to all PUAN activities is prohibited in PUAN.

Violating the above directives will attract penalties and sanction.
This is to encourage financial transparency and accountability.

Instructions on account opening is addressed in article 20 to article 21.10 of the PUAN Constitution.
To avoid penalties and sanctions, every step in this section of the article MUST be adhered to strictly.

PUAN National Director of Finance and Account, PUAN National Treasurer and PUAN National Director Monitoring, Evaluation and Compliance are hereby advised to monitor the above processes for full Compliance.

Through partnership and a worthy engagement with relevant authorities and other electoral reform organisations, PUAN hopes to change the tide of certain anomalies that have prevailed in our democracy.

By staying on course the PUAN purpose of creation, we are certain that one step at a time, we would address electoral malpractices in Nigeria and by extension, Africa.

Below are some of the steps we have taken towards the achievement of our grand goals:

PUAN/INEC Partnership and Collaboration.
PUAN has been able to build a strong relationship with the commission. The commission (INEC) has come to embrace the goal of PUAN in the pursuance of true democratic principles by giving power back to the people.

The commission, INEC, is pleased about working with PUAN in building of a better and stronger electoral system in Nigeria.

PUAN in such a short period of time, has Observed over 16 Bye Elections and 3 Governorship Elections for the commission with an unbiased election observation reports submitted to the commission INEC.

These reports have been very credible and useful to the commission.

Few among this reports, is our very honest suggestions to the commission on ways to tackle VOTE TRADING.

1. Provide Curtain blind to cover the open space on the voting cubicle to avoid party agents seeing through the cubicle by this exposing the secrecy of the voter.
2. Provide Envelop inside the cubicle for all voters, all thump printed ballot paper MUST be put inside an envelope before the voter proceed to put the ballot paper inside the ballot box outside of the cubicle.

Coming out of the cubicle with the ballot paper NOT in an envelope should be considered as a Crime and violator arrested.

Implementation of the above recommendations will reduced VOTE TRADING in our democratic system.

Partnership and Collaboration with Development Partners

PUAN has been working towards a mutually beneficial collaboration with some development partners.

As we work towards the success of this partnership and collaborations, PUAN will continue to provide its committed Chapters with moral, technical and financial support.

We are certain that this collaboration and partnership is on the path of yielding positive results.

Article 25 of the PUAN constitution has clearly spelt out the benefits and rewards to PUAN committed Chapters, members and Ambassadors.

Outside this constitutional package, their may be financial and other material rewards that the organisation might introduce during her yearly programs to help appreciate and motivate worthy Ambassadors and Chapters of PUAN in their efforts of driving the objectives of PUAN.

THE AFRICAN EXPANSION
PUAN is an African project starting from Nigeria.

By the Grace of God, I am happy to announce to you the newly born African child into this great vision, Polling Unit Ambassadors of Ghana (PUAG).

PUAG Ghana was created in Accra on Thursday, the 25th day of November, 2021.

Just like PUAN Nigeria, PUAG Ghana is committed to the pursuance of good governance through electoral reforms.

As I write, we already have proposals for opening Polling Units in Niger, Liberia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Togo and Benin Republic.

5 years from now, Africa will be engulfed with this vision for the promotion of democracy through the establishment of democratic principles for good governance.

As we looked forward to spreading our tentacles into more countries in the years ahead, we are more than certain that God will go before us.

With your continuous prayers, commitment, and support, we believe that this and more are achievable.

As we journey this route for posterity, I pray for God’s protection and provision in all of our endeavours.

Compliments of the season to you, your families and friends.

Long live Polling Unit Ambassadors of Nigeria PUAN

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Amb. Capt. Dabas Suleiman
Ambassador General PUAN