In preparation for the 2015 general election, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has asked all the political stakeholders to ensure that there is fair play in their conduct during and after the elections.

The editors, in a communiqué issued after their last quarterly meeting for 2014 in Lagos and signed by their President, Femi Adesina, argued that there was need to ensure that the elections were conducted in an orderly manner because Nigeria’s reputation as well as that of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were at stake.

“With the shoddy arrangements in the issuance of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs), there is urgent need for INEC to redeem the process by ensuring that eligible voters are not disenfranchised,” they said.

The editors advised the political class, security agents and the electorate to “be cautious in their utterances, abide by the rules of campaigning and exhibit tolerance before and during the elections to avoid over-heating the polity.”

While maintaining that the security agencies in particular, should be non-partisan, the editors lamented that insurgency has lasted for too long in the northern part of the country, especially in Nigeria’s North-east, decrying its attendant huge death toll and massive number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

“The crises call for harmonisation of efforts, change of tactics and a review of the country’s security architecture to win the war,” they wrote.

On the dwindling economic fortunes of Nigeria, the guild noted that the sudden sharp fall in global oil prices was a wakeup call on the federal government to urgently go beyond rhetorics by developing economic policies and measures to diversify the economy.

“The federal and other arms of government must take drastic actions to reduce the huge cost of governance, particularly in the face of recently announced austerity measures.” The editors said.

Also on the just released November/December results of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the guild wrote that the high failure rate was believed to be “symptomatic of the decay in the education sector,” and therefore called for “increased allocation to the education sector, and training and retraining of teachers.”

Appreciating the unifying role of sports globally, the guild lamented that “as the Nations Cup kicks off in this month, our national team, Super Eagles and defending champions will be conspicuously absent at the AFCON tournament. The football authorities are therefore urged to resolve all issues bedeviling the nation’s sports sector with promptitude.”