AS Nigerians head to the polls early next year, they should be conscious of the need to break the cycle of violence that has perpetually held the country hostage and cast a shadow on the credibility of her elections. In the conduct of elections, Nigerians have continually defied the logic in the saying that practice makes perfect. Rather than improve, fresh polls appear to be worse than their predecessors, much to the chagrin of the legion of foreign observers that usually flock to the country during elections.
The Independent National Electoral Commission last week declared the coast clear for campaigning. But the political actors have to ensure that it is not going to be business as usual. All too often, elections at every level are turned into battlefields, hallmarked by violence, which, in extreme cases, result in avoidable loss of lives, for which the perpetrators are often not held accountable. Failure to arrest and prosecute perpetrators, a major deterrent, further emboldens criminal elements who come out in a more daring fashion in future polls. Thus, violence and electioneering in Nigeria have become so intertwined that, like Siamese twins, they are simply inseparable. This should not be the case for a country desirous of development and courting international respect.
At any election, the trajectory of violence seems to be clear. Violence is expected in the run-up to elections, during elections and post-election. In the aftermath of the 2011 presidential election contested principally between the current President, Muhammadu Buhari, and his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, no fewer than 800 people lost their lives, according to the account of a global rights group, Human Rights Watch. Among victims were National Youth Service Corps members, who usually form the core of the ad hoc staff deployed during elections.
Although not as deadly as the 2011 polls, the 2015 elections also had their own flaws, with the National Human Rights Commission stating in a pre-election report that 58 people died between December 3, 2014 and January 31, 2015. The South-West, the report claimed, had the highest number of 28 deaths.
To win elections in the country, candidates have to master the art of ballot box snatching and stuffing, kidnap of political opponents, rewriting result, shooting to scare away voters and intimidate security officials, and vote buying, among other vices. While in civilised societies, where elections produce those that would serve the electorate, there is maximum safety for lives during elections, in Nigeria, where the purpose is mainly to install treasury looters, the exercise, in all its ramifications, is not for the faint-hearted.
Already, Nigeria’s tricky political landscape has consumed many victims, including a sitting Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, who was gunned down right in his house; and Lai Balogun, a former presidential aspirant. Other victims of political murder include frontline South-South politicians, Aminasoari Dikibo and Harry Marshall. In Lagos, Ogun and Ekiti states, Funsho Williams, Dipo Dina and Ayodeji Daramola were killed as they were warming up for elections in their respective states, while in Anambra, an outspoken lawyer and chairman of the Onitsha branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Barnabas Igwe, and his wife were brutally murdered and their bodies run over by a car. These are but a few in an embarrassingly long list of politicians that have been assassinated in the country while their killers remain at large.
Surprisingly, this is not limited to politicians. Even security personnel, who are supposed to protect the rest of the society, are not spared. A typical example of this was recorded during an election rerun in Rivers State, where a police officer, Alkali Mohammed, was not only killed, but reportedly beheaded in December 2016.
In its report on the 2011 polls, the HRW called for the arrest and prosecution of the killers and asked the government to address the underlying causes of violence. Obviously, the call has been largely ignored even as the factors responsible for the act continue to mushroom. For instance, the serious issue of arms proliferation has only received a cursory attention. Sometimes, illegal arms bearers who manage to get caught are freed in a public ceremony in the name of an amnesty offer. As long as they surrender a few weapons in their arsenal, they are asked to go and sin no more. Nigeria is said to be home to more than 70 per cent of the 500 million illegal small arms and light weapons in West Africa.
The culture of violence has to stop. In a May 11 incident in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the premises of a court was turned into a war zone when rival political party thugs unleashed mayhem on anybody within sight in an obvious desecration of the temple of justice. The invading hoodlums ensured that the court could not give its verdict on a pre-election matter. Video clips of the incident showed a complete breakdown of law and order. Vandalised vehicles and other property littered the premises as evidence of the deadly confrontation.
Besides, political office has remained too lucrative. In fact, very few jobs, if any, in the country are as rewarding as occupying a political office. For instance, the Economist Intelligence Unit, an arm of The Economist of London, confirmed in 2013 that Nigerian legislators were among the highest paid in the world. A governor in Nigeria also boasts huge free money, which is never accounted for, as security vote. With such perquisites, desperate politicians are ready to kill to get to office.
For the incumbent, the tendency has always been to use the levers of state power to gain advantage during elections. For instance, this is usually the time to use the police and the anti-graft agencies to intimidate opponents. Buhari has the responsibility to ensure that next year’s elections are peaceful and devoid of rancour.
To start with, offenders have to be prosecuted. During the infamous 2007 elections superintended by Maurice Iwu, over 800,000 electoral offenders, including a deputy governor who was openly shown hijacking ballot boxes on national television, were indentified. With the police, the constitutionally acknowledged body to arrest, investigate and prosecute such offenders, not forthcoming with its responsibilities, nothing has been heard about the fate of such people. This is not good enough.
In Ghana, where the electoral body has remained truly independent with democratic culture firmly berthed, a high level of maturity and credibility has been brought into electioneering. Governments can be – and indeed have been – changed in that country’s elections without any bloodbath. That should be the benchmark for Nigeria.
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