Thuggery And 2015 Elections

As Nigerians look forward to the forth
coming general elections slated for early
2015, the assurance of a platform for the citizenry to execute their civic responsibility of choosing political leaders devoid of coercion and undue influence is fast becoming a pipe dream.
Reports of political thuggery from parts of the country are becoming rampant. Nearly every political meeting, intra and inter party disagreements and campaign result in violence or threat across the country. Not only are the youth being put to the wrong use, the attendant killings, arson and violence are unacceptable.
Only recently, a man was allegedly shot and killed in Imo State for daring to declare his intention to run for a political office. Similarly, a meeting to discuss affairs of a particular political party recently in Port Harcourt and Abuja ended up being allegedly disrupted by young people engaged by some political godfathers. Indeed, the involvement of the youth in political crises is highly condemnable.
That thugs would be unleashed on political opponents to cause mayhem and destruction, as witnessed in Edo legislative quarters recently is an example of how not to play politics. If anyone that aspires to serve the people should die because somebody else has the same dream, man would be sliding back to the state of nature.
We believe that in politics, every side should be allowed to hold its own opinion, while better and majority opinion ventilated through sound and robust debates should carry the day. This, we think is the beauty of democracy. Violence and brutal actions should never be allowed to be an option in politics.
As we expect a level playing field, devoid of threats and inhibitions in 2015, politicians must learn to sell themselves to the electorate with quality programmes and visions, and not by the force of arms and violence.
The present crop of political leaders owe Nigeria a duty of calling their supporters to order. They must not be seen to be involved in destroying the very soul of democracy, which allows everyone to freely choose his or her leader through the ballot and not by the barrel of the gun.
Even so, the youth who have always been at the receiving end of abuse of process and office in the country cannot now allow themselves to become the very foot soldiers for people they have always called corrupt politicians. They must resist the temptation to be willing tools in the hands of politicians for pittances.
The youth must know that no excuse will be good enough for contributing to the enthronement of bad politicians. Such persons, if allowed to get into sensitive positions will ultimately pull Nigeria into a situation where every citizen would suffer.
While we condemn thuggery in the nation’s political process, it is surprising that such thugs used by politicians and their sponsors are hardly exposed and brought to book. We wonder what the police and the entire security community are doing to check political violence and the activities of hired goons, a development that has always dogged the nation’s political process.
Thuggery, evidently, is a major security breach. We expect that as the nation marches toward 2015, efforts should be made to track down sponsors, agents and perpetrators of violence. Persons dealing on hard drugs and small arms must be dealt with to effectively discourage others.
Unless there was a mop-up of small arms and clamp down on drug dealers, very little can be done about thuggery. Even more important is the assurance that the law will take its full course on perpetrators of violence, no matter their status. This must be done so that people are not emboldened to cause trouble for 2015 and Nigeria.
The Tide believes that the youth ought to have advanced enough to know that thuggery is a dangerous game. They must insist on making the politicians use their children for the dirty jobs, instead of sending them abroad for protection. We expect that INEC, law enforcement agencies and society at large will do everything to single out politicians that are compromising the peace of the nation.