A Peace Pact Under Threat …Still On Increasing Political Violence

January 14, 2015 marked what seemed a watershed in the political evolution of Nigeria. It was a day the top political class gave Nigerians hope of a violence-free and indeed responsible electioneering process.
The occasion was the Workshop for Presidential Candidates in Abuja, which climaxed with the signing of the now popular Abuja Peace Accord by 11 Presidential  candidates, including those of the two dominant parties, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP leader, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and his All Progressives Congress, APC counterpart, General Muhammadu Buhari.
The warm embrace, statesmanly remarks and body language did not indicate pretentious conscription nor forced indoctrination. All depicted free will, belief, willingness and indeed readiness to make the peace accord work. Essentially, both candidates spoke with mutual respect, integrity and hope for a better and indeed violence-free electioneering process up till the elections proper.
That ceremony was indeed applauded by many, with the hope that the new thinking will be driven down the ranks of the various parties, whose foot-soldiers are often unpredictable, hasty in judgement and easily given to violence.
Coming after the horrible stories of pre-election violence in Jos, the Plateau State capital and parts of Rivers State, the Abuja Peace Accord was considered very timely. In condemning the disturbances, the Inspector General of Police, IGP, had promised to fish out and punish culprits of electoral violence as a means of checking the negative trend.
The IGP’s assurance indeed served as a security backing to the Peace Accord and which gave Nigerians the impression that the remaining part of the parties’ campaigns will be violence-free, peaceful and indeed civil. Many hoped that campaign venues, individuals and property will also be made safe, since there could always be fifth columnist ready to confront good.
This is why stories of renewed political intolerance and avoidable violent destruction of property reported in Bauchi, Jigawa and parts of Rivers State should worry many.
In Bauchi State, the Presidential Motorcade conveying the PDP candidate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan came under attack by suspected hoodlums chanting anti-PDP war songs. In Jigawa, Governor Sule Lamido raised the alarm that a lot of religious sentiments were being injected into the campaigns, capable of causing violence. There too, according to media reports, the PDP campaign train came under attack.
Only on Friday, eve of the January 24, Governorship Campaign of the APC candidate, Dakuku Adulphus Peterside in Okrika unknown gunmen raided the campaign venue; Okrika National School Field at night, destroying hi-tech musical equipment, collapsible stages and a 40 megawatte sound-proof generating set hired for the event.
Early Saturday morning, as APC sympathisers counted their losses and attempted to piece-together what was left for take-off of the day’s programme, using alternative public address systems and hand-made stages, the venue came under another vicious attack, this time leaving in its trail, a huge inferno that consumed whatever was left of the campaign venue. And that day’s campaign could no longer hold as the Police went after suspects.
Naturally, in all such instances there would be name calling. But what was indeed strange was that the two dominant parties in the Okrika Local Government Area had earlier in the week carried out their ward Campaigns without any incident.
Infact, both parties had their Ogoloma Wards’ rallies on Tuesday: APC at the UNA Church School Field for Wards 10, 11 and 12 while the PDP had theirs at the three various ward – units. It was very peaceful with each party, displaying tremendous amount of responsibility.
That same spirit continued all through the week. Infact, Ex-Militant Leader, High Chief Ateke Tom, sent out a town – crier urging tolerance and peaceful campaigns to avoid any breach of peace, with the warning that any party member caught disrupting the activities of another party will be apprehended and handed over to the law-enforcement agencies.
Such was the harmony and peace that Okrika enjoyed up to PDP governorship campaigns of Thursday, January 22, at the Okrika National School Field, Okrika, two days before the APC rally scheduled for the same venue, only for the arena to come under such destruction.
These cases of violence do not reflect the spirit of the Abuja Peace Accord which the 11 Presidential candidates signed for and on behalf of their parties. They really do not support many Nigerians’ optimism that the elections would be violence-free and credible.
But it shouldn’t be so. It must be said for the umpteenth time that no individual’s ambition is worth any body’s blood. Although no human life was lost, the amount of destruction was indeed huge and could cause sudden death among proper owners.
Can it be said that these actions were ordered by the Presidential candidate? Very unlikely. Then by whom? Should any one deviate from the non-violence crusade of the candidates and at what prize? What would such a fifth columnist gain from such unauthorised violence?
Again, can the parties claim ignorance of standing ‘armies’ in the name of thugs in their ranks? Were such thugs expelled after the Peace Accord or granted amnesty to go home and rest since there would be no more work left for them to do?
No political party readily accepted the existence of such armies, not to talk of disbanding them. So where do we place the Abuja Peace Accord vis-a-vis violent characters within political parties, who in demonstration of fanatical support for their principals and parties could undertake all manner of unprintable violent actions. They could maim and destroy property even without an order as long as they feel that their self-acclaimed supremacy was under threat.
It was this understanding that stopped this writer from joining the bandwagon of optimists and believers in the Abuja Peace Accord. The top-down approach hardly records meaningful results in matters of this political nature. It is the bottom-top that is preferred.
That approach captures the people as the central focus of political activities and easily identifies violent people. If political parties are popular and properly rooted in a given area, their tendency to embrace violence would be minimal. It is instead, the one threatened by the other’s rising profile and popularity that kicks.
For the Abuja Peace Accord to be meaningful therefore, the political parties should transprint the message down to their parties’ roots, dismantle standby political militia groups, embrace issue-based campaigns, avoid inflammatory and insulting languages, eschew religious and ethnic sentiments and above all mean it.
For now, what I see is desperation among all parties, particularly the dominant ones. A desperation that depicts a win-at-all-cost mien, that runs through its membership ranks, up to the grassroots. Comments like defend your votes, depict a typical war situation where, the voters’ votes could be attacked.  And since, it is often said, that the best form of defence is attack, the affected party faithful prepares earlier for a known or imaginary enemy.
These are ways of creating political armies without arms and implanting intolerance among ordinary folks in different political parties.
Without a doubt, the Abuja Peace Accord can only have meaning if honestly and religiously enforced to the letter by the parties themselves. They should be willing to lose elections rather than fan the embers of hatred and violence.
My Agony is that no true Nigerian politician willingly loses elections by his unwillingness to defend against violence, through a little violence, by a few volunteers of violence. Fact is, violence is not often carried out by those who signed the Abuja pact, their body language and public speeches are, may be, misunderstood by volunteers of violence who act without express order.
That is the missing link and true source of worry.

Soye Wilson Jamabo

President Jonathan and Gen Buhari