While the campaign season for the February 2023 general election officially kicked off on Wednesday, September 28, 2022, some Nigerian politicians have made clear what to expect from their actions and rhetoric in recent weeks. What campaign managers seem ready to accept is not a contest of ideas and questions, but intolerance and how to throw dirty water at each other.
A major political party’s presidential candidate has claimed that some of his party supporters were attacked and injured by hired political thugs believed to be loyal to a party to prevent them from holding rallies in Lagos State. Likewise, hooligans and the police were sent to disrupt the peaceful one-million-man march organised by a political party in Ebonyi State. These developments are worrisome. Every Nigerian is entitled to the protection of the government.
All these travesties of democracy come at the start of a political campaign season that will lead up to the 2023 election. The aforementioned threats, aggression, hooliganism and violence in Lagos and Ebonyi States and elsewhere are a major setback to Nigeria’s democracy, to say the least. If left unchecked, this devilishness could grow into a gigantic monster that could spark further crises across the country.
Therefore, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must remind gladiators and political parties of their obligation to show tolerance for one another and conduct a decent campaign following the code of conduct for the election. INEC, the government, law enforcement agents, and relevant stakeholders must provide proportional opportunities for all candidates and their respective parties.
Shockingly, after 22 years of constitutionalism, Nigerian democracy has not gone beyond the weaponisation of threats, intimidation and violence in deterring political opponents or disrupting their activities. As a country, we still have a long way to go. We pontificate over the same issues, fooling ourselves.
Driven by an excessive thirst for power, pomp, property and quick money, some dirty politicians are still using threats, intimidation and violence to grab political power. Indeed, Machiavellianism still reigns supreme in our national politics. Political parties must not succumb to threats, violence, aggression and hooliganism. They should resist them and work harder to win the next election.
The right to campaign for election is a fundamental right of all political parties. This is part of the freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of association and freedom of thought and conscience enshrined in the 1999 Constitution. Hence, anything that prevents them from carrying out their legal acts or deprives them of a level playing field violates the Electoral Act and is thus illegal and unconstitutional.
In addition to threats and intimidation, politicians have made a habit of empowering their political mobs to take off or destroy campaign banners or billboards hung by other parties. It does not make sense. Ours is a multi-party and multi-religious system. Consequently, it is unreasonable for one party to be a nuisance to other parties or disrupt their political activities.
It is for this reason that the Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, recently signed Executive Order 21, prohibiting the use of public schools for political activities without approval from the Ministry of Education. Contrary to presumptions, the Order is not intended to halt campaigning in the state. Instead, it aims to regulate them and hold political parties accountable in the event of a breakdown in law and order. Wike’s proactive move is what is expected of the country’s leaders at this critical time.
As people who belong to the same country, we need each other in socialisation and the political process, even though our tribes, languages and religions may be different. By using threats and violence to disrupt political campaigns, politicians are conveying the impression that they are incapable of winning an election except through savagery, rigging, gerrymandering and manipulation.
The current Electoral Act prescribes punishment for such threats and violence. Section 116 stipulates that: “Any person who, at a political meeting — (a) acts or incites another to act in a disorderly manner for the purpose of preventing the transaction of the business for which the meeting was convened, or (b) has in his possession an offensive weapon or missiles, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both”.
President Muhammadu Buhari and state governors should level the playing field for all candidates. Our political leaders should be cautious in their comments and always seek to deepen the electoral process. Moreover, no political party or candidate should be denied access to state-owned facilities to campaign. Political parties and their candidates do not need police permission to organise campaigns or rallies.
The entire provisions of Sections 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 and 96 of the Electoral Act are designed to deal with the recurring problem of denial of access to public facilities and media platforms. They are mandatory for unhindered access to state-owned or publicly owned venues and event centres, such as stadiums, and civic centres that can be used as venues for rallies or other such political events, as well as access to public media platforms and also provisions for equal airtime parity for candidates.
In the past few months, the social media platforms have been plunged into a degenerate form of political debates, with supporters of the respective presidential candidates in the country engaged in invectives, mudslinging, and name-calling with incisive vituperation. Politicians should rein in their supporters. No electoral event worthy of the name can proceed in chaos. Putting in place a punitive measure for the violation of the Electoral Act by overzealous candidates and their supporters is the way forward.