In 2015, before the Nigeria’s general election, the then President of the United States of America, Barack Obama had reminded Nigerians that “For elections to be credible; they must be free, fair and peaceful. All Nigerians must be able to cast their votes without intimidation or fear.”
To a large extent, the elections were credible and cases of violence were minimal.
While addressing some African leaders in a forum on what makes credible elections and true meaning of democracy, Obama, said: “So, we have to stop pretending that countries that just hold an election, where sometimes the winner somehow magically gets 90percent of the vote, because all the opposition is locked up or can’t get on TV, is a democracy. Democracy depends on strong institutions, and it’s about minority rights and checks and balances and freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and a free-press, and a right to protest and petition the government, and an independent judiciary and everybody having to follow the law.”
While the 2015 general election could be said to be largely peaceful, fair and credible, that cannot be said of elections that have been held thereafter.
Analysts speak in tandem that increasingly, elections in Nigeria have become shambolic. Many people are losing interest in exercising their franchise, hence the increasing cases of voter apathy across the country.
In recent times, many have moved from polling booths to the mortuary and to their grave. Voting, which ordinarily should be the simplest part of an electoral process leading up to choosing leaders, has become a risky exercise. The win-at-all-costs and by all means being introduced by desperate politicians in the last few years have not only discouraged many Nigerians from participating, but have made elections and their outcome predictable.
Observers noted that the high level of desperation to win by hook or crook began in Etiki State in July last year during the off-season gubernatorial election. It was taken to a step higher in Osun State, in the gubernatorial election that took place in September last year.
It went full blown during the 2019 general election where sponsored thugs and compromised security agents dispensed fury to supporters of some political parties. Nigerians witnessed brazen destruction of ballot papers and boxes. In some places, electoral materials were burnt and accredited voters waiting to cast their votes were threatened with sporadic gunshots and chased away. During the nationwide exercise, a huge number of people were killed and several others maimed for life.
Despite the large-scale violence and brigandage, and despite the welter of condemnation that greeted the elections locally and internationally, they (elections) were marked credible by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), results declared and the sponsors of the electoral heist are currently enjoying their “victories.”
Having set the dangerous precedent and having discovered that these days, stolen mandates are hardly reversed, politicians decided to take it to a notch higher in Kogi State. It was akin to a war situation, where desperate politicians believed that “the end justifies the means.”
While families of the slain are grieving, and mourning their loved ones, beneficiaries of the bloody exercise are clinking glasses in celebration. They are being congratulated and hailed for allegedly sponsoring thugs to demolish anything that could constitute a stumbling block to their aspiration of clinching victory.
Although the exact figure of those killed during the exercise has yet to be released by the appropriate authorities, reports put the figure at over 10 in Kogi and about three in Bayelsa State.
Apart from the people killed during the election in Kogi by men alleged to be security officers, Salome AchejuAbuh, women leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Wada/Aro Campaign Council, was killed and set ablaze in her residence, two days after the election.
It was alleged that those who carried out the dastardly act were political thugs of a party in the state. They stormed Abuh’s residence at Ochadamu in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi and carried out the barbaric act.
The social media is awash with videos of war-like situations in Kogi and Bayelsa during the elections. Uniformed men were seen shooting sporadically and leading thugs to cart away ballot boxes. In the process, a number of innocent voters were shot dead, while many sustained gunshot wounds.
Dino Melaye, candidate of the PDP in the rerun Kogi West senatorial election, accused thugs of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of killing his nephew during the election.
According to Melaye, his deceased nephew, Olorunjuwon, was shot at the senator’s polling unit Saturday but died Sunday morning.
In a few tweets, Melaye shared a video of the young man being laid to rest.
“My nephew Olorunjuwon who was shot at my polling unit yesterday (Saturday) died this morning (Sunday). My brother, your death is a Supreme sacrifice in the struggle for the liberation of our people. Rest in peace aburo…So sad,” he tweeted.
He further said: “My nephew Juwon good night. A boy, who never knew his mum, did not have the luxury of being breastfed. Yet God took care of him. Now APC thugs killed him. Avenge your death brother.”
There were also reports that two people identified as Umoru Shuaib and Faruk Suleiman were feared killed in Abocho community in Dekina council area. They were said to have been attacked by men in police uniform while voting was going on at the Barrack Polling Unit 01.
A source said, “Some able-bodied men on a bus who dressed as policemen came to the polling unit while voting was going on. Many people in the polling unit did not suspect them. The bus went too close to two young men who were discussing while the occupants of the vehicle suddenly shot them and left.”
In their separate reactions to the wanton killing of innocent people during elections, and the ugly trend elections in the country have assumed, Ayo Adebanjo, elder statesman and leader of pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, and Balarabe Musa, Second Republic governor of old Kaduna State, said urgent steps must be taken.
“Personally, I think we are just deceiving ourselves. I have said it several times that we are not serious about conducting elections in this country; the Bayelsa and Kogi were not an election? We have to change the present constitution and remove INEC from the control of the executive,” Adebanjo said.
Balarabe Musa, recommended punitive measures to check the dangerous trend of electoral violence to save the nation’s democracy.
“We have to punish anybody who is seen to be instigating violence and stop them from contesting elections. It is because we are tolerating them, that is why all these are happening. If we are serious about free and fair election in Nigeria, this ugly trend must be checked. What happened in Kogi and Bayelsa is a shame on this country,” Balarabe Musa said.
But Muhammad Adamu, the inspector-general of police, absolved his men of any wrong doing in the two states, saying that thugs who disguised as policemen caused the mayhem.
The Police Service Commission (PSC), which regulates the police as an independent government agency, also said police officers managed the elections well and cleared them of misconduct.
The PSC blamed insufficient manpower that allowed political thugs to overwhelm police officers and cause widespread chaos in Kogi.
The IGP Adamu had told journalists that the police were not surprised at the level of violence that attended the exercise in Kogi and Bayelsa.
According to him, the police conducted a “threat assessment of the two states and we realised that there was going to the violence in the two states.”
This is “Because, during the campaigns, we saw how the opponents were fighting themselves, so we prepared so much for that.
“Even at the point of signing the peace accord to conduct the election without any problems, after signing the peace accord in Kogi, within the hall there was problem by the parties. So we knew that it was not going to be easy and so we had to prepare heavily for that elections,” he said.
While exonerating his men, said: “During the elections, anybody you saw either in police uniform or military uniform that does not carry the tag that has been given for the election, that person is not genuine police officer or military officer or that he was not on official duty. Because, we were aware of the fact that or we were told that some politicians were going to sow police and military uniforms, so we devised some other means of identifying those that were on election duty.”
“We gave them tags. So, no police officers in their senses [would disrupt election] because [we] recruited and trained them before the elections to play by the rules, be professional, work within where you are posted and not beyond,” he said.
An analyst, who craved anonymity, said the ugly trend is not likely to abate since the beneficiaries have seen it is the easiest avenue to achieve electoral victory.
“Those who think that the killings would stop or that elections would be peaceful again in the country may be reveling in false hope. The party in power has discovered brigandage as the easiest way of clinching electoral victory and clinging on to power without earning it. It is going to grow worse. Already, President Buhari has assured his party leaders that the party will win 2023. But every right-thinking citizen of this country knows that the APC lacks what it takes to win an election under normal circumstances,” the analyst said.
Sounding worried at the scale of violence that has been introduced into the nation’s elections, a public affairs commentator, Damian Apah, noted that the number of people that have been killed since the Ekiti, Osun, 2019 general election and the recent Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections were more than the number of election casualties since 1999 up till now.
“If we must say things the way they are, the APC government has taken Nigeria back to the Stone Age. What surprises me is the way so-called leaders celebrate stolen mandates that came through wanton and bestial killings. What is going on is condemnable. They may go ahead and celebrate; they may go ahead and rule for 100 years, one day they will exit the power stool. We hear and read about the strongest of leaders who killed and maimed to perpetuate themselves in power; where are they today? Power is ephemeral. Kingdoms rise and wane. We shall outlive this dangerous time,” Apah said.
Apah wondered why the international community closes its eyes in the face of high level of destruction of lives and property in the name of election.
“Although the international community may not impose sanctions on Nigeria as a result of the kind of elections the country organises, it is a shame on us that in this 21st Century, Nigeria is behaving as if it is still in the Dark Ages. The current government has taken us back 100 years, and the way I see things, it will degenerate the more. But I have some questions that nobody has provided answers to. Before the Kogi and Bayelsa elections, some foreign embassies addressed press conferences, detailing what they would do to politicians that would engage in electoral fraud or violence; they said the same thing before the 2019 general election; are they deceiving us? Are they pulling wool over our eyes? Are they complicit? Why are things happening the way they are?” Apah wondered.
Gbenro Alade, a member of a civil society organisation (CSO), expressed fears that the desperation of politicians would further endanger electoral process in the country and entrench mediocre leadership.
“What we have now is not election. In the past, although there have always been political thugs, cases of violence were not widespread. They used to be spontaneous at polling centres over arguments or other issues. In fact, politicians used to engage thugs for their own protection, to avoid being attacked by opponents. But today, parties plan, make budgets and deploy huge amount of money to kill opponents, cause confusion, ensure that elections are disrupted in areas that are not their stronghold, and to emerge winner by hook or crook. We saw it in Osun; we saw it massively in 2019 general election and we saw it in Kogi and Bayelsa. It is a mockery of democracy. From all indications, it has come to stay,” Alade said.
INIOBONG IWOK (Lagos), SAMUEL ESE (Yenagoa) and VICTORIA NNAKAIKE (LOKOJA)
