The goal of politics is to organise to secure power to serve the people. Violence should not be part of the game
Nigeria is no stranger to political violence. Over the years, it has become a regular staple of electioneering campaigns, coming in form of inflammatory rhetoric, intimidation, armed conflicts between gangs of rival politicians, bombings and assassinations. However, the pattern of impunity that is being witnessed almost on a daily basis in the build-up to the 2019 general election is such that many are fervently praying that a replay of the extreme violence that dogged the exercise of 2007, where hundreds of innocent people, including National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members were killed, is not repeated.
Indeed, as the country braces for the 2019 general election, there are renewed concerns over the wave of political violence. From north to south, east and west, thugs are again being mobilised and armed to serve political ends. Penultimate Friday, emotions ran high in Ido Ekiti as the remains of the late Bunmi Ojo, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was committed to mother earth. Ojo was shot dead on 10th August by unknown gunmen. A month ago, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) meeting in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State attended by party chieftains ended in gun shots that claimed the life of Borishade Adeniyi, the Apapa Local Government PDP chairman.
Similarly, Sunny Ejiagwu, newly inaugurated APC chairman in Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State was hacked down a fortnight ago. Ejiagwu’s killing was the third in less than a month, coming barely a few days after a PDP youth leader in the state was brought down. A month earlier, Amos Akano, director-general of Ezihe Foundation, one of the groups supporting the governorship ambition of Uche Nwosu, Chief of Staff to Governor Rochas Okorocha, was kidnapped and murdered. And only recently during the by-election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to fill a vacant constituency seat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, ended in violence, just like that in Lokoja, Kogi State a week earlier, where two persons were reportedly killed.
We can go on and on to list the people who have met their death as a result of the growing political violence in the country. But more worrisome is that a recent report by United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on electoral violence risk assessment in Nigeria suggests possible escalation of electoral violence before the 2019 general election. Everywhere in the country today, there is the pervasive sense of fear and insecurity. Armed robberies, kidnappings and other allied crimes have conspired to paint a picture of a country practically at war with itself.
The brewing political violence is further intensified by the tension and deep division between the APC and the main opposition PDP. This is not helped by the prevailing atmosphere of wanton killings and deaths across the country, engendered by the Boko Haram insurgency, farmer-herdsman clashes, communal killings and general banditry – all aided by the ease with which just about anybody could access arms.
This newspaper has repeatedly maintained that electoral violence is not only a violation of the law, it also constitutes abuse of the constitutional right of the people to choose their leaders. Violence discourages political participation as it scares many away from the polls. We believe that the goal of politics is to organise to secure power to serve the people and violence and bloodletting should not be part of the game.
Our democracy is increasingly losing its shine essentially because the political parties want to be “democratic” in a manner that advances only the personal interests of some leaders and not that of the society. It is clear that with eyes to the enormous spoils of office attached to the nation’s political positions from the presidency to local councillorship, many of our politicians would do anything in order to ensure easy ride at the polls.
Given the foregoing, until political leaders imbibe a culture that puts premium on the sanctity of human lives, our democracy will remain imperilled to our collective shame.
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Electoral violence is not only a violation of the law, it also constitutes abuse of the constitutional right of the people to choose their leaders. Violence discourages political participation as it scares many away from the polls
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