Omoniyi Salaudeen
Nigeria is back again on its familiar terrain: election-induced violence. Like never before, there has been increasing apprehension among the stakeholders about the possible resurgence of violence that had always characterised the previous elections in the country.
This is further heightened by the prevailing insecurity in some parts of the country. And lately too, the shooting incident that happened in Ekiti during the campaign rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for the scheduled July poll, Kayode Fayemi.
As usual, both the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state and its rival APC have been throwing brickbats at each other over the incident that almost claimed the lives of Hon Opeyemi Bamidele, a former House of Representatives member, and five other persons.
They were shot by a trigger-happy mobile police officer who was said to have been hired from Lagos by an unknown politician to participate in the rally. The scenario remains a bad example of how not to run an effective, focused and purpose-driven security operative, especially coming from the police. It is also a sad reminder of do-or-die politics of the recent past and how security operatives mindlessly collude with politicians to do their biddings. According to reports, the officer in question was assigned to a commercial bank in Ikeja, Lagos, and had to abandon his duty post to go and cause havoc in another state.
It is a regular pattern in this country for politicians to arm their political thugs in the run up to any major election in order to gain one advantage or the other over their opponents. And in the recent times, a lot of issues have been raised about the looming danger of arm proliferation ahead of the coming general elections. Ekiti incident came as a warning signal as to what might likely play out in the 2019 general elections.
This has, accordingly, stirred up a fresh debate about the ways to achieving a violence-free election. A former Commissioner of Police in Lagos, Abubakar Tsav, in a telephone interview with Sunday Sun, expressed the urgent need for police and other security agencies to work together to disarm politicians who are in possession of illegal arms and then go further to prosecute them to serve as deterrent to others.
His words: “The situation about this violence is that all politicians have armed thugs. Unfortunately, the police and other security agencies are not doing anything about this trend. Every prominent politician has his own thugs. And their intension is always to disturb election, if they see that they are not winning and then look for legal rescue to get to office. Unless police and other security agencies get up, track these people, arrest and try them, they will not desist from perpetrating violence during elections. Those who are seeking elective positions are not doing so to help the people. They are seeking positions only to help themselves. They believe that you can only be rich, if you are a politician. People now know the sweetness of power. So, everybody wants to go in there and start making money for himself. Politicians have become contractors, they have become businessmen themselves. And that is why they get involved in violence. Unless the police and other security agencies work together to disarm these people, there will always be violence. Anybody caught with illegal possession of firearm should be taken to court.”
Tsav also blamed the impunity of politicians on corruption in the police force. “If we have an incorruptible Police Force and incorruptible judiciary, all these things will stop. All the people who possess firearms in a state are known by the commissioners of police. They know the people who own them. But either out of cowardice or corruption, they refuse to take action,” he said.
Also a retired army officer, Col Gabriel Adetunji Ajayi, lending credence to Tsav’s opinion, attributed the prevalence of violence during election to the over-bearing influence of the police in the electoral process.
“The police do not know the responsibility they owe the citizens of Nigeria. If they know their responsibility, there will be no reason for them to shoot anybody in the manner the overzealous officer did in Ekiti. Over-bearing influence of the policing system in the electoral process is one of the things that are responsible for electoral violence. Focus should be put on police who are supposed to maintain law and order during election period. People can give money to political thugs to make trouble. But if they know that we have an impartial policing system, people will be weary of causing problem. Violence has to do with the policing system. If the policing system is alright, there will be no violence.
“There has always been this trend of strong personalities arming their thugs against the people. When these thugs complete their duties, they go out of hand and start committing other crimes. These thugs are criminals and you cannot give code of conduct to criminals as to which crime they should commit or not commit. Most of these marauders we have around the country are political thugs whose owners can no longer maintain. Because they are used to a particular lifestyle, they have to find all means to sustain that lifestyle. You hear of level playing ground in politics. But we all know that there is no level playing ground in politics. You have to make the ground rough for the opponents. And one of the ways of making the ground rough is by the use of political thugs or street urchins. When elections are over, these thugs remain as criminals,” Ajayi pointed out.
To curb the trend, he said: “The police authorities should not allow police to be hired by private persons for political rally. No police should be brought from outside to come and provide security during political rally.”
The National Chairman of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie, making his own contribution, introduced a new dimension to the matter, noting that election-induced violence is a phenomenon largely prevalent in the South.
His words: “The shooting incident in Ekiti State is worrisome. It is more worrisome by the fact that the shooting was done by the police not by political thugs. If the police will be trigger happy during election, then that stands to precipitate a breakdown of law and order of the kind that the police may not have the capacity to contain. And that will be a sad note for our democracy and the 2019 elections.
“Although the police have dismissed; so they said, the officer that was involved and he is also being prosecuted to serve as deterrent. But they have to do more. They have to give their officers proper orientation for them to have minimum civilized conduct. Very soon, nationwide campaign will commence. And most times, that is where emotions boil over. If the violence that will be recorded will be the one that will be perpetrated by the law enforcement agents, that will be very sad.
“Other than that, I see a generally peaceful election because this contest is beginning to reduce for the presidency which is the highest office in the land. It is going to be reduced to two or three major candidates all from the North.”
Okorie charged the electoral body to ensure the conduct of a free, fair and transparent election.
According to him, if electronic voting is adopted, it would go a long way in curbing electoral violence.
“INEC has a lot to do to make sure there is violence-free election. A transparent and credible electoral process will remove incidence of violence. But when politicians begin to manipulate the process so brazenly, people may not be able to tolerate such brazen manipulation. This is one reason UPP and other well-meaning Nigerians have been clamouring for electronic voting.
Unfortunately, we have a National Assembly that is not sensitive to the danger ahead. If we have electronic voting, snatching of ballot boxes will no longer be possible. There will be hardly any job left for the thugs and those who trade in violence. Besides, those who do not want to expose themselves to the danger of queuing up at the polling booths will be able to vote from the comfort of their homes.
“Election violence has always been zero per cent in the North.
It is usually in the South that you have shooting incidents. If the Southern leaders will not be able to rein in our own people so that the people can vote unmolested and Northerners have unfettered access to cast their ballots, then they will determine who wins and who loses, they will determine who rules us and who doesn’t rule us. It is left for political leaders here to ensure a violence-free voting process,” Okorie admonished.
These and many more are some of the issues that would engage the minds of stakeholders as the country moves towards the next general elections. Concerns are higher now because of the already prevailing tensed security situation in some parts of the country.