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IT is campaign season once again and as we feared, politicians have already started their orgy of violence even with the 2023 elections still some three months away. Indeed, disturbed by the increasing incidents of violence at campaign rallies and the incendiary rhetoric by political actors only a few weeks after political parties in the country signed a Peace Accord, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently called for a meeting with the leaders of the parties in order to address the vexing issue. The INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, spoke in the aftermath of the attack on the main opposition political party, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) campaign rally by suspected thugs in Kaduna State, during which one person was feared killed. According to him, the violent scenes being witnessed at campaign venues are clear violations of the Electoral Act 2022 and negate the voluntary commitment by all political parties and candidates to the letter and spirit of the peace accord.
Said the INEC boss: “As the commission is working hard to ensure a credible process, reports of clashes among parties and their supporters are worrisome. So too is the reported denial of access to public facilities for parties and candidates in some states. Let me caution parties and their supporters to focus on issues and steer clear of attacks on each other. Parties, candidates and their supporters should not by acts of commission or omission further complicate the prevailing security situation in the country. A peaceful electioneering campaign is critical to the conduct of peaceful and credible elections. The commission will continue to monitor the situation closely and will convene a meeting with leaders of political parties next week to discuss, among other issues, the imperative of peaceful campaigns and equal access to public facilities. In same vein, the commission will also meet with the security agencies under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).”
It is indeed disturbing that across the country, politicians and their supporters are already unleashing violence on one another. In Zamfara, a clash between PDP supporters and those of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) left one person dead and 18 injured. In Lagos, there have also been reports of attacks on campaign teams. This development calls for serious counter-action. Even without the Peace Accord entered into by political parties, there are laws dealing with violence and killings anywhere in the country, and those laws ought to be applied without fear or favour. Politicians and all those who breach the law should be called to account: the laws of the land are superior to any accord, although we do not disagree with the basic sentiment behind the accord, which is the need for peaceful campaigns. There is no reason to suppose that politicians who wish to impose themselves on the people have anything reasonable to offer the society. It should be sufficiently clear by now that to the politicians, signing the peace accord was no more than a mere ceremony, a photo op. They are unwilling to let go of their accustomed criminality.
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It is certainly an embarrassment that INEC, which relies on the law enforcement agencies to even conduct elections, has to be telling security agents to do their job. Don’t the police know what to do with lawbreakers? It is a no-brainer that INEC’s summoning of political parties to upbraid and warn them about the growing resort to violence as political campaigns continue is an indication that politicians in the country will simply not abandon their proclivity for violence without active action by security and agencies like the electoral commission to punish violence on the campaign trail. The fact that the current reports of violence are coming in spite of the presidential candidates and the political parties signing a peace accord that was supposed to ensure the absence of violence in the build-up to and during the elections is significant. The implication, quite simply, is that signing peace accords without the readiness of the concerned authorities to ensure that violators are singled out and appropriately punished will not solve the problem of violence-ridden political campaign.
INEC as the supervising authority over campaigns should be vigilant in monitoring the behaviour and activities of politicians going forward, even as the security agencies should also be alive to their duties of maintaining peace and punishing those who engage in violence. Politicians should be subjected to the full wrath of the law where they go against the law, rather than being allowed to hide under peace accords while engaging in violence. Government and the security agencies have a duty to maintain peace in the society. They should curb the proclivity of politicians for engaging in violence.
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