With the clock furiously ticking towards the 2027 general elections, violence is gradually but alarmingly seeping into the electioneering process, putting an entire country on notice about the work that remains to be done to sanitize Nigeria’s electoral space.
Around the country, political gatherings and campaigns are already being tainted by allegations of violence resulting in death in a few instances. These simply cannot be accepted, and Nigerians as a whole should reject what is shaping up to be another violent election season.
Elections should consist of votes not blood. People should be allowed to form their choices and not forced into their early graves because they have decided to enjoy their constitutional rights.
While it is true that bloodshed has drastically reduced in Nigerian politics, there is still a lot of work to be done before Nigeria can be said to be out of the woods electorally. The fact that people prepare or go to the polls subconsciously expecting violence or preparing to resort to violence indicts Nigeria’s entire electoral process. Why should people be entitled to think that what they cannot get through the free will of people could be taken at gun or knife point?
Nigerians must brace themselves to eschew the mentality of winning at all costs. Democracy dignifies people. As the very antithesis of autocracy and every other form of dictatorship, democracy gives people the basic dignity of raising their voice and registering their presence. With this in mind, the politics that prop up democracy ought to be played with dignity and decorum.
Consequently, every manner of attack on individuals or property simply because they belong to different political divides can simply not be tolerated. Difference is not the enemy in a democracy. What must be considered an enemy to be dislodged is the disease of dysfunction.
Parties must leash their thugs.
Unfortunately, decades of decadent unemployment and underdevelopment have bred an army of unemployed youth in Nigeria who do not think twice before stepping into the role of thugs to be deployed for destabilization during elections. Every political party in Nigeria usually has access to these thugs who respond to the highest bidder. But all political parties must leash their thugs. No legitimacy can come from snatching ballot boxes or intimidating voters.
Nigeria’s security agencies must also brace themselves to defend Nigeria’s democracy without fear or favor while bearing true allegiance only to the constitution. While it is clear that they already have their hands full with terrorists, no free and fair election can happen in an atmospheree of raging insecurity.
There is a sense in which Nigeria is long overdue for an appreciable level of electoral maturity. People should approach elections without fear of violence. To achieve this, all those who plot and perpetrate violence just before elections or during elections must be stopped in their tracks.
Shedding even a single drop of blood before, during or after any election already irreversibly taints the electoral process. No genuine triumph can come from a process soaked with blood.
Bearing these in mind, Nigerians must renounce election-related violence in favour of free and fair elections where no vote is borne out of perceived danger or forged by intimidation.
Ike Willie-Nwobu is a policy practitioner and social thinker who can be reached at ikewilly9@gmail.com
