We have always had violence before, during and immediately after our elections. There’s hardly any of our election cycles that hasn’t come with deaths and destruction of property. The fact remains that at no time have we made serious or genuine attempt to punish sponsors and perpetrators of these heinous crimes. As a result, sponsors have become emboldened and designed new ways of achieving the same end, including killing opponents and instigating crisis in the stronghold of opponents. Incidentally, the Nigerian Electoral Offences Commission, NEOC Bill was passed by the House of Representatives in 2018. The Bill seeks to establish a Nigeria Electoral Offences Commission that will be the primary body in charge of investigating and prosecuting electoral offences created under the Constitution, Electoral Act or any other law related to Electoral Offences.
But not much has been heard of the bill let alone its implementation which would have put a check to the excesses of political actors who deliberately break the law in an effort to win an election by hook or crook. It is doubtful if the president appended his signature to the bill to make it an act. This Commission however is part of the Uwais and Lemu election reform panels. The impunity with which politicians and their agents unleashed terror on innocent citizens in the course of the 2019 general elections, makes a case for the establishment and empowerment of the Commission.
There are credible reports that many Nigerians lost their lives just because they dared to exercise their franchise. In Oyo state, a member of the House of Representatives was shot dead on Election Day, in Rivers, many people were killed, including military officers, police officers, INEC staff, politicians and voters alike. But we think that the cycle of election violence in Nigeria will come to an end only when the perpetrators of the act are brought to book in a decisive manner. Presently, political actors concentrate their efforts on challenging the outcome of the election and not the illegalities that were experienced during the exercise. The violence and climate of intimidation led to widespread fraud.
Apart from reports cited above, the most that was done to address this ugly situation is for civil society groups to write reports documenting these ills that are the real threat to the nation’s democratic aspirations. In these reports, it is acknowledged that lives were lost. Yet because of the tendency of Nigerian officialdom to place less premium on human lives, the figures end up as statistic to be referred to by writers and historians.
The only plausible reason why the killings persist is because the laws against electoral violence are not being enforced since the restoration of democracy in 1999. Nigerians know that the killing and maiming of fellow citizens during elections are against the laws of the land. Just as they also know that ballot box snatchers are acting contrary to the laws of the country. The intimidation of voters is against the law same as the deliberate confiscation of ballot papers and burning them in order to disenfranchise some voters. In spite of the awareness that those actions contravene the laws of the land, and for inexplicable reasons, those laws are not being enforced to bring the criminals perpetrating these crimes to book, they all get away with it. The laxity in law enforcement is the major reason why desperate political parties and politicians are killing Nigerians without any consequence.
Is it not strange that despite all the killings during elections in Nigeria, no major political figure has ever been held accountable? Once the elections are over, the country moves on with other things, until the next election cycle. As a priority, we are calling on the authorities to bring to justice all perpetrators of electoral violence, regardless of their political affiliation.
Political will is needed at this time. Political leaders must learn how to wield the big stick even against their own supporters. We further recommend that sponsors of violence should be made to forfeit something tangible. Political parties can be deregistered if proven to have connived to kill Nigerians. Also political. Parties and their candidates should be made to lose votes where deaths are traced to them. Losing 200, 000 votes in a state election or 500, 000 votes at a presidential election for a death is serious. Everyone will sir up. The more deaths, the more deductions. Same with violence and arson. Politicians will not like to lose votes at all. These can go a long way in bringing sanity to the system.
While we work towards establishing the commission, who can place embargo on politicians for a period of time, we must strengthen law enforcement agents to be impartial and turn down bribes.
