News
Despicable!
Editorial
There seems no political office too low for some Nigerian power actors to get desperate in their bid to acquire. That must be why in a state house of assembly constituency by-election, no fewer than four lives were lost to thuggery and a handful of persons more with varying degrees of injury. This is both a shameful commentary on our political culture and wake-up call for better security provisioning for Nigerian elections. And going by this trend, the level of desperation that bigger elections would entail seems utterly dreadful.
The Ekiti East 1 constituency by-election last Saturday had to be suspended mid-way by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following electoral violence that the umpire said compromised the integrity of the process. That poll, meant to fill a vacancy arising from the death of the member representing the constituency in the state legislature, covered only 39 polling units spread across five wards with a total of 23,670 registered voters. But even that election – minuscular by all accounts – wasn’t spared banditry by power gladiators. Violence rocked polling units in Omuo Ekiti, with gun-wielding hoodlums striking at Unit 7 of Ward 7 of the constituency and shooting three voters dead. Six others, including two police personnel, a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), an official of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and a staff of INEC sustained gunshot wounds and were rushed to hospital. One of the police personnel, a female, has since died from her injuries.
Reports said the election got underway timely and proceeded peacefully until political thugs struck to foment violence. In calling off the poll, INEC noted that conducive atmosphere for the process couldn’t be guaranteed at the polling units and the collation centres. Speaking shortly after, INEC National Commissioner Festus Okoye said the situation was unacceptable and the commission had suspended the poll indefinitely because to continue with the process would amount to rewarding bad behaviour. He added: “INEC will never condone electoral banditry aimed at discrediting the electoral process and return predetermined outcomes. To buckle under the pressure of organised, coordinated and mindless violence will lead to, and amount to surrendering the sovereign democratic rights of the people to clean elections, and the suzerainty of anti-democratic forces.” The INEC chief challenged political parties to rise up and condemn violence in the electoral culture at a time that the commission appeared to have overcome logistical challenges and was perfecting its acts.
The morning after the botched poll, police authorities in Ekiti announced the arrest of three suspects believed to be linked to the violence, with the state commissioner of police Babatunde Mobayo pledging to bring culprits to justice. We expect him to unfailingly make good on his pledge. Earlier, politicians across the partisan divide condemned the development that they blamed on one another, and called for the perpetrators to be apprehended regardless of party affiliation. As part of the political elite’s reaction, the state governor, Kayode Fayemi, vowed that the killers and their sponsors would not go scot-free. But with heavy overhang of partisan recrimination and mutual suspicion by political actors, what is needed, in our view, is thorough and dispassionate investigation by security agencies and swift delivery of culprits to justice, to deter possible future perpetrators.
When elections are called off midstream as was done last weekend, it is a huge waste of Nigeria’s meagre resources because it costs enormous sums to plan and mobilise for polls. And all that is because politicians get too desperate for political power without willingness to submit to the ballot’s sovereignty. That can’t be accepted as norm. But also, this desperation can’t be delinked from the economics of our politics whereby a pauper could turn an overnight millionaire simply by becoming a councillor and getting some access to public treasury. As a nation, we must work at making political office sacrificial service – nothing more.
