Let us have nonviolent campaigns

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will formally announce the start of campaigns for the 2023 general elections. Political parties and candidates will be free to campaign openly for votes.

We require an environment conducive to free canvassing, safe meetings, and soapboxing. A hooded gunman opened fire on a political party meeting venue in Enugu, according to social media. It was a sobering reminder of the unsolved political assassinations of Chief Bola Ige, Chief Marshall Harry, Chief Aminasoari Dikibo, Chief Uche Ogbonnaya, OGB; Funsho Williams, and others between 1999 and 2007.

Apart from the post-election violence in the North in 2011 and the heinous arson murder of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Woman Leader, Salome Abuh, in Kogi State in November 2019, we have had relatively peaceful campaigns and elections in the last decade.

We remind all political parties, candidates, and supporters to respect all Nigerians’ constitutional right to peaceful and lawful assembly, association, and propagation of political views, regardless of their political parties, ideologies, or where they are perceived to be from in the country.

Nobody has the authority to deny any candidate the freedom to canvass for votes or support in any part of the country. If we allow anti-democratic elements to disrupt electioneering activities in any part of the country, it might lead to retaliatory measures which will not bode well for free and peaceful campaigns.

We must not yield to the temptations of self-help as this will breed anarchy. It will also worsen inter-ethnic and regional hatred which are weapons that evil politicians and leaders have used to perpetuate themselves in power at the expense of good and accountable governance.

After all, at the end of every election, the winners hypocritically sue for “peace and unity” though they rode on the crest of violence, religious, regional and ethnic divisions during the campaigns.

We urge President Muhammadu Buhari to take the lead in ensuring safe, free, and fair elections in 2023. He owes it to Nigerians to ensure that the transition to the next government is peaceful, orderly, and smooth. He should be a statesman with a historical perspective, not a partisan politician. Nigerians have granted him the coveted two-term presidency. It is now his turn to repay by ensuring that the upcoming elections are better than the ones that brought him to power in 2015.

The police and security agencies should apprehend the perpetrators of the Enugu gun attack as soon as possible. If they and their supporters get away with it, gun violence could take center stage.