The path to this Saturday’s State House of Assembly elections in Kogi
State, and the expectations for a peaceful process among even the most
optimistic among us, now points to a need for intense worry.
Elections provide a means by which competition in society can be
channeled into a constructive process with common rules to choose
representatives of the people. Robust democratic institutions are
usually understood as the ultimate guarantor for social peace.
What is more, if parties and candidates manage to trade the key issues
in contention, if they appreciate the organic link between elections
and democracy, it will be clear, at the very least, that the two
critically absent elements in our governance mode today– development
and security– can only be restored through an election defined by
integrity.
Whatever our differences as a people, and there are many, electoral
violence is not one of the solutions. What will solve the problem of
inequity in the polity, of poverty, of improving governance, of
empowerment for the marginalized segments of our community, of
corruption, and development, is democracy, which is made possible only
when we have an election with integrity.
In few instances – the Governor’s appointees have made derogatory
remarks capable of inciting the public and have also made infamous and
unlawful arrests of well meaning Kogites. However, Governor Yahaya
Bello has maintained silence and refused to reprimand nor sack his
appointees, fueling the claim that these disparaging comments have
his approval and are an expression of the mind of the governor.
Toward this end, political, religious and traditional rulers must
educate their followers on the need to show restrain. Elections are
popularity contests not tests of terror. Those who lose can wait for
another cycle and that’s the beauty of the game. It is not, as we say,
a do or die affair.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, on its part, must
conduct an election that is beyond reproach. It must avoid the
tardiness that leads to late arrival of voting materials, insufficient
ballots and personnel and thus a disenfranchised and disaffected
voting population.
People are more likely to abide by the results of an election if they see evidence that the elections are free and fair.
The security agencies should review the response time to distress
calls and swiftly bring to book their agents found compromising. They
must be transparently neutral.
Yet, the cycle of election violence might not end until the security agencies are able to arrest and bring electoral offenders to book. The fact that they are election offenders does not make them special; when a person has killed another person it does not mitigate the seriousness of the offence because it happened during elections.
In the same manner, the disruption of lawful public gathering or destruction of government property does not make the offence lighter because it took place during elections. People have to be apprehended and made to face the law, no matter the situation.
To this end, the candidates of the state house of assembly across the
state must reign in their attack dogs. If they only take time to publicly rebuke and dissociate themselves from any supporter who uses
vile language, they would have sent the right signals that violence
has no justification in matters of election.
To be sure, democracy is not a magic bullet. It is the outcome of trials and errors. What is clear though is that it works, and no other system of government known to mankind has proved better or superior to it.
– Emmanuel Balogun writes from Kabba, Kogi State.
