Victor EzejaAHEAD of Anambra gubernatorial election, there are concerns that heavy presence of armed security operatives and the system of party politics with regard to rancourous nature of emergence of candidates during primaries, may affect outcome of the poll and consequently, post-election crisis.
Chairman Transition Monitoring Group (TNG), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani said their security risk assessment of the Anambra election shows that there is over militarization of the polity, which could affect the election process.
Rafsanjani stated this at ‘Good Morning Nigeria’ programme of Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) on Wednesday, monitored by Prime Business Africa. The programme focused on examining issues surrounding the Anambra governorship election scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 6.
“There is a serious threat to really having a peaceful, credible and fair election because of over militarization of Anambra State,” Rafsanjani stated.
He observed that with the atmosphere of insecurity in the state, there is likely going to be voter apathy as people would be afraid to come out and vote which would affect credibility of the election outcome.
Rafsanjani who is also the Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), stated that most political parties are hiring their own militia to help provide security for them, as according to him, the politicians do not believe in the capability of the Nigeria security agencies to provide adequate security for them in the course of the election.
He further noted that with the situation, people are worried that besides the threat by IPOB that people should not come out on the election day, there may be clashes between militia groups hired by different political parties which could also prevent people from coming out during the election.
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“Some of these politicians hired their own militias. The worry that people are having is that the clash between different militia groups would cause many people not to even come out. That is beside the threat or rather, instruction given by IPOB that people should not come out. You know of course that on a normal Monday when people are directed not to come out, they comply. Now let’s talk about when the place is being over militarized, you know the number of policemen that have been deployed, the number of army that are there, and other security forces. So the place will be populated by militia, IPOB, army and other security agents; so the people that will come and do the election have been shortchanged, they are already being intimidated; the environment is not free for them to come out and exercise their rights,” The TNG Chair observed.
Another factor the TNG Chair pointed out about the electioneering process in Anambra is about the nature of political parties and emergence of candidates for the election. He said most political parties are for individual businesses. He observed that instead of parties projecting candidates, what is happening in Anambra is about individuals pushing with their money, which he termed “commercialization of political parties.” Such development he said, poses a big threat to credibility of the election.
He said, “As you may recall, all the party candidates ended up in court with huge disputes, and those disputes were as a result of lack of internal democracy and refusal to allow party members to exercise their fundamental rights across the parties.
“If you look at what is going on now, the nature of the campaigns, the emergence, and the party affairs, appear to be individual business, what has actually defeated one of the major important things because the party supposed to be pushing and promoting candidates, but now what you see in Anambra is the individuals pushing because of their money, not because of their ideas on how to fix the problem in Anambra State. That is why you are seeing personalization and by the time they do that election and result of the governorship is declared, what you will see in the government that emerges is just a reflection of individualism of governance.”
He said TNG has been calling for a form of reform of political parties in Nigeria especially with regards to the emergence of electoral candidates to enable credible and patriotic individuals who are knowledgeable, experienced and committed but are not allowed anywhere near the corridor of governance to emerge for the good of the people.
“In the case of Anambra, the number of court cases regarding the emergence of candidates and all that poses a big threat to credibility and legitimacy of that election.”
The TNG Chair said because the party process is being commercialised, the incidence of vote-buying is much on course, but they are have been sensitising the people not to allow their votes to be bought as that is the only instrument they have to change the government for better.
He also observed that there is an absence of issue-based campaigns by virtually all the political parties and candidates which is also one of the major challenges in the electoral process. He said political parties are ideally supposed to engage the citizens on civic education about the need to vote and how to cast their votes and shun violent acts, but they are only interested in capturing power, adding that only civil society organizations and media that currently conducting voter education in Nigeria.
He further said they have over time observed that electoral candidates are mostly interested in taking over power and asserting themselves to advance their business interests rather than for the development of the state.
Responding to some of the issues raised about the election, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Dr Valentine Ozigbo, who joined the programme through zoom said the problem in the polity is that nobody is taking responsibility for what is going wrong especially regarding insecurity in the state, and charged the government to sit up and address critical issues in the election and welfare of the state generally.
Ozigbo said the critical factors to look at in the election are the content of character of candidates, party platforms and level of commitment of the people in the election process.
Commenting on the current administration in the state, he said leadership is about having the right person in the position, doing key things that affect the lives of the masses positively.
He alleged that there are leakages of revenue in Anambra which he said if the loopholes are plugged and the state resources are well managed, things would move on smoothly as the state would have enough to take care of its infrastructural needs.
He said that coming from private sector with his experiences, he would inject fresh ideas to revolutionise governance in the state.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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