As the campaigns for Nigeria’s 2023 elections continue to heat up, Development Diaries has observed that politicians have disregarded some provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has failed to sanction any offender.
Careful observation of section 97 of this Act reveals that some politicians campaigning for the 2023 elections have violated it.
That section states that a candidate, person or association that engages in campaigning based on religious, tribal or sectional reason commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment or a N100,000 fine.
Our observations
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, played an ethnic or regional card in one of his campaign speeches in October 2022.
‘I think what the average northerner needs is somebody who is from the north, who also understands the other parts of Nigeria, and who has been able to build bridges across the rest of the country’, he said at an interactive session of the Arewa Townhall Policy Dialogue in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria.
‘This is what the northerner needs. He (the northerner) doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate or an Igbo candidate. This is what the northerner needs. I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin’.
The video of Atiku’s comment, which surfaced on social media, triggered a wave of backlash from Nigerians and political parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, the campaign of the ruling party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, has not been devoid of ethnic colouration.
During the party’s campaign rally in Ekiti State, southwest Nigeria, the former Lagos State governor urged the people of Ekiti, in his geopolitical zone, not to vote for his main challenges – Atiku and Obi – because, according to him, they do not know them.
‘One will say he is Atiku, and one will call himself Peter Obi’, he said in Ado-Ekiti. You don’t know them. The only person you know is Bola Ahmed Tinubu and you must deliver 95 percent of the votes’.
Although the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi has not explicitly made any campaign statement along ethno-religious lines, the spokesperson for the ObiDatti Presidential Campaign Council, Kenneth Okonkwo, in November 2022, warned that any Nigerian who cast his votes for Tinubu is not a true Christain or Muslim.
These are all in blatant disregard to the Electoral Act 2022; why then is INEC silent on applying the sanctions stated therein?
What the law says
Section 92 of the Act provides for the prohibition of abusive language during campaigns, with the stipulation of a N1,000,000 fine or 12 months imprisonment for offenders.
‘A political campaign or slogan shall not be tainted with abusive language directly or indirectly likely to injure religious, ethnic, tribal or sectional feelings’, the Act reads.
‘Abusive, intemperate, slanderous or base language or insinuations or innuendoes designed or likely to provoke violent reaction or emotions shall not be employed or used in political campaigns’.
Sadly, the provisions of this section have been and are still being violated by political parties, their candidates and their party supporters as mudslinging has been a constant feature in the campaigns so far.
We call on INEC to stop acting like the Electoral Act 2022 is non-existent and begin to sanction politicians who have violated various sections of the Act.
The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, should see to it that offenders are brought to book to checkmate the constant disregard of this Act.
Citizens’ duty
To the citizens, ensure you task candidates on their plans for addressing the challenges in education, security and the economy.
The 2023 elections would be Nigeria’s seventh consecutive national polls since the country returned to democracy in 1999, and it would coincide with 24 years of uninterrupted democracy, the longest in the country’s history.
Therefore, citizens should focus on the problems they are confronted with, and know how best to tackle candidates based on these problems, not ethnic or religious sentiment.
They must also resist the temptation of being carried away by the common campaign fanfare as crucial voting decisions await all Nigerians in 2023.
Photo source: INEC
