EDITORIAL: Halting the scourge of violence towards the 2027 polls

Gathering political dark clouds, expressed in routine violence and killings in Nigeria, should awaken political leaders to the dangers that lie ahead of the 2027 general elections. They are clear signals of an ambush being laid against our democratic system. A collective resolve to play the game according to the rules and save the country from a much bigger firestorm, is the urgent advocacy of PREMIUM TIMES.

Join the Premium Times WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.

Open in WhatsApp

Clearly, a disturbing level of wrangling defines both the ruling political party and the opposition platforms, in their inter- and intra-party activities. Most – if not all – of the political parties are witnessing violence and vicious forms of aggression and thuggery as we approach the period of the party primaries. In addition, the opposition parties are facing additional pressure, as there appears to be a plot by the ruling party to destabilise and break them up by sowing rancour within their ranks. This strategy is said to include the sponsoring of internal feuds and the use of judicial ambush to frustrate the ambitions of these parties to contest for power. This could be considered as nothing short of an orchestrated attempt to destroy democracy in the country.

In this context, it was no surprise that on 24th February, forces suspected to be ruling party supported thugs deployed political violence by attacking a meeting of leaders of the major opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Benin, Edo State. They had turned up to welcome Olumide Akpata to their fold as he defected from the Labour Party (LP). The event ended in disarray as vehicles were smashed, chairs and canopies were broken, while sporadic gunshots forced all participants to scamper for safety.

As the storms unfolded, ADC chieftains – Peter Obi, Oserheimen Osunbor and John Oyegun, all former governors of Anambra and Edo states – smelt a rat and disappeared into Mr Oyegun’s residence in Benin City. Yet, the thugs stuck hot on their heels and riddled the Iron Gate at Mr Oyegun’s house with bullet shots. Mr Akpata, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), was LP’s candidate in the last September governorship poll in the state, which Monday Okpebholo won to become the incumbent.

A similar gruesome script was enacted in Ondo State, a little earlier on 18 February, when the All Progressives Congress (APC) held its ward congresses. Two people were shot dead, five others were injured and hospitalised, while one person sustained a machete cut, and a car was burnt. The atrocities bore the clear imprint of an intra-party feud, and the state party chairman, Ade Adetimehin, who was beaten up, sent an SOS to the president and leadership of the party “to step in before the situation (got)…out of hand.”

In Okigwe, Imo State, two ADC leaders – Esther Chiemezie Ijeoma, a woman, and Ambrose Ndukwe, a man – were shot dead on 30 January by yet-to-be identified assailants. In Bakassi, Cross River State, thugs converged on the party secretariat, chased out members, dismantled canopies, destroyed chairs, whilst shouting that ADC would never be allowed to operate in the area.

This high-level political intolerance was equally displayed in Rivers State, when former governor and minister, Rotimi Amaechi’s convoy was attacked by gunmen on 5 March, on his way to the ADC secretariat for the electronic registration of his membership at Ubima community in Ikwere Local Government Area.

Stay Ahead with Premium Times

Add as a preferred source on Google

Democracy is governed by a set of attributes, which includes broad-mindedness, respect for the rule of law, freedom of association/movement, a multi-party system that ensures tolerance and competition, the protection of rights, citizens’ participation and, above all, free and fair elections. Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, guarantees the right of freedom of movement. This cannot be abridged by any individual.

For this reason, we dare say that Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State’s stoppage of Peter Obi’s visit to IDP camps in April 2025, and Governor Okpebholo of Edo State’s warning to the same Mr Obi not to visit the state last year without his clearance, were clear violations of the Constitution, and therefore anti-democratic. Mr Obi’s visit to a Catholic mission school in Benin, where he donated ₦15 million, did not sit well with the governor.

Mr Okpebholo had then said, “I am sending a direct message to him. There is a new sheriff in town. He cannot come to Edo without telling me, because his security will never be guaranteed. Whatever happens to him when he is in Edo, he will have to take it. I am very serious about it.” This is highly incendiary and reprehensible.

ALSO READ:
EDITORIAL: Containing Nigeria’s spiralling insecurity

Based on this, the ADC did not waste time in alleging that the attack was an “assassination attempt on its members,” instigated by the APC as the ruling party in the state. The governor swiftly dismissed this as blackmail, just as he viewed it as an ADC internal crisis, “taken too far.” While it is not impossible in politics for an inter-party crisis to take a turn for the worse, there was no evidence validating the governor’s assumption in that instance.

However, inflammatory rhetoric like what was spewed by Governor Okpebholo, feeds distrust, threatens national cohesion and could be leveraged by malevolent elements. This may have been the case with one Monday Udeme, who claimed responsibility for the ADC chieftains’ gun attack in Benin. The suspect, in his X account shortly after the incident, cynically stated that Mr Obi was lucky to have escaped death. He vowed that he would not be lucky a second time. He has since been arrested and will be charged in court on 2 May. The delay in prosecution is certainly unnecessary.

In jurisdictions where life is truly sacrosanct, Mr Udeme would have been speedily prosecuted. In the US, Ryan Routh, who was arrested on 15 September, 2024, for tracking Donald Trump’s movement, for a possible attack, was sentenced to life in prison without delay. Mr Udeme should not only be punished, to arrest the tide of this absurdity, but he should be forced to name his sponsor(s).

It behoves President Tinubu, as the nation’s chief security officer, to ensure law and order and a level playing field for all in the upcoming general elections. This is the first of such elections that his administration would be overseeing, and more crucially, one in which he seeks re-election. Where the lives of opposition leaders are threatened, without any deliberate step to stop this, or they are killed, in worst-case scenarios, the complicity of the ruling party/government would be difficult to overlook.

Therefore, Sunday Igboho’s recent reckless outburst, against Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, for seeking to come to the South-west for the 2027 electoral campaigns should provoke the highest official security interest. In a viral video, he charged at their supporters that, “If you know that you are crazy, campaign for one Atiku, or Obi in Yorubaland.” This sort of intolerance and threat of violence must be nipped in the bud very quickly.

Such a foul political climate, ahead of the general polls, is reminiscent of the circumstances under which Bola Ige, an incumbent Attorney-General of the Federation was assassinated in December 2001. The murders of Harry Marshal, Amiosari Dokubo and Funsho Williams were to follow. And, very unfortunately, justice is yet to be served for these incidents to date. Our democracy can no longer afford such bestial behaviours in the quest for political power. The scourge of violence must be stopped.