EDITORIAL: 2027: Voting candidates of popular choice, not by threats

Campaigns for the 2027 general elections have begun, sparking candidates’ waves of peripatetic movement across the country to seek votes. It also offers political parties the opportunity for strategic engagements toward consolidation of their support bases, and how to flip their opponents’ strongholds.

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However, some pseudo-democrats have introduced harassment and intimidation into this electoral process, demanding that citizens vote only for their parties or else all hell will be let loose. This is ominous, and it should be contained by law enforcement agencies.

In Ebonyi State, Governor Francis Nwifuru threatened to remove from office any local government chairperson who failed to ensure victory for the All Progressives Congress (APC). Pupils of a primary school in the state were made to sing President Bola Tinubu’s political anthem, “Tinubu, On Your Mandate We Shall Stand,” by a federal lawmaker for the exercise books and pencils given to them. This is totally wrong.

The governor, while swearing in the 13 local government area chairpersons in September, said, “As a local government chairman, if you like, go and sleep so that another person will take over your house. You will not stop us (APC) from winning. But when we win, we will remove you.”

Mr Nwifuru’s stance smacks of impunity and intolerance. His action stands condemned. Under the 1999 Constitution as amended, the governor does not have the power to remove any local government chairperson, or engineer the illegality through councillors.

By his conduct, he has demonstrated the councils’ lack of autonomy or independence in his state. This should worry all Nigerians who crave the effective operation of the 774 local governments, enshrined in the constitution, as the third tier of government in Nigeria.

These councils were created for governance to permeate the grassroots, which insulates them from governors’ control. In July 2024, a Supreme Court judgment, which ruled that their federal allocations be paid directly to their accounts, was further amplification of this point.

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Unfortunately, the governor is not alone in this despicable act. A commissioner in Borno State, Sainna Buba, in charge of Youths and Sports Development, in August, threatened to flog whoever would not vote for the APC candidates in 2027. He said, “This government is our government; follow us and enjoy honey. As for those who refuse to follow us, they will be flogged.” Interestingly, the commissioner spewed these obnoxious fumes when a Tinubu campaign support group, City Boys Movement, was inaugurated in the state.

The malady is spreading fast, giving a foretaste of what is ahead as electioneering gathers steam, and even the elections in January and February next year. The Chairman of Kuje Area Council in Abuja, Samuel Shekwolo, has told residents that anyone not prepared to support the APC in 2027 should leave the area.

Inflammatory rhetoric like this should be seen as alien to democracy. Kuje Council, for goodness sake, is not the property of any political party. Undoubtedly, these vibes of political intolerance thrive where multi-party democracy is enfeebled or does not matter.

It is no wonder, therefore, that Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was blocked from moving around in Benue State by hired thugs recently, when he was in the state to visit communities affected by violent attacks and mass murders.

That show of shame seems to have official imprimatur. It is inexplicable why thugs in large numbers, with cudgels and other dangerous weapons, stood in front of the police, chanting that Mr Obi was a persona non grata, and could not be arrested. Mr Obi departed the state without accomplishing his mission.

The state chapter of the NDC had written to the state Commissioner of Police, Cletus Nwadiogbu, notifying him of the visit; and he, in turn, notified the state governor, Hyacinth Alia, who had warned Mr Obi last year not to visit his state without his permission, when Mr Obi faced a similar situation.

It took angry public condemnation for the State Police Command to arrest, a day later, 46 suspects who purportedly participated in the mass thuggery. We doubt the identities of these suspects. The police boss needs to explain why his officials could not apprehend even one of the thugs in real time, as they blocked Mr Obi’s convoy. His clarification that the police avoided using force to disperse the thugs when they were within reach is specious. The subsequent arrests, in our view, seem like damage control.

Let us be clear: the right to free movement of persons is a fundamental right, guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution, in Section 41. It is restricted only in specific lawful cases of criminality and investigations. None of them applied in the Peter Obi case. Electioneering has officially been flagged off, which further makes the police, or the state authorities’ explanations, hard to put.

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PREMIUM TIMES had hitherto expressed concerns about these anti-democratic tendencies, and the need for the police to decisively deal with their purveyors to avoid possible subversion of the 2027 general elections.

Beyond the police interrogation of the senator who asked APC members to kill Accord Party members in the last Osun State governorship election, and his fellow traveller who insisted that voters must vote for only the APC candidate, their prosecution remains a far cry.

These outlaws, wherever they may be found, can only be stopped in their strides by enforcement of the law to serve as deterrence. Therefore, the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, should put an end to these growing anomalies in the democratic space.

Candidates get votes in an election, not by coercion, harassment and intimidation of citizens, but by persuasion and presentation of convincing manifestos that address the existential crises of the people. Any shortcut is dubious and an abuse of the electoral process.