Averting electoral violence in Anambra

Source: The Nation Newspaper Published:Monday, January 25th, 2010

Since 1999, the state has only enjoyed the peace of the graveyard. Protracted feud between erstwhile godfathers and godsons, oath-taking and impatient scramble for returns on political investment, vote rigging and arson have made Anambra State a jungle.

What is most striking about the state is not what has changed, but what has remained the same. Now, fears are rife again that the crisis-ridden state may be enveloped by violence as the 25 governorship candidates are at one another’s heels.

Since prevention is better than cure, concerned stakeholders are intensifying efforts to create an atmosphere of peace through various intervention programmes targeted at the main actors.

On of such programmes was a training session for media practitioners in Lagos to boost their preparation for the electioneering. Speakers, including Lanre Idowu, a senior journalist, and Lanre Arogundade, Executive Director of International Press Centre, Ogba, Lagos, focused on the role of media in preventing electoral violence in Nigeria, with special emphasis on Anambra State, conflict sensitivity and methodologies for reporting elections.

The interactive session was jointly organized by ‘Action Aid Nigeria ‘and Department for International Development(DFID)

Both organizations believe that free and fair elections are not possible outside the watchful eyes of the media. Reiterating this fact, an official of Action Aid, Gbenro Olajuyigbe, said the media must gird their loins. His worry is that election and violence have become siemens twins, adding that they are now part and parcel of our culture. Besides, he pointed out that the media may inadvently precipitate political conflicts and emergencies when they engage in activities that violate the ethics of their profession. He therefore, advised media practitioners to desist from fuelling tension through their acts of omission and commission in the already volatile terrain.

‘People believe what they read in the newspapers, so reporters must be careful not to create problems’, he added.

Idowu who set the tone for the discussion attributed electoral violence to six factor. These are unwillingness to follow the rules, desire to cheat and cut corners, lack of vigilance by the electorate, insincerity of electoral umpires, refusal of law enforcement agents to do their work and indifference by the media. He doubted if the votes can count unless these knotty problems are resolved.

Eyes are on Anambra State. Many feel that the outcome of the contest will show whether the country can really confront the 2011 electoral challenge.

The candidate that wins the critical February 6 poll will be the sixth person to occupy the Governors Lodge. This, in the opinion of Idowu, speaks volume about the level of instability that has rocked the enclave.

It is an understatement. The first governor, Chinnoke Mbadinuju, was in office for four years. He dissipated much energy on crisis and less attention to governance. His attention was diverted by his political benefactor, Chief Emeka Offor. For over nine months, schools were closed following strikes by aggrieved teachers.

When violence finally engulfed the state, the chairman of Nigeria Bar Association(NBA), Onitsha branch, Barnabas Igwe and wife, were murdered in cold blood.

Mbadinuju won the re-nomination primaries twice, but was denied the ticket by the Peoples democratic Party(PDP) leaders. The ticket was given to Dr Chris Ngige who initially planned to run for a senatorial seat.

As the political influence of Offor waned, another godfather, Chris Uba, came to dominate the scene. He had sponsored Ngige for the governorship. The governor was torn between loyalty to the people of the state and his godfather. When he denied the political investor his envisaged returns on investment, hell was let lose. A portion of the State House was burnt down. The state television complex was not spared. It was equally torched. The governor was abducted. In panic, he fled the state to seek refuge in a neighboring state.

Reflecting on that moment of perfidy, Idowu said a sitting governor was forced to resign at gun point, only to recapture his seat following a robust media intervention in 2004.

Later, the media were jolted out of their delusion when the court ruled that Ngige got to the corridor of power through the backdoor and that victory was allotted to him by the electoral commission.

Initially, Peter Obi, the rightful governor who was sworn in after the departure of the interloper, also ran into turbulence. When he was temporarily shoved aside, her deputy, Virginia Etiaba, filled the vacuum. The illegal impeachement was squashed by the court after many months of suspense.

The state was in another state of confusion in 2007 when the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) conducted governorship election in error. The PDP candidate, Andy Uba, was sworn in when the Obi’s term had not expired. Governor Uba became an impostor. He was deposed by the court for illegally occupying the seat.

Obi continued in office, but he was not able to conduct elections into the local councils because of insecurity. Democracy was banished at the grassroots.

In PDP, there was trouble as the party primaries were manipulated and stage managed to produce a particular candidate. There was commotion as those who believed that they were edged out cried foul, vowing to resist imposition. So far, key governorship candidates; Soludo, Ngige, Uba and Uche Ekwunife have their roots in the falling house of PDP. Their supporters carry on as if the contest is a do-or-die affair.

The anxiety that has seized the state will not fizzle out until a peaceful poll is conducted in Anambra State. The political climate is cloudy. A participant at the session, Ayodele Ojo, pointed out that the coast was not clear yet for the poll. To buttress his assertion, he made reference to the remark by the Police Inspector-General Ogbonaya Onovo that politicians have started stocking arms and recruiting ‘retired armed robbers’ as thugs in preparation for a total showdown.

It is also astonishing, Idowu pointed out, that an Assistant Commissioner of Police has told the nation that the police lack the power to arrest and prosecute electoral offenders because the Electoral Act does not empower them to prosecute them.

Already, there is also an on-going poster war as rival politicians deliberately deface posters and pull down billboards of opponents. There is also a religious dimension to the brewing crisis as candidates are competing for antagonistic endorsement by the Anglican and Catholic sects.

As the candidates flex muscles, little attention is paid to campaign issues. Lamenting this, Idowu asked: ‘what are the programmes for public health, education, the environment, agriculture, unemployment etc? He said reporters should take them up on these issues instead of trying to make money from politicians during elections.

However, reporters also complain whenever the opportunity is presented to the candidates to articulate their programmes for the state, many of them deliberately evade the media.

Participants cited other constraints. Soji Oyinlola of Leadership newspaper alluded to the constraints imposed by proprietors’ interest which may make the reporter to shun objectivity and balance. ‘If a politician gives an advert worth N10m to a media house, how can they write something against him. They need advert to survive’, he stressed.

He also said when media houses refuse to adequately equip reporters for electoral assignments, they are left at the mercy of politicians and political parties which book hotel rooms for them. Again, Oynlola said, up to now, redress for journalists who were brutalized in Ekiti State during the rerun has not been raised anywhere.

Idowu agreed that reporters could lose their independence when they rely on the political parties and politicians to provide accommodation or sponsor their trips. He said such unethical behaviours should stop.

Semiu Okanlawon, another journalist, suggested that, starting from Anambra 2010, elections should be considered as a special project by media houses. He recalled that The Punch actually toed this line in its reportage on Ekiti rerun by raising a formidable team of reporters dispatched to the various local councils where the poll took place.

Okanlawon also said, while he agreed that reporters should not contribute to violence by what they report and manner of reporting, vilence against the media should not be ignored. ‘In Ekiti, journalist who stumbled on a place where people were found thumb printing were tortured. Cameras of photo-journalists were seized’, he added.

Another participant, Dayo Benson of The Vanguard, disagreed with Idowu over his comment on the helplessness of the police when electoral offences are being committed. "The police is right’, he said, stressing that the Electoral Act does not permit policemen to prosecute offenders for electoral violence’. Benson said the solution is electoral reform.

However Idowu pointed out that there are sufficient laws on ground that punish crimes like inflicting injuries, vandalism and other unruly behaviours during elections, adding that, if the culprits are punished, these acts will stop.

He lamented that when people burn homes, churches and mosques, the offenders are left off because their actions are described as religious riots.

Arogundade emphasised that the media had been used to fuel electoral violence when they took sides and became willing tools in the hands of politicians. He said under this kind of situation, their report cannot be accurate and balance. To that extent, their duty to inform was eroded.

Arogundade asked journalists to also shun deformation, falsehood and subjectivity because many people rely on their reports to assess the political situation.

‘It is important to see journalism as their tribe’, he added.

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