For peace to reign in Edo guber election

Saturday’s election to produce the next governor of Edo State is expectedly much anticipated, not just because it is being keenly contested by 17 candidates, including one female; but also because the stakes about governance are equally high. Moreover, the prelude to the election has been fraught with tension, generated by trading of accusations and counter accusations, suspicion, threat of boycott, refusal to sign peace accord, and display of attitude portraying the election as a “do-or-die-affair”. This situation is rather unfortunate for a state that has a long record of democratic norms, and that has produced many of Nigeria’s statesmen who fought tooth and nail for the country’s progress.

Notwithstanding the brickbats already thrown, it is imperative that all stakeholders come to terms with the essence of democracy as a system of government that revolves around participation of the people. While politicians have a duty to try and persuade their electorate to vote for them, it is the right and entitlement of the voters to exercise their franchise for whoever they deem fit, irrespective of the seeming wisdom or foolishness of their choice. Their votes must therefore be respected, and no one, no matter how highly placed, should do anything to thwart that entitlement or seek to manipulate the choice of the people in any way.

There is no doubt that the campaign for the election by the candidates has been fairly robust, often laced with issue-based content, but at the same time, many things happened to dampen the spirit of electioneering, and even threatened to affect the participation of the average Edo person who is ordinarily peace-loving. For instance, only a few days ago, the State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, threatened that his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), would not sign a peace accord with other parties because he believed that the federal authorities were not being fair to the PDP. The party was later to withdraw its boycott threat.

In a statement he signed on September 10, Obaseki noted that since the commencement of the electioneering process in the state, the actions of the police had shown one-sidedness. During his interaction with Chairman of the National Peace Committee, former military Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, in Benin, the governor expressed concern that the police, under the influence of the APC, had arrested no fewer than 10 PDP chieftains perceived as strong political opponents, including the serving Chairman of the Esan West Local Government Area, Collins Aigbogun, who was arrested and taken to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

“So, tell me, sir, how can we sign a peace accord under these circumstances? What they’re essentially telling us is that this will be a violent election and they will use coercion and intimidation to win, whether we like it or not. That’s the message. Now that the IGP is in town, we demand that everyone arrested be returned to Edo and tried here. Until then, we have no confidence that the police will protect us in Edo State during the governorship election,” Obaseki said.

The governor also alleged that the INEC REC in Edo is Wike’s cousin and served as a Special Adviser on Lands to him in Rivers State; while the current Edo State Commissioner of Police, Nemi Edwin-Iwo, is also a close associate of Wike. He said the PDP believed the officers would not act in the best interest of Edo people nor even in the spirit and letters of the electoral Act.

The All Progressives Congress (APC), which the PDP accused of being the mastermind of its travail, denied the allegation through the party’s Publicity Secretary in Edo, Peter Uwadiae-Igbinigie, who retorted that: “If the PDP would not abstain from crimes, the police would continue to arrest its members. There was no point for the PDP trying to whip up political sentiments in the operations of the police, against the APC because of the election,” Uwadiae-Igbinigie said. The police similarly denied being used, explaining that they were only going after the killers of a policeman in the state.

On another occasion, the PDP candidate, Dr Asue Ighodalo, has reportedly filed a N20 billion defamation suit against a former governor of the state, Senator Adams Oshiomhole of the APC, over comments on the Planwell scheme. The PDP had also accused Oshiomhole of having concluded plans to rig the election in polling units around his hometown in Iyamho; adding that there were plans to redeploy all the security officials attached to the Governor Obaseki, “in order to leave him without protection and render him vulnerable as we head into the election as well as on Election Day.”

On his part, the candidate of Labour Party in the election, Olumide Akpata, slammed Ighodalo and the APC candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo for not showing up at the governorship debate organised by the Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists and the Nigerian Election Debate Group.

All these accusations only succeeded in heightening tension in Edo State, a situation that Edo people do not deserve. Like other Nigerians in other parts of the country, Edo people are concerned with who can bring peace and development to their domain at this time of critical economic adversity. They need peace, security of their lives, employment, affordable feeding, good housing and healthcare, education for their children and other basic necessities of life. They are interested in leaders that will give them these desirables, and no more. Politicians should respect their wish.

Having denied any plan to be used in manipulating the election to favour a party or discredit another, the police should work towards ensuring their neutrality, by charging their men to be thorough and professional in monitoring the election. They should deal decisively and transparently with anyone who violates rules of the election or any electoral laws. Such a person should be prosecuted to serve as deterrence to other aspiring violators.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has a key role to play in ensuring diligence, as well as free and fair elections. They are an umpire and should be seen to be so at all times. There should be no room for sloppiness in the conduct of the election, given that it concerns only a small segment of the country, and the commission had sufficient time to have prepared for it. The commission should do everything to cover the credibility gaps arising against it since the 2023 general elections, which many people consider distasteful, rightly or wrongly.

It is equally important that the people of Edo take charge of their electoral fate by coming out to cast their votes for candidates of their choice, and monitoring the voting exercise to its logical conclusion. While they should resist any attempt by politicians to use them as pawns to formulate trouble at the polls, they have a duty to eschew violence, protect their votes and make them count. That is the beginning of how democracy and its dividends can flourish.