Barely one month to the
November 16, 2019, off-season governorship election in Bayelsa and Kogi, political actors are living up to the billing of the states as “politically volatile.”
Reports of violence or potential assaults are on the rise, with the two major rival parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) trading counter-accusations of being purveyors of the disturbances.
The stakes are high in both states, as one party tries to take over from the other. In Bayelsa, APC angles to oust the ruling PDP, while in Kogi, the opposition PDP pulls all stops to upstage the APC.
More worrisome are the “strongmen” involved in the election. In Bayelsa, outgoing Governor Seriake Dickson of the PDP seeks to install Senator Diri Douye, while former governor and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva of the APC backs Chief David Lyon.
In Kogi, Governor Yahaya Bello’s bid to retain his seat is challenged by Mr. Musa Wada, son of former Governor Idris Wada. This makes the poll in Bayelsa and Kogi a “battle of Governors.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigeria Police and poll watchers have identified Bayelsa and Kogi as “flash points” for violence in every election cycle in the country.
So, way back in the run-up to this poll, and against the untoward happenings in the 2019 general election, the electoral umpire, facilitators and observers had put machineries in motion to sensitise the political players in the states to the adverse effects of manipulating, and inducing mayhem in the electoral process.
The forewarning was wisely and promptly sounded, as it’s meant to encourage the states to shed the blighted toga they’d worn over the years during the choice of representatives of the people.
After all, a parlance in Esanland, Edo State, says that, “If you’re told that you’re not physically (walking) straight, you should strive to straighten your gait.”
But recent events in Bayelsa and Kogi have shown that public optimism for a possible change of the status quo is misplaced, as the actors are back to their “thuggery” in election matters.
From the primaries to pick the candidates and running mates, and the commencement of campaigns for the poll, verbal and physical combats have taken over the political arena.
Thus, it’s timely, and instructive that the INEC has iterated its pledge to conduct the poll in Bayelsa and Kogi to the satisfaction of all stakeholders in the electoral system.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, at a parley with stakeholders in Kogi
on Thursday, November 10, harped on the harm that bitter political rivalry wreaks on the society.
Without mincing words, he reminded the participants about “this unfortunate image of the state (Kogi) “as a violence-prone state when it comes to elections.”
He said: “Actions and utterances of political actors and their supporters, likely to lead to violence during electioneering, during voting on election day and during collation of results, is a big source of concern to the commission.
“Campaigns have commenced. You have a responsibility, as citizens of Nigeria and of Kogi, to keep your state away from this toga of trepidation, concerns, tensions and violence during elections.”
Agreeing to come with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the INEC boss said: “If coming to Kogi every week, between now and
November 16, will lead to peace and credible election in Kogi State, I will come to Kogi every week till the end of the election.”
Violent clashes had occurred in parts of Kogi lately, with the camp of Governor Bello of the APC alleging they’re perpetrated by the PDP to stop his re-election bid.
But the PDP, which fields Mr. Wada for the November poll, said the APC’s on the prowl, cautioning, “we will not sit and fold our hands when we are being tormented by undemocratic forces.”
The omens trending in Kogi are replicated in Bayelsa, a state where elements in “disbanded” militant groups need little incentive to return to their old ways that have held the Niger Delta, and indeed Nigeria, in the jugular.
Sadly, the major actors that should advance peace, are the ones fanning discord, by telling party faithful that the other political rival(s) plans to “steal our mandate” at the poll, thus putting opponents and the voters in harm’s way.
More worrisome, and dangerous, is party leaders’ continued drumming into their followers that a state belongs to a particular political party, as if politics is static.
For instance, Governor Dickson has boasted that the PDP would retain the state under it column, having been its “stronghold” since 1999.
At the launch of the party campaign in Yenagoa, the governor warned of the consequences of the state falling into the “hands of criminals and bandits,” a reference to the opposition APC.
He said: “This state is totally and wholly PDP. Let me caution the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies; if you are here to kill and intimidate, you will have to do so much work because you have thousands of people to intimidate, to maim and to kill.”
Later in Lagos, the governor told newsmen that, “What (Nigeria) AGIP (Oil Company) has done is to outsource terrorism to the so-called candidate of the APC, Chief David Lyon, and I think in the next couple of days, when you see some images, you will be appalled.”
In a repost, the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, wondered why a governor of Dickson’s calibre could engage in “gutter language” to describe his party’s opponent.
Citing the governor’s verbal war as a sign of his imminent defeat at the election, Oshiomhole said: “Let me use this opportunity to reply directly to my friend, Governor Dickson of Bayelsa.
“When a governor describes one of his own (indigenes) purely on the account of his political differences, using the name of terrorists and such things like that, then he has missed (lost) it already.
“We will not come to his own level. On this occasion, we will invoke a popular statement made by Michelle Obama at the peak of the last presidential election in the U.S. when she said, ‘When they go low, we go high.’”
This back-and-forth from party leaders doesn’t bode well for the
November 16 election that Nigerians have anticipated would close the controversial chapter on the 2019 general election.
The political gladiators should temper their language. Specifically, Governor Dickson has lived above the political fray, and shouldn’t, for wanting to “install” a successor, sell dummies that encourage his followers to undermine the laws of the election.
He should maintain his statesmanlike posture of almost eight years in the saddle, and wait on the LORD to give power to whom He wishes. When the polls are over, you will all remain Bayelsans!
