NationalMirror INEC’s warning on electioneering Our Reporter June 27, 2013 President Goodluck Jonathan, in June last year, warned government functionaries then jostling for power preparatory to the 2015 general elections to retrace their steps or resign their appointments. He lamented that having barely completed the first year of his four-year term of office, it was too early in the day to be politicking for the next election, whereas the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should be primarily preoccupied with service delivery to Nigerians who brought it to power. Jonathan said the development was distracting his government and unnecessarily overheating the polity. One year after, however, the situation persists and has, indeed, grown worse. Presently, it is extremely difficult for the president himself to convincingly put it to Nigerians that he is not one of the culprits of the early electioneering he sermonized against last year, especially with his perceivably larger-than-life involvement in the wranglings in the internal politics of the ruling party. Sadly, too, the rancorous political atmosphere festered unrestrained until the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) rather belatedly warned a couple of days ago that politicians and political parties should desist from electioneering before the lawful lifting of the ban on campaigns for the 2015 general elections or be prepared to face the wrath of the law. Spokesman of the nation’s apex electoral umpire, Mr. Kayode Idowu, said INEC had alerted the security agencies to apprehend violators of the order. Idowu said it was worrisome to the commission that campaign posters had already flooded the country, while electioneering broadcasts were being aired in contravention of relevant statutory provisions. Drawing from the 2010 Electoral Act (as amended), INEC said campaigns would legally commence 90 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to the said day. Though INEC played the lame duck for long before rising from its slumber, the commission’s intervention and the caution it sounded are better than not taking any measures at all against the embarrassing development. The general impression had been that the commission chose to remain impotent or overlook the goings on because the culpritsin- chief were the ruling party and its gladiators. The brutal fact is that posters wars and not too subtle campaigns for the 2015 elections are already on. The posters of President Jonathan can be sighted in strategic positions in Abuja; the same goes for General Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). Both are offering themselves as candidates for the 2015 presidential election. In the fray, too, are the posters of Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and his Rivers State counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi. They are also being primed for the 2015 presidential election. Reports say the trend is the same at state and local government levels where posters of governorship and national or state assembly aspirants abound. There have been reported fracas and violence among aspirants and their supporters. Even when virtually all the promises the same politicians made in respect of good roads, health sector, education, power and the security of life and property in 2011 have remained largely unfulfilled, they are back to the trenches with bagfuls of outlandish, yet hollow promises. For ordinary Nigerians, the nation’s democracy and representative government come across more as a mirage than a project meant to better their lives. The warning by INEC is, therefore, in order. The apprehension, however, is that perhaps in the process of making good its threat, INEC might transgress against the freedom of expression and association as guaranteed in Sections 39 and 40 of the country’s 1999 Constitution (as amended). There is thus the need to separate politicking from electioneering campaign. It may be necessary for the electoral body to further clarify what it meant by “unbridled campaigns”. And when the time comes, public expectation is that INEC would insist that what are presented as political manifestoes are of quality content and value and not ridiculous sermons, antiquated ideas or abuses against opponents.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 07:45:13 +0000
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