Suspending campaigns due to insecurity
It is difficult to ignore recent call by the senate on the federal government to consider far-reaching measures including the suspension of political campaigns in eight frontline northern states due
It is difficult to ignore recent call by the senate on the federal government to consider far-reaching measures including the suspension of political campaigns in eight frontline northern states due to escalating insecurity. The call followed a motion by the lawmaker representing Bauchi Central in the upper legislative chamber, Abdul Ningi during plenary.
“One of the things we must do and I want us to take this issue very seriously, is either to suspend all political activities across the country or look at the frontline states of Borno, Plateau, Bauchi, Benue, Niger, Sokoto, Kebbi and some parts of Kano.
“We need to suspend activities in these states until we are sufficiently certain that insecurity challenges are over”, the senator argued. He hinged the position on his dissatisfaction with the pace of progress in the prosecution of the war against insecurity.
The issues raised by Ningi are as fundamental as they have far-reaching implications both for the war against insecurity and the dictates of free, fair and credible elections. No doubt, the escalating insecurity is a grave threat to the lives and property of the citizenry and the overall success of the coming general elections.
Unceasing kidnapping, banditry, and attacks on military formations by all manner of insurgents in some of the listed states have been quite unsettling. In the face of the near state of anarchy in some of these states, it remains to be seen how any social, economic or political activity can meaningfully thrive. Ningi’s motion highlights the contradictions in the current electioneering campaigns in situations where the citizenry face dire existential threat.
It is an admission of the absurdity in mounting political campaigns in states where the very people whose votes are being sought for, live in constant fear with their freedoms circumscribed as a result of the inability of the government to firmly establish its authority.
He is worried about the futility of such engagements. Hence the call for the halting of campaigns until the security of the targeted audience can be reasonably guaranteed. He is on point. Mounting political campaigns in states where non-state actors regularly compete with the government for the loyalty of the citizens adds up to nothing in real terms.
Such environments cannot guarantee the fundamental freedoms vital for the exercise of civic rights. Since mass participation and inclusiveness are cardinal principles of representative democracy, it remains curious how these rights will find expression in a milieu characterised by the atavism of the state of nature.
This absurdity is the reason the senator wants campaigns halted either across the country or in the eight frontline northern states until we are sufficiently certain that insecurity is over. Whether it is possible to have a perfect state of security is a moot issue.
But that cannot diminish the fundamental issues encapsulated in the senator’s call. It is a call propelled by the glaring incongruity in prosecuting elections in a country in crisis. It recognises the constraints imposed by insecurity in guaranteeing freedom of participation, expression and choice.
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The key issue here is not as much with halting political campaigns as the admission that such engagements are fruitless in environments that limit the basic rights of the citizens. Conceived this way, the senator’s motion is a demand for urgent and drastic measures to diminish the metastasizing insecurity in the country. It is a recognition that democracy cannot fare well in a crisis ridden environment; one that circumscribes the rights of the citizens to freedom of life.
Its corollary is that we need to first secure the country before any meaningful campaigns can take place. It seeks to compel the government to discharge that basic duty without which its authority and legitimacy will lose relevance. And in this, he is with many.
Beyond that, the call also seeks to interrogate the credibility and integrity of election outcomes from states where political parties find it difficult to even mount political campaigns. If political parties cannot penetrate some constituencies due to escalating insecurity, their fate during elections is anybody’s guess.
That is the paradox emerging from the observations of the senator. And it is an issue the leadership must address because of its wider repercussions for the credibility and integrity of the coming general elections.
This is not the first time the propriety of holding elections in states and local government’s marked by cascading insecurity will come under public scrutiny. The country faced similar situations during the preparations for the 2019 and 2023 general elections. Questions were raised then on how elections would fare in constituencies where insurgents were firmly in control.
Despite attempts by the government to paper the issue then, its grim reality was brought closer home by the chairman, INEC Board of Electoral Institute, Abdullahi Zuru a few weeks before the 2023 general elections. He had said, “If the insecurity is not monitored and dealt with decisively, it could ultimately culminate in the cancellation and or postponement of elections in sufficient constituencies to hinder the declaration of election results and precipitate constitutional crisis”.
This shares common traits with the issues embodied in the call by Ningi. He may not have put it exactly this way. But they are part of the larger consequences of holding elections or political campaigns in situations that circumscribe civic rights and fundamental human rights.
But the then INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu was quick to react to Zuru’s informed observations. He denied that the commission had intention to alter the timelines for the elections as the thought of postponing the election did not arise.
Yakubu’s position coincided with the alarm raised by the speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly that two local governments in the state were in the firm control of the Boko Haram insurgents. He had said unequivocally that contrary to impressions being created, there is absence of security presence in those two local governments as no official of the government dares visit there. Borno State was not alone in this.
Despite these observations, elections still purportedly went on in those local governments in the north and parts of the southeast where politicians could not even mount political campaigns. Of course, results were procured for or from those local governments in very questionable circumstances.
Curiously, some of the states infested by high level insecurity posted high elections results suggesting large voters’ turnout. High voters’ turnout in areas even security operatives could not venture? That was part of the wonders of the 2019 and 2023 elections. These are the hidden fears encapsulated in Ningi’s call. We are again at the same trajectory. What the leadership makes of the scorching insecurity will mirror the direction of the coming elections. But it is inconceivable to have free, fair and credible elections in situations that circumscribe electoral choices and limit the rights of people to life.
