A few days from now, all the political parties gearing up for the general elections will end open campaigns and resort to clandestine solicitation of votes.
That is, if the elections will still take place on February 14 and 28 scheduled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), going by the calls for postponement by some politicians and political parties.
The call keeps getting more and more pronounced by the day that Nigerians are beginning to insinuate attempt by some politicians to truncate our democracy.
The past few weeks have thrown up a cacophony in the name of electioneering by candidates, particularly those of major parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), and perhaps the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
It has been weeks of the good, the bad, and the ugly watching the candidates spin all manner of yarn on the vulnerable electorate. Political campaign war, so to say, laced with calumny and devoid of critical issues poor and suffering Nigerians want to hear before making up their minds on who to vote for rent the air.
But just as Nigerians are trying to come to terms with what they heard from politicians from the soap box, a more dangerous element is being introduced in quick succession.
What is even worse is that advocates of poll shift and interim government waited until the parties and their candidates were ready to descend from the numerous soap boxes that dot the nooks and crannies of the campaign grounds across the country. What they seem to forget is that the things they are advocating are not too good to the ear. In fact, they make people’s ears tingle.
The two issues that dominated the public space last week, which are vital to this week’s essay, include the calls for an interim government and postponement of the February polls.
First was the idea of an interim government and the insinuation that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen. Kenneth Minimah, and his colleagues were working towards realising that.
During the week, someone I have great respect for informed me that an interim government was also being contemplated at the highest level of political gerrymandering should the election not produce the “desired goal”.
I tried to find out why the contraption called interim government should even be raised when we have all it takes to transit from one civilian to another civilian administration. After all, we have done so since 1999 and the INEC said it is ready for the poll.
I sought explanation for poll not bringing about the desired goal and learnt that the comments coming out from the mouths of supporters of leading presidential candidates were inflicting too much fear in the political leadership.
Fortunately, the Army came out last week to put a lie to the interim government saga and distanced itself from it.
“Any discerning mind would notice that these false and baseless allegations are calculated attempts by unpatriotic elements to divide the Nigerian Army, create disaffection among its ranks and distract the service from its avowed constitutional duty of defending the territorial integrity of our great nation,” Army Director of Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, said in a statement.
We had not stopped celebrating the position the Army took when the call for poll shift began to gather momentum.
The joy of some politicians would be fuller if the INEC announces a shift in the date for the election. Typical of the way things are done in our country, some of the political parties have been made to key into the postponement sing song.
Internet and social media wizards are not relenting in their efforts to make the topic go as viral as the cancerous disease. It does not matter to the agitating political parties that they had four years to prepare for the contest that is barely a week from now.
Sixteen of the political parties are believed to be in the forefront of the agitation for poll shift, while five of the 14 presidential candidates signed a statement which they sent to the INEC in respect of the matter.
The reasons they are bandying together – insecurity, distribution of permanent voter cards (PVCs), and mass exodus of people from the cities to the villages – are issues Nigerians are used to.
The parties angling for poll shift are the United Democratic Party (UDP), Citizen Peoples Party (CPP), People Party of Nigeria (PPN), Action Alliance (AA), Peoples Democratic Congress (PDC), Allied Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Labour Party (LP), and Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP).
They also include the United Party of Nigeria (UPN), Alliance for Democracy (AD), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), and Independent Democrat (ID).
Five presidential candidates who want the election postponed include Godson Okoye (UDP), Sam Okoye (CPP), C.O. Allagoe (PPN), Tunde Anifowoshe (AA), and Ganiu Galadima (ACPN).
They insisted that if the poll is moved to either March or April the INEC would still not have violated Sections 25 and 26 of the Electoral Act.
However, on Thursday, February 4, the Coalition of Progressive Political Parties (COPP) comprising the PDM, APA, KOWA, MPPP, SDP, ADC, HDP, DPP, UPP and Accord Party, issued a statement insisting that the poll be held as planned.
COPP wrote in part: “The call for the postponement of the general election has nothing to do with the preparedness of Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct the election or the pace of distribution and collection of permanent voter cards.
“The INEC, the authority empowered by law to fix the date of the election, has said countless times, that it is ready and prepared to conduct a free, fair and credible election on February 14 and 28.
“As a matter of fact, Attahiru Jega, Chairman of INEC, and his colleagues in the Commission have stated time and time again that they had four years to prepare for the election and they will deliver better election this time around.
“The military, led by the Chief of Defence Staff, has guaranteed adequate security on land and air for a successful and safe conduct of the 2015 general election. This ought to have settled the fears about the security of lives and property as well as of the electorate and INEC officials.
“Governors and citizens of the states under attack by insurgents have not complained either to the INEC or the executive and legislative arms of government that their citizens will be disenfranchised if elections were held in their states.
“The call for the postponement of the general election is, therefore, a call orchestrated by one of the political parties which has continued to invest huge sums of money to ensure the elections do not hold as scheduled, out of fear of losing power for the first time since 1999.
“Our democracy has come of age and Nigerians are ready for change, WE WILL NOT ALLOW desperation and power-mongering to scuttle it and will do whatever is necessary to defend it and ensure that the general election holds as scheduled.”
Politicians are at their best again to destabilise our system and truncate our democracy, using whatever means. Every electoral experience in Nigeria has had the electorate being visited with the ugly side of the political actors – selfishness and monumental greed.
They set the rule and also abuse it. They seek change when they want status quo ante bellum retained. They claim they are working for the people, but we know the people are living for them.
We saw it happen in 1964. It happened in 1966 and 1967. It happened in 1993. It can happen again in 2015, following the prediction, and if there are people to make the prediction come through, trust Nigerian politicians.