I don’t know when or how the phrase “the silly season of politics” came about. I have always wondered whether election period could be rightly termed a silly season considering how fundamental election and the politicking that heralds it are in a democratic process.
But not anymore. What is going on in Nigeria has convinced me that this is, indeed, a silly season.
As the February 14 date for the presidential and National Assembly polls approaches, the season becomes even sillier. For a country on the precipice, literally, whose fate and that of its fabled 170 million population is hanging in the balance, this is scary.
The result of the ballot will consolidate the little, albeit steady gains Nigeria has made since 1999 if everybody plays by the rule; but it may well signal the beginning of the end of the country as a united entity.
Eminent African statesmen, including former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Anna, and former Commonwealth Secretary General, Emeka Anyaoku, not only ensured that the political parties and their presidential candidates sign a peace accord, promising to run issue based campaigns devoid of character assassination, but they also agreed to rein in their attack dogs.
For many Nigerians apprehensive that the elections may turn violent, that was a welcome development.
Eleven presidential candidates, among them President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Muhammadu Buhari, All Progressives Congress, APC), and Oluremi Sonaiya (KOWA), signed the document.
They reaffirmed their commitment to the Constitution of Nigeria, “desirous of sustaining and promoting the unity and corporate existence of Nigeria as an indivisible entity; determined to avoid any conduct or behaviour that will endanger the political stability and national security of Nigeria; determined to place national interest above personal and partisan concerns.”
The candidates and chairmen of their parties agreed to “commit ourselves and our parties to … run issue based campaigns at national, state and local government levels.”
They pledge “to refrain from campaigns that will involve religious incitement, ethnic or tribal profiling, both ourselves and agents acting in our names; to refrain from making or causing to make in our names or that of the party, any public statements, pronouncements, declarations or speeches that have the capacity to incite any form of violence, before, during and after the election.”
But because this is a silly season run by political actors who neither understand what the issues are nor care about the future of the country and the wellbeing of its people, this agreement has been observed mainly in the breach.
Ill-tempered campaign rhetoric and outright assault on either offices of political parties or their campaign trains have become the norm.
The most incendiary of the violations was the death-wish advertorial sponsored by Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, on the front pages of Punch and Daily Sun on Monday, January 19.
It portrayed Buhari as someone who is likely to die in office like past leaders from the North, such as Murtala Muhammed, Sani Abacha, and Musa Yar’Adua.
The advert was morbid and extremely reckless, aside the fact that it utterly violated both the spirit and letter of the Abuja accord.
Beyond all this, it was idiotic. A campaign advert worth the millions spent in securing the front pages of two major newspapers should have a pungent message worth celebrating. It must add value to the campaign of the party and its candidates. It must be a reference material.
But here, the reverse is the case. Rather than attract, the advert is repulsive. It is so tasteless that both Jonathan and his party have dissociated themselves from it.
What message was the advert trying to send to the electorate? That Nigerians should not vote Buhari, a candidate from the North West because leaders from the zone are prone to dying in office?
Since Fayose does not want state burials any longer, another leader, who he has decreed will die in office like his compatriots, should not be elected president – even if Nigerians want him.
How silly can an argument be? None of those leaders Fayose irreverently used to buttress his morbid logic died of old age. Murtala was assassinated. Yar’Adua died of natural causes. Abacha died in “mysterious circumstance.”
So, is Fayose insinuating that Buhari will be assassinated if elected President, just like Murtala, or will he be poisoned as Abacha possibly was? If Buhari will die naturally, even if in office, how can that be an issue?
Are all human beings no longer mortal? If the issue is that Buhari is 72 years old, when did age become the sole determinant of when one will die. Who says an 80-year-old man will die before a teenager? Is Fayose claiming that he never knew of people, even in his own family, far younger than Buhari who are dead?
In any case, why did Fayose remember only the dead? Is he claiming not to know former President Shehu Shagari, who is almost in his 90s, hails from Sokoto State, the same North West “death zone?”
Fayose’s brand of politics is a slippery slope. The consequences are dire. Granted, election is a contest for power, and it is fierce, particularly in an environment like ours where the winner takes all. But to equate it to war is dangerous.
Again, what can be sillier than the call by National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, in far away London that the election be postponed for three months on Thursday, January 22.
He even informed his audience at Chatham House that he had already suggested to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Attahiru Jega, that a postponement within the three months allowed by the Electoral Act is a good idea.
His reason for this “great” advice is to give INEC time to distribute over 30 million outstanding Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to registered voters. Little wonder Boko Haram is getting more audacious if this is the quality of advice Dasuki gives Jonathan.
It is good the INEC has told the entire world for the umpteenth time that it is ready for the election. If it did not use the past four years since the 2011 polls to prepare for the 2015 elections, what difference will three months make?
It is curious that the PDP, the self-acclaimed largest party in Africa which has held power in Nigeria for the past 16 years, is the only one that seems not to be prepared for the elections.
A silly season, indeed.