Jonathan, Buhari embrace, sign poll peace deal

President Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari – the two biggest combatants in the 2015 presidential election – embraced each other on Wednesday at a public function in Abuja in what is seen as positive symbolism ahead of the February 14 poll.

Jonathan and Buhari were attending the general election sensitisation workshop on non-violence organised by the office of the national security adviser to the president and the office of the special adviser to the president on inter-party affairs.

Supporters of the two presidential candidates have been engaged in violent encounters recently, leading to the burning of a Jonathan campaign bus in Jos and attacks on members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) last week.

Adamu Mu’azu, the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),  also embraced his APC counterpart, John Oyegun.

All the presidential candidates affirmed a ‘peace accord’ at the end of the conference.

It states: “We presidential candidates and political parties contesting in the general election 2015‎ desirous of taking proactive measures to prevent electoral violence before, during and after the elections, anxious about the maintenance of a peaceful environment for the 2015 general election, reaffirming our commitment to the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, desirous of promoting and sustaining 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, reaffirming our commitment to truly abide by all rules and regulations as laid down in the legal framework for elections in Nigeria, hereby commit ourselves and our parties to the following:

“To run issue-based campaigns at national, state and local government levels. In this we pledge to refrain from campaigns that will involve religious incitement, ethnic or tribal profiling, both by ourselves and by all agents acting in our names,” he read out at the workshop on sensitization against electoral violence in Abuja‎ on Wednesday.

“To refrain from making or causing to make in our names or that of our party any public statements, pronouncements, declarations or speech‎es that have the capacity to incite any form of violence, before, during and after the elections.

“Thirdly, to forcefully and publicly speak out against provocative utterances and oppose all acts of electoral violence whether perpetrated by our supporters and/or opponents.

“To commit ourselves and political parties to the monitoring of the adherence to this accord, if necessary by a national peace committee made of respected statesmen and women, traditional and religious leaders, this is what is proposed to be the Abuja accord.”

Another clause in the accord is that all institutions of government including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the police must act and be seen to act with fairness and without partisanship.