Peace accord on the verge of collapse

In September, presidential candidates and their national chairmen signed a peace accord committing themselves to a peaceful campaign for the 2023 election.

However less than two months after they signed the pact, the peace pact is on the verge of collapsing no thanks to the violent antics of some supporters of the candidates.

During the week, suspected hoodlums allegedly disrupted the presidential campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ranchers Bees Stadium, Kaduna state.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Atiku Abubakar, PDP presidential candidate, said the “sponsored thugs” attacked supporters of the party.

I also recall that two weeks ago, hoodlums attacked members and supporters of the All Progressives Congress during the Tinubu/Shettima solidarity rally held in the ancient city of Ibadan.

Similarly, some Labour Party supporters were attacked in Lagos state.

Pointedly, Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC), has expressed concern over growing threats to the peace accord, cautioning political parties against attacks on each other.

Professor Yakubu in his remarks cautioned “parties and their supporters to focus on issues and steer clear of attacks on each other”.

The INEC chairman who maintained that violence was a threat to the seamless conduct of the electoral process and a breach of the Electoral Act further dropped the hint that apart from the peace accord, his commission would convene a meeting, next week, under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), to convey INEC’s position on imperative of peaceful campaigns.

Again, when it comes to peaceful elections, most people think of physical violence before, during, and after the election. But we have a new threat on our hands — cyberbullying and social media terrorism by supporters of some presidential candidates.

This has to be the most toxic campaign on social media in the history of the country. Most people are bullied on social media for expressing their constitutional right to vote for their party or candidate of choice. Contrary opinions and choices are shut down on social media with insults and bullying. People forget we are in a democracy where a plurality of opinions and choices are allowed. We simply cannot continue this way.

In Nigeria, it is almost impossible to have issues-based campaigns as most of the candidates have no issues to discuss.

We also know the issues bedevilling our country and what we want to hear is how the presidential candidates would solve the thorny issues.

The major issues are insecurity and growing the economy. Most of the candidates have been waxing lyrically on the issues bedevilling the country and are short on how to solve them. Anyone can promise to change Nigeria overnight but we want to know the how with timelines.

No doubt, whoever takes over from President Muhammadu Buhari will face some hard times and some tough decisions have to be made. One major issue next year will be the removal of fuel subsidy which will trigger an increase in the prices of goods and services. Everything in Nigeria is tied to the price of petrol. Expect inflation to spiral next year.

Secondly the contentious issue of funding tertiary education. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would still go on strike in the next administration unless some hard decisions are taken.

I also share the view of Muhammadu Sanusi II, the former Emir of Kano, who said Nigerians should not vote for any politician who claims that everything will be easy once elected.

Back to the peace accord, the candidates should caution their supporters against social media terrorism which is probably worse than physical violence.

As I previously said, it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than to have an issue-based election. That is how we are wired in this country. We must abuse and attack our political opponents. Soon we will start seeing shadowy groups on the media attacking their political opponents.

That brings me to the issue of debates. I strongly believe that candidates should make themselves available for presidential debates. Not that it will change things anyway. The truth is most people have already decided on who they are going to vote for in the presidential election. But we still have a few undecided voters who are sitting on the fence and may change their minds when they see the candidates during the debates. There are more than five presidential debates and I would love to see all the candidates attend the debates. That’s the least the electorate deserve.