‘Silly season’

Officially, political gladiators are back on the hustings. Not that they ever left, but now they have legal imprimatur to openly electioneer. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) approved open campaigning towards the forthcoming national elections to kick off from last Wednesday, 19th August, and campaigning for the state elections to commence on 09th September. By the commission’s timetable, the presidential and national legislature elections are scheduled for 16th January, 2027, while the governorship and state legislature polls will hold on 6th February, 2027. Electoral law provides that campaigning by political parties should commence 150 days before election day and terminate 24 hours to the poll.

Political parties and candidates flagged off the season with the signing of a peace agreement in Abuja on Tuesday, 08th August. Anchored by the National Peace Committee, the contenders by the accord committed to peaceful and issue-based campaigning, and pledged to shun violence, hate speech, personal attacks, misinformation and other forms of conduct that could undermine the electoral process. The pact signing was a symbolic act, but it was profound in significance because it highlighted ethical boundaries on which political actors should set their sight as they go to make their case with the electorate. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, participated in the pact signing along with National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, for the ruling party. The ceremony also brought to the accord table the leadership of many political parties and their presidential torchbearers like Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC) and Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Other parties that participated include the Peoples Redemption Party, Labour Party, Democratic Leadership Alliance, National Democratic Party, National Rescue Movement, Youth Party, Young Progressives Party and Zenith Labour Party. It was a shame that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who is the candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), stayed away.

The National Peace Committee, a civic initiative of elder statesmen like former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto Sa’ad Abubakar, and frontline Catholic cleric, Bishop Matthew Kukah, conceived the accord as a moral code for political actors to uphold the Nigerian Constitution, the Electoral Act, guidelines issued by INEC and other laws regulating the electoral process. The committee had facilitated similar pacts in previous poll cycles as part of efforts to prevent electoral contests degenerating into violence or other abuses.

Speaking at the event, President Tinubu, represented by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) George Akume, charged political actors to place national interest above everything else and not approach elections as do-or-die. “Signing this peace accord is a solemn pledge to the Nigerian people that we, as leaders, will put the nation’s interests above personal or partisan ambitions,” he said. Urging fellow contenders to resist the temptation to exploit primitive faultlines for their campaigns, he added: “It is natural during campaign to disagree as opponents and advocate competing governing missions for our country. We may exchange occasional political jabs. But as members of the same household, the same national family, we must never resort to divisive and primordial sentiments of ethnicity or religion as tools for seeking power. Let us campaign on superior ideas. Let us debate issues and promote the best policies to expand opportunities for our people.”

INEC Chairman Professor Joash Amupitan, who witnessed the occasion, said Nigerians were looking forward to an electoral process that would be credible and campaigns that would address problems confronting the country rather than dwell on personal attacks. He urged candidates to focus their campaign on the economy, national security and other germane issues, adding: “Electoral contests in a constitutional democracy are not wars, they are competitive job interviews before the electorate. Nigerians do not want insults, they want solutions.”

“Elections aren’t wars and electioneering shouldn’t seem like one”

Ethical codes as were canvassed at the pact signing will no doubt make for decent electioneering – a period when voters are presented with persuasive alternatives from which to make reasoned choices without duress. Whether political actors will abide remains to be seen. And it isn’t that the codes are beyond human reach. All it will take is for political actors to be civil in composure and ensure high level of political tolerance in their campaign, which they should also inculcate in their supporters. High political tolerance is a hallmark of mature democracies, added to other traits like a culture that respects rival views, strongly independent electoral boards and highly dispassionate legal systems. Campaigning in such democracies entail robust public debates without fear of violent confrontation among rivals.

Can we have such an environment in Nigeria? Yes, we can! It only requires strong determination on the part of our political actors. Let’s be clear: even the United States from which Nigeria copied its current political system isn’t a gold standard as it is categorised a flawed democracy on global democracy indexes. Top raters include Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland where there is safe environment for campaigning by candidates who hold rallies and ply competing views without attacks from rivals. During the last election in Norway, candidates displayed their campaign banners side-by-side on sidewalks as their representatives made salesman-like pitches with passersby to explain their respective programmes. And they were friendly towards one another while at it. 

Other features of such societies are that candidates get fair media access, as state and private media routinely give equitable time to different parties. Besides, there is peaceful acceptance of electoral verdicts – with losing parties and candidates readily conceding, even though they reserve the right to challenge the outcome in court if they feel so inclined. These are standards Nigeria should learn from. 

‘Silly season’ is an expression coined in the 19th century to describe the time when journalists in the West faced some dilemma: Washington was on summer break and European governments were on vacation, but columns and other spaces of newspapers typically devoted to politics must yet be filled; hence, mundane stuff like stories about beating the heat and how celebrities were managing to do so, among others, were published. 

Here in Nigeria, electioneering period is the political equivalent of the silly season. Political actors take to the stump and largely ply trivia by way of character assassination and outlandish promises, rather than substantial issues of well-thought-out  policies and governance ideas. Already, for the presidential contest, we can see such trivia playing out. The incumbent administration has said it would campaign on performance indices and empirical records of positive impacts of its reforms in the last three years and half. You would expect serious challengers to proffer viable alternatives and outline realistic steps towards attaining such alternatives. But what have we got? Outlandish promises!

But making outlandish promises is even a better behaviour in our context. More egregious is the gutter culture of character assassination that some political actors major on – relentlessly digging into past histories of opponents as if that is sufficient attestation to their own qualification for the office they seek. It is silly to think you become better suited for an office simply by exhuming dubious histories purported to be damaging records of your opponent, when you have not shown any inherent merit you have qualifying you for such office.

Worse of all is political violence as means of electioneering. The recent governorship in Osun State that was characterised by high level of poll-related violence is an example of how not to electioneer. A report by a civil society group that conducted a pre-election security risk assessment cited at least 29 deaths recorded as at when the report was compiled. According to the group, there were no fewer than 73 election-related incidents of violence that occurred. It noted that the violence was orchestrated, not spontaneous, concentrated around politically significant locations and aimed at intimidating voters, suppress turnout and influence electoral outcomes. Thankfully, there was high voter turnout in the Osun election and the people made their choice, but the loss of lives can never be remediated.

Elections aren’t wars and electioneering shouldn’t seem like one.