ANAMBRA STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION – UNKNOWN GUN MEN AS A RIGGING STRATEGY

Gunmen abduct corpse and family members in Enugu, makes demand

The Anambra state gubernatorial election of 06th November, 2021 has come and gone. Lessons have been learned by all stakeholders. It is important to analyze events both before and after the election in order to chart a way forward. It is common knowledge that the situation on ground became almost unbearable just before the election. The murderers known as UNKNOWN GUNMEN ran riot and visited the state with siege. It was difficult to say with any certainty whether the election would hold or not. A lot of stakeholders including Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) called for the postponement of the election to a more conducive time as allowed by the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act. The fear and apprehension among the people was palpable and very thick in the air.

ANAMBRA STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION - UNKNOWN GUN MEN AS A RIGGING STRATEGY
ANAMBRA STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION – UNKNOWN GUN MEN AS A RIGGING STRATEGY

The massive deployment of Security Apparatchik by government to the state did little to assuage people’s feelings of insecurity and did not give them any comfort. It was very curious that these unknown gunmen were both invincible and invisible to the government security personnel that no news of the arrest of any one of them or the bursting of their gang was ever heard throughout the period. How then do you win back the confidence of the people in that kind of scenario? Could you conduct a FREE AND FAIR ELECTION devoid of fear and intimidation in that situation? Elections should not only be free and fair but must be seen to be free and fair.

 

Can an election in which the turn out was less than ten (10) percent of eligible voters conducted in an atmosphere of palpable fear of the unknown gunmen be adjudged to be FREE AND FAIR? Can an election in which voting did not take place in some towns and communities of the state be adjudged free and fair? Can an election in which most of the political parties and their candidates could not conduct electioneering four weeks to the d-day for the FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN GUNMEN be deemed to be credible, free and fair? It is both curious and ironical that everything about the unknown gunmen VANISHED IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE ELECTION.



It is now clear to all that the unknown gunmen saga in Anambra state was a political tool designed to achieve a premeditated outcome. My disappointment is that the security agencies could not arrest the marauders either in ACTION or through an AFTER THE FACT INVESTIGATION. The Anambra state governorship election was contested by about eighteen (18) political parties but only three political parties conducted political campaign from four weeks to the D-Day. The rest were scared out of the campaign grounds. Is it fair? The unknown gunmen was used as a RIGGING STRATEGY and if the injustice is not redressed , it forebodes nasty OMEN for our nascent democracy in the long run. Elections are meant to be won and lost but let those who win do so fair and square not through a CLEARLY OFF-SIDE GOAL. Those whose BLOOD WERE SHED in this KILLINGS by the unknown gunmen would be turning in their graves when it is realized that the election for which the unknown gunmen killed them turned out a CARICATURE.

 

An election in which only three out of the about 18 political contenders campaigned to the end while the rest were scared out of campaign grounds by the fearsome unknown gunmen can not be a free and fair election. Before an election can be adjudged to be free and fair certain parameters must be present and their absence is a a negation of the globally accepted standards namely:
1) Were the voters scared of voting?
2) Were the political campaigns free of intimidation?
3) Were there palpable threats to lives and property?
4) Were some voting communities disenfranchised?
5) Were there reported incidents of violence against election officials?
If the answers to the above questions are YES, then the election was NOT FREE AND FAIR. It means that the MANDATORY PARAMETERS FOR A FREE AND FAIR ELECTION WERE NOT PRESENT.

 

The gubernatorial election of 6th November, 2021 was initially to be the most hotly contested election in the history of Anambra state when INEC lifted the ban on political campaign activities because of the single-minded vibrancy of all the contestants. The parties conducted their respective PRIMARIES peacefully and without any incidents. The candidates that emerged as candidates of the various political parties campaigned with gusto. Then the UNKNOWN GUNMEN took over the entire political space , dictated the pace of electioneering and changed the entire narratives. The state witnessed unexplained killings which instilled fears into the contestants and voters alike. The candidate of the Labour Party , one of the political parties cleared to contest the election was kidnapped during the period, yet INEC went ahead , conducted the election and declared a winner. That is as unbelievable as it is illogical. Apart from the political parties which had sitting governors in some states and/or the President at the center, all the other 15 political parties were scared of campaigning to the end as their candidates feared for their lives and those of their supporters. The personal protective security which government gave the candidates was not adequate to cover electioneering. Faced with the overt and covert threats from the unknown gunmen, most unit leaders of their campaign melted into thin air for fear of their lives.



An election in which only three out of the eighteen political parties were able to mount effective campaigns because of the visible threats of the unknown gunmen cannot be called a free and fair election. It should worry us that these actually happened under our very nose and were not hypothetical. What happened is common knowledge to all and sundry and we cannot afford to play the OSTRICH here. Like the ROTARY CLUB INTERNATIONAL WOULD SAY; THE THING THAT YOU DO, IS IT FAIR TO ALL? DOES IT BRING GOODWILL TO MANKIND? This is a universal dictum which should guide our humanity. This should be a metaphor for different states of the Federation and indeed the entire country. We cannot be talking about free and fair elections when the entire country or a substantial part of it is under the siege of insecurity. We cannot be talking of a free and fair election when majority of the cleared political parties and their candidates are not able to campaign because of insecurity and collateral consequences. Insecurity is now pervasive in the country with peculiarities or colorations based on particular part of the country. This should worry us. All efforts should be geared towards bringing insecurities in Nigeria to a tolerable level so that elections can hold seamlessly. An election which was conducted under these circumstances of mortal fear of the unknown gunmen can not be adjudged to be FREE AND FAIR. THIS IS MY VERDICT.

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