Premature campaigns as INEC’s festering headache

Despite repeated warnings by the Independent National Electoral Commission against starting political campaigns, political parties have found ways of engaging in premature  campaigns in total violation of INEC directive.

The INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, had at a recent forum in Lagos, announced that the commission was not only identifying defaulters, but also compiling a list with a view to forwarding same to security agencies for possible prosecution. He appealed to political parties

to abide by provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (As amended).

The Act stipulates that campaigns should start 90 days to the date of election. Campaigns for the 2015 elections, scheduled for February, 2015 will not ordinarily start earlier than November, 2014.

Jega observed that the Electoral Act, which provides 90 days for the commencement of campaigns, took into account the fact that political parties would normally start canvassing for votes after their primaries or conventions.

Jega said, “As of now, none of the parties had held any primaries. It is therefore preposterous and hasty for individual to erect billboards or print posters urging voters to vote for him or her.”

Democracy, like sports, is a game which has rules. To enjoy the most of any sporting activity, it is expected that players of contending teams should abide by the rules. This is currently not the case among Nigeria’s political parties.

In the light of this, it is safe to submit that the provisions of the Electoral Act have been serially violated  by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party as well as the opposition All Progressives Congress without consequences.

The APC, which has since denied engaging in early campaigns, explained that unlike what the ruling party is currently engaged in, its zonal rallies merely introduced the new party to the people and provided a platform for defectors from other political parties to identify with their new platform.

The ruling PDP, which appears to have taken the gauntlet, has, however, held several zonal rallies; the most recent being the one held in Enugu, the Enugu State capital, last Friday.

The APC, while denouncing the Enugu rally, described it as unadulterated campaign by President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling PDP in the build up to the 2015 polls. Specifically, in a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC accused Jonathan and the ruling party of lawlessness.

APC’s position was a reaction to a declaration by the President that the PDP would maintain its dominance of the South East in the 2015 elections.

Mohammed said the President and his party were engaging in “crass lawlessness” by their serial violation of the country’s electoral law, under the guise of liberation and family or unity rallies across the country.

According to him, the President abused his executive power by leading his party to prematurely kick-start the campaign for the 2015 elections, in violation of the law. If the  action is anything to go by, the party insists, the 2015 general elections will be everything but free, fair and credible.

It equally called on INEC to assert its independence, if it has any, by sanctioning the lawbreakers since no one is above the law.

The APC warned that if INEC fails to act, it loses any moral authority to stop other parties from also hitting the streets to campaign ahead of time.

The statement partly read, “Hiding under nomenclature, this President has led his party to engage in brazen lawlessness and shameless impunity.

“They have gained an undue advantage over other parties, or beaten the gun, in athletics parlance. Therefore, they should suffer the consequences of their action, the least of which is a strong public rebuke, to be followed by stipulated sanctions if they persist.

“If nothing is done to check this lawlessness, Nigerians should brace for more in the days ahead. What example is the President laying by violating the law? When a President brazenly violates the electoral law under the guise of some rallies, has he not started election rigging? Has he not already started compromising the electoral umpires and the security agencies?

“We know the President’s conniving handlers and advisers do not appreciate that a higher standard of conduct is expected of the President of Nigeria, through his statements, actions and body language.

“Unfortunately, everything points to the fact that the President, by his serial violation, is telling Nigerians and the whole world loud and clear that the coming elections will neither be, free fair nor credible.’’

The party further argued that when President Jonathan boasted in Enugu, at the “so-called” Unity Rally, to capture the South-East in 2015, he was engaging in electioneering, rather than reunification campaign.

National Chairman of the United Peoples Party, Chief Chekwas Okorie, agrees.

He expressed the opinion that the President’s outing in Enugu, more than anywhere else, confirmed that he was already campaigning for the 2015 polls.

According to him, when Gen. Ike Nwachukwu, a PDP elder, who spoke during the Enugu event, asked the people of the zone “to vote 100 per cent for Jonathan, in 2015,” he was already conversing for votes.

This, he says, is to all intents and purposes, the essence of all campaigns.

Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Abdullahi Jalo, and the Political Adviser to the President, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, dismissed concerns raised about the propriety of the President’s actions.

Both men accused the APC of behaving true to type.

Jalo said members of the opposition, especially those in the APC, were showing signs of defeat long before the election starts.

He said, “There was nothing wrong with what Mr. President said in Enugu. What happened in Enugu was an extended family meeting. When family members meet, they discuss issues of mutual interest. He has not broken any law.”

Gulak on his part maintained that since no individual was presented as the PDP presidential candidate at the Enugu rally, it would be wrong for the APC to accuse the President of violating the law.

He said, “If the APC people are saying the unity rally of the PDP is not in accordance with the Electoral Act, ask them, the rallies they had in Port Harcourt, Kano, Sokoto and Adamawa, what are they called?

“The INEC rule and Electoral Act say there is a time for campaign. What PDP is doing is meeting with members of the party. It is called unity rally. There are no candidates to campaign for. The President is not attending as presidential candidate; he attends as one of the stakeholders and leader of the PDP.”

The presidential aide explained that nobody, including the President, attended any of these rallies as governorship or senatorial candidate. According to him, all the APC was doing was nothing short of a fearful response to PDP’s “rising profile” as the party of choice among Nigerians.

Gulak advised members of the APC to come to terms with the reality.

“Tell them that the end of the road has come for them; tell them they are scattering, they are dead on arrival and we are just waiting to bury them,” he said.

The National Chairman of Labour Party, Chief Dan Nwayanwu, said INEC should take the blame for looking the other way when the APC started its zonal rallies.

He observed that INEC had shown that it lacked the capacity to caution big political parties when they clearly stepped out of line.

Nwayanwu said INEC should take the blame for the violation of the Electoral Act by both the PDP and the APC as the parties began their campaigns two months ago.

“INEC is afraid of handing out sanctions because the two parties have big names and big money, INEC is afraid of them. If it were a small party, INEC would have clamped on them long ago.” He added.

The umpire, who is saddled with the responsibility of enforcing the rules of the game appears helpless. The challenge before the election management body is to prove to Nigerians that it cannot only bark but that it can also bite.

Jega’s threats to prosecute those found culpable of flouting the rules are yet to yield results. This becomes more evident considering the fact that no politician or political party of note has been prosecuted for embarking on premature campaign.

It is becoming increasingly likely that the INEC either lacks the courage to act or is simply looking the other way because of the profile of the parties involved in flouting its rules.

Should this situation continue, the commission stands the risk of being forced to accept bigger violations, which may be capable of scuttling the commission’s preparations for the 2015 elections and the outcome. For INEC, the time to act is now.