In four days, the nation’s eyes and attention will swing to the governorship election in Anambra State. Saturday, November 6, is the D-Day. The people had waited, debated energetically, and expressed their wishes that may or may not be realised on Saturday. The campaigns have been vigorous, even if severely disrupted by indiscriminately haphazard killings and destruction of property.
Anambra State is in a predicament. Here is a state that didn’t experience widespread bloodshed months ago suddenly turn into what has been described as “the killing fields” in which people going about their businesses are cornered and shot at like wild animals. The unrestrained, largely mysterious, and chilling frequency of the attacks have generated anger in the public sphere. The callous killings and wanton destruction of property, never before experienced in Anambra, have generated nervousness among members of the public.
All these macabre events have driven fear into the hearts of voters. The situation is uncertain, notwithstanding President Muhammadu Buhari’s pledge that the election must hold regardless of the state of insecurity. No one knows whether the election would hold successfully or whether it could be disrupted to the point where only a handful of people would be courageous enough to step out and vote.
The biggest challenge for the election is getting the people to go to polling booths to cast their ballot. In the past one week, Anambra citizens have experienced unprecedented influx of fully armed and sinister looking soldiers and police drawn from other regions of the country. It is one thing to inundate communities and villages with soldiers and policemen and women. It is another challenge to get the people to believe that the security agents would protect them and ensure their safety.
The presence of armed security men and women could have a boomerang effect on the outcome of the governorship election. Rather than assure the citizens that it is safe for them to move around and to vote on Saturday, the presence of soldiers and policemen and women could have the opposite effect. It could scare people from stepping out of their homes to vote on the election day. The Federal Government may have made an error of judgment. But it is a problem that is difficult to deal with easily.
If there was no visible presence of security men and women, the breakdown of law and order could continue. In that environment, many people would opt to stay indoors rather than risk their lives by going out to vote. It is indeed a devil’s alternative. The government could be confronted with negative repercussions irrespective of whatever action it took to guarantee a safe, free, fair, and credible governorship election in Anambra.
If the government took no action, Anambra could be overwhelmed by killers, hoodlums, thugs, bandits, and fly-by-night politicians who thrive in an anarchic environment. Surely, that atmosphere will make it impossible to conduct an election.
If the government applied strong force, as it has just done, by sending in thousands of security forces, the people could be terrified and concerned over their safety. They could refrain from participating in the election. It is a difficult scenario but it is one that no responsible government would wish to see escalate.
There is something mystifying about the governorship election in Anambra. When elections were conducted in other South-East states, no one ordered voters to stay at home or to abstain from the elections. No one or group threatened to undermine the integrity and credibility of the elections. So, why is the forthcoming election in Anambra so different? Why are people making a fuss about the governorship election in Anambra? What is so special about that governorship election?
As the home state of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the great Igbo leader who headed the Biafran fight for independence between 1967 and 1970, everyone expected the election in Anambra to be peaceful and focused as a mark of respect, recognition, and demonstration of appreciation for the leadership that Ojukwu provided to people in the South-East in those precarious years. But all that have been swept away. No one remembers Ojukwu now, it would seem, and, in particular, all the young men and women who fought and lost their lives during the civil war.
Against this background, one must ask: What purpose would be achieved by disrupting the election or encouraging voters to abstain from the election? Anambra people must reflect carefully, consciously, and wisely on the options available to them.
Governorship election holds once every four years. If Anambra citizens refuse to take part in the November 6 election, they would be haunted for many years by that ill informed decision. As Chukwuma Charles Soludo, one of the governorship candidates cautioned many weeks ago, the election of November 6 would most certainly produce a governor, regardless of the number of people who voted or abstained from the election.
It is alright for Anambra people to be upset with the Federal Government for the way the state and indeed Igbo people have been marginalised since the end of the civil war in 1970. No one can deny the people the right to express righteous indignation over the way they have been harshly treated, overlooked, and belittled for many decades. However, a people so denigrated and excluded would demonstrate maturity if they could put aside their anger for once and unite to deliberate on how to get out of their current conditions. Voting during the November 6 election is a duty and an important opportunity to use to make a strong statement about the present and the future.
Anambra people must not allow their anger against the government to blind their sense of judgment, their sense of reasoning, their ability to make informed decisions for the good of their state, and their civic right to participate in the democratic process.
Let us get this point clear. Igbo people are justified to express their outrage against the Federal Government and its scorched-earth policy that is being implemented openly and covertly in South-East states. The people must unite to identify the proper framework to adopt or the sound pathway to take that would lead to the achievement of their collective objectives.
We are now at a point where Igbo unity, common sense, dialogue, collaboration, and wide consultations with stakeholders such as Ohanaeze leaders, Igbo youth, traditional rulers, leaders of thought, students, labour unions, and everyone who is concerned about the welfare, wellbeing, security, safety, and the future of people in the South-East should be accorded priority.
Barring the usual election misconduct such as ballot box snatching, illegal pre-election thumb-printing or stamping of ballot papers, manipulation of votes, and rigging by the governorship candidates and their political parties, voters in Anambra will have the power on Saturday to elect a governor who will serve the interests of the people. Voters can exercise that right freely, transparently, credibly, and by refusing incentives offered by governorship candidates.
On Saturday, voters will hopefully have a glorious opportunity to show the world that they are above board, that they cannot be swayed by bags of rice, bundles of naira, and other inducements. The underlying message must be that Anambra State is not for sale to the highest bidder.