By Sunday Ani
The campaigns for the 2023 general election have started in earnest and the atmosphere is gradually being charged with political statements and slogans. Nigerians are anxiously waiting to go to the polls to elect a new set of leaders. But, there are concerns in many quarters on whether the twin campaign tools of religion and ethnicity will still be the major determinant of electoral victories as they had always been.
Those who express this fear would always cast their minds back to the first parliamentary elections in 1959; shortly before Nigeria’s independence in 1960, and subsequent elections up to as recent as the 2019 general election.
They agreed that the December 12, 1959 parliamentary election, which was dominated by the three major political parties at that time, the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, later the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), and the Action Group (AG), was characterised by the highest level of ethnic, religious and sectional politics. Eventually, the NPC won 134 seats out of the 312 seats in the House of Representatives, while the remaining votes were shared between the NCNC and AG.
Close watchers of political developments in Nigeria are very quick to trace the ethnic division, which has today clogged Nigeria’s wheel of growth and development to the rancour, animosity and mistrust that followed the outcome of the 1959 parliamentary election results.
Regrettably, however, those divisive tools of religion, ethnicity and sectional sentiments have remained the potent instruments, which politicians have readily deployed at any material time to their own political advantage, leaving the masses to wantonly abuse, hate and even kill themselves.
Since September 28, when the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), blew the whistle setting in motion the campaigns for the 2023 presidential election, political gladiators and their supporters have already started oiling their sectional, religious and ethnic tools to be massively deployed just to hoodwink and blindfold the poor masses into casting their votes for them. It is a deliberate ploy by the politicians to gain electoral mileage in the 2023 elections and satisfy their political ambitions, not minding the fate of their supposed brethrens in the same ethnicity or religious faith.
But, there is a new political development in the horizon. Never in the chequered Nigeria’s political history have the youths shown the kind of preparedness and willingness to actively participate in the electoral process as they have shown in the build up to the 2023 elections. The youths appear to have woken up from their age-long slumber and shown determination to take back Nigeria from those who have used religion and ethnicity to divide and rule them blindly over the years. They appear determined to restore the patriotic and nationalistic principle upon which the foundation of Nigeria is supposedly standing by engendering the true spirit of brotherhood devoid of ethnic, religious or sectional differences.
Many youths insist that campaigns about the 2023 general elections should be issues based; and that voters should consider candidates based on merit rather than their religious, tribal or sectional affiliations. The battle line seems to have been drawn between the old order that employs religious and ethnic tools to campaign for elections and the new order that promotes peace and unity through issues-based campaigns, which only recognize merit, irrespective of the candidate’s religion, tribe or political party.
However, there are concerns in some quarters that even with the push by the youths and most Nigerians that the campaigns should be dominated by issues that affect the people’s lives positively, there are still some sinister moves by some politicians and their lackeys to employ the tools of religion and ethnicity, even if subtly, to create divisions among Nigerians to achieve their selfish aim of winning elections at all cost.
The fear and concern of possible deployment of religion and ethnicity as campaign tools have been demonstrated at one time or the other by both candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Just on Saturday, October 15, at the Arewa Joint Committee interactive sessions with various presidential candidates of political parties in Kaduna, the PDP candidate was quoted to have said that the North does not need an Igbo or Yoruba president, but someone from the North, ostensibly referring to himself.
He was quoted to have said: “I have traversed the whole of this country. I know the whole of this country. I have built bridges across the country. What the average Northerner needs is somebody who is from the North and also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country. This is what the northerner needs; he doesn’t need a Yoruba or an Igbo candidate. This is what the northerner needs. I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of Northern origin.”
A cross section of Nigerians has reacted to the statement credited to Atiku, with some describing him as an ethnic bigot who is trying to deploy ethnic sentiment to his electoral advantage.
Even the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has joined the fray calling on Atiku to apologise to the Igbo and the entire Southern Nigeria for bringing divisive politics into his campaigns.
However, the APC candidate also recently described the PDP as a political party of termites that should not be allowed to return to power, instead of telling Nigerians what it wants to do for them if voted into power.
Tinubu is alleged to have made the statement in his address at the inauguration of the APC Women Tinubu-Shettima Campaign Team, at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He said: “They are a political party of termites. They are in the village of lunacy. A nation is not just built on abusive language. It has been sixteen years of nothingness, rudderlessness, digging the hole of indebtedness. Never again shall they come back. A new hope is here.”
The APC is also alleged to have said that those who are not in support of his candidacy are the enemies of the Yoruba race; a statement many have said is tantamount to whipping up ethnic sentiment to gain electoral mileage ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
But, the question is: “Will Nigerians allow politicians to divide them with religion and ethnicity this time around, or will they ask politicians to tell them how they can create a peaceful and prosperous Nigeria, where everybody will live in love and unity, irrespective of one’s religion or ethnicity?”
Lending his voice to the conversation, the president of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Pogu Bitrus argued that every rational Nigerian would prefer an issue-based campaign. He warned Nigerians to look at the track records of whomever that is campaigning to determine whether the person has been sincere or deceitful. “How did the person emerge? People who bought their way to get the ticket should not be listened to. People who deceived their opponents, telling lies from all sides of their mouths would do the same thing when they get to office, so Nigerians should not listen to such persons. So, the campaign should be issue based,” he stressed.
He said what is happening in Nigeria today should serve as a big lesson to the people in the North because in 2014, it was more of religion and ethnicity and everybody followed the ‘Sai Baba,’ slogan without critically looking at the issues. “Today, everybody is crying. Go to the North and see that they are crying more than other people and it is simply because rather than chose issue based campaigns, they preferred religion and ethnicity. That should stop. We have people who are brilliant and young with good track records out there; let Nigerians look at what is needful to birth the new Nigeria we need to address the issues we are facing, so that we can have a better country. So, campaigns should be issues-based; not religion and ethnicity,” he submitted.
However, the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, also noted that the use of religion and ethnicity to campaign for elections has been the problem of Nigeria all the while. He lamented that the politicians are still not prepared to change but expressed confidence that something would change them this time around. “Somebody has to raise the bar above the pedestrian and mundane of religion and ethnicity. On the other hand, somebody must be able to create a philosophical framework upon which a new ideology that is touching the heart of everybody is created. It should go beyond religion and ethnicity,” he said.
He argued that of all the sentiments that politicians use to campaign for election, especially in Nigeria, the one of ethnicity is the strongest; it is stronger than that of religion. He, however, noted that the one that is stronger than ethnicity is economic sentiment because it has no boundary. “Whether you are Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Efik, Ijaw, Benin or whatever tribe, you can’t survive hunger for a long time. So, the moment you see a window through which you can overcome your poverty; you will grab it because that is the way to go. So, what is important in all the campaign promises or manifesto is that person who will be able to create a better economy for everybody. The moment the person with the resourcefulness, the ingenuity and the intellect to create a better economic environment that will reduce poverty, create mass employment and reduce the number of strife in Nigeria emerges, Nigerians will embrace such persons, because that is the economic sentiment which is stronger, greater and more relevant than religious and ethnic sentiments,” he said.
He stressed that the campaigns should not only be issues-based but also on economic revival of Nigeria. “So, of all the candidates parading themselves for the presidential election, Nigerians should look for the person who has the most robust manifesto that will turn around the economy of Nigeria; that is the person that Nigerians should follow. So, the campaign should be based on economic revival, not just on issues,” he stated.
Also reviewing the situation is the president of the Northern Youths Consultative Forum (NYCF), Alhaji Shettima Yerima, who condemned the use of religion or ethnicity as campaign tools, arguing that it would only divide the country further. He warned that any politician who comes forward with religion or ethnicity as a yardstick to get votes from Nigerians must be rejected as such a person does not only have nothing to offer Nigerians, but such a person is also an enemy of the country. “Such a politician should be avoided like a plague because Nigerians can’t afford to use religion or ethnicity to campaign in the 2023 elections. Nigerians should know that such politicians do not have anything to offer them and should be rejected outright,” he said.
Yerima noted that Nigeria is so fragile at present such that what is needed is a leader with goodwill, patriotism and commitment, so that the country could be united once again. “So we can’t afford to lose this chance,” he added.
He advised voters to look out for committed and patriotic politicians who are ready to unite Nigeria and not the ones that would divide the country further. “We have had enough of this madness, so Nigerians must be very weary and conscious of those coming forward to seek for their votes. Once they throw up tribal or religious sentiment into their campaign, they should be rejected immediately because they have nothing but chaos and hardship to offer Nigerians,” he submitted.