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Political actors promoting violence, say security experts
They have also continued to display violent tendencies. As the political play approaches its grand finale, security experts in the country have expressed fear over the forthcoming elections.
The Chief Executive Officer and Principal Consultant, Zenith Intelligence, Mr Ethelbert Oney, said that his fear is hinged on the calamity that could befall the country after the elections. “My major fear is on post-election violence.
We have bad losers in Nigeria. Politicians in Nigeria see elections as do-or-die affair. So post-election violence is imminent! The only way to stop it from occurring is through awareness and enlightenment of politicians and their supporters. “Post-election violence may happen because of greed and deceit among politicians and the aspirants who feel that leadership is their birth right.
As I’m speaking to you now, I have sent a proposal to the National chairman of the PDP for post election violence training and awareness. This is what they need. It is possible they won’t want to listen.”
A retired Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, who has become a renowned political and security analyst, said he could already perceive violence in the air. This had always been his fear.
According to him, there are people beating the drums of war. He said: “We pray that there will not be violence before, during and after the elections. We pray that our people will be civilised and choose peace instead of violence. But there is one thing I want to say, people want to use violence because there has been massive corruption in the country and nobody has done anything to stop corruption.”
“Some group of persons went into politics and became rich overnight. That is why many others are tempted to want to go into politics, so that they too can become rich overnight. Those that are there don’t want to leave the post. They want to continue making money.
“If the government of President Goodluck Jonathan has fought corruption headlong, maybe this desperation would not have been there. Our major problem in this country is corruption. As you can see, General Muhammadu Buhari has hinged his campaign on three things; corruption, insecurity and economy.
But the PDP has concentrated on blackmail. Today, they will say Buhari is sick, tomorrow they would say Buhari has no certificate. Next tomorrow they would say Buhari is too old, which one are we going to rely on?”
Tsav added that President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is old, but is ruling his country very effectively. According to him, Nigerians do not expect Buhari to put on hand gloves and start boxing everyone in the street. The retired Lagos State police commissioner added that as a president, all Buhari needed was to sit down and issue instructions to his deputies. He said: “Buhari has people who would do the job for him. He can instruct the military to go and quell the Boko Haram insurgency, but you do not expect him to go there with gun himself.
“But when we have a president who does not care, what bothers him most is to feel that he is the president. That he can give people oil rigs, licences to import firearms, steal crude oil and steal tons of money. He feels he can give people opportunity to buy jets and they can fly these jets in the air, when our roads are bad and people are dying every day. “We pray there should be no violence.
If it starts, we do not know who would be able to escape. Since the Civil War did not divide us, this desperation to win election will not divide us. We shall survive.” Security consultant at Mega Guards Security, Mr Richard Amuwa said that his greatest fear was over the utterances of political and religious leaders and what such utterances could lead to eventually. He said: “Such utterance will aggravate circumstances surrounding the election. For example, the advert that Ayo Fayose placed was horrible. Normally, under social responsibility, that sort of advert should not have been accepted.
“The comment of Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel is not good too. He said it. The video is online. There are also the comments of Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka in Enugu, all these are what caused my fear. “These religious leaders have followers who respect and see them as tin gods. Thus, their statements matter a lot. At this stage, they should be making statements that will calm nerves.
“The issue of Buhari’s certificate is an example. Buhari has a lot of followers. If anybody has issue, let the person go to court and prove his or her points. They should stop insulting him. All these events are likely going to make the elections go bad.” Renowned security expert, Dr Ona Ekhomu, also said his fear for the election was also over unguarded statements. Such comments, according to him, are stoking the embers of violence. Ekhomu added that comments of some religious leaders showed that they had become politicians.
He said: “The utterances of many of them are too unguarded. They are very irresponsible. The rhetoric is that if our leader does not win, there would be upheaval, meaning violence.” Ekhomu said that it was disappointing that even when the political leaders were signing the peace pact; their supporters were still pandering to violence. He added: “It means it won’t work because they are undercutting the accord. “I think the problem is that there is a lot of loose talks and a lot of inciting talks.
Just yesterday, I read in the papers, a retired general saying that if the election was postponed, it would lead to a military coup. What kind of statement is that? I’m more disappointed in our intelligence authority that they are not calling such people to come and explain what they meant by a coup. Maybe there is a conspiracy. Such statement does not help matters. Its means the speaker is giving people auto suggestion that they should involve themselves in illegal conduct.”
Ekhomu said that the media needed to educate the people and create greater awareness on how to further avoid violence. He said: “For the sake of Nigeria and because we do not have any other country to run to, journalists need to hold politicians to a very high level of accountability. Violence is a whirlwind, which nobody wins and everybody suffers.” Mr Folorusho Atta, a security analyst, said that he was also worried about statements from major political players in the country. Such statements, according to him, can lead to eruption of violence.
He said: “Only last weekend, a rally organised for a senatorial aspirant witnessed sporadic shootings in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State. “There are too much illegal arms in the hands of individuals and groups.
Our security agents have an uphill task in ensuring such arms are not used on law-abiding citizens during and after the elections.” Atta added that the attacks on President Jonathan’s convoy were pointers that all may not be well with the forthcoming elections. The security expert reasoned that threats from militants who in the past illegally procured assorted arms and ammunition should not be swept under the carpet.
He said: “If the necessary agencies rest on their oars over these threats, then we are in for trouble. The elections of 1964 saw people carry charms and cutlasses. In 1983, it was double barrelled-guns, petroleum products. These have now been replaced by AK49 rifles, gunboats and surface missiles. There is every cause for alarm. Let no one deceive Nigerians with sugar-coated tongues.”
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