How election posters litter Kaduna

Nearly all the political parties have selected their flag bearers and in a few months’ time the elections will come and go. Some of the contestants would be out of sight thereafter and they will be erased from people’s minds before long. But one thing that won’t go out of sight soon are their posters […]

Nearly all the political parties have selected their flag bearers and in a few months’ time the elections will come and go. Some of the contestants would be out of sight thereafter and they will be erased from people’s minds before long. But one thing that won’t go out of sight soon are their posters which have become common sight in every nook and cranny of the city.
In Kaduna, the indiscriminate posting of posters is disturbing as it has littered the environment and made the state more untidy. Worse still, solid liquid gums and concentrated starch were used to post these posters, thereby making them difficult to remove months/years after the elections.
Daily Trust discovered that there are no designated areas for posting of election posters. Similarly, there seem to be no restricted area for posting of posters as nowhere was spared. Campaign posters are found everywhere including house gates, walls and fences, roundabouts, road separators, street light posts, trees, electricity poles and high tension wires, transformers, kerosene tanks and abandoned cars. Even sign posts indicating businesses and their addresses, churches, mosques and organisations are covered with posters, including areas that are clearly written “Post No Bill”. Individual and party campaign offices are also covered with posters of different aspirants of the parties.
It was observed that there are certain areas where posters of a particular candidate or party are mostly found as a result of the area’s attachment to such candidates or party. If posters of unpopular candidates are posted in such areas they are either torn or defaced. Other times, it is risky to post posters of unpopular candidates in areas where they are not liked as one could be attacked. Whereas, there are places that are general ground for every candidate and party to post their posters.
However, prominent posters of candidates seen on the streets of Kaduna are those of the two main political parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Posters of Labour Party (LP), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and other minor political parties are only sparsely found.
In some places, every inch of wall space, is covered, while some candidate’s posters are often posted on those of other candidates. Sometimes, the boys paid to do this job deliberately cover the posters of the candidate of the other party. Other times it is because there is no other space left. Also, there are places where posters are glued to cartons and stones tied on them and then hung on high tension wires.
Again, these boys who post posters around do not necessarily belong to a particular political party as they are usually seen with posters of all political parties and candidates. They are said to constitute public nuisance and are often recruited as political thugs with just peanuts.  
A resident, Lawrence Enemona, told Daily Trust that the wall of his house was covered by posters as if the house was built for that purpose. He said he has several times quarreled and fought the boys posting the posters but they never stop posting them.
“I am not a politician and yet these errand boys for politicians won’t leave my house alone. They have covered every part of my wall with posters as if my house was built for that purpose. I have many times quarreled and fought with them but they just won’t stop. I wrote “Post No Bill” on my wall and they covered it with posters and the other parts of the wall. The real people eating money in politics are resting in their homes and paying peanuts to boys to go from one area to the other to spoil people’s walls with their posters. If the government cannot control this indiscriminate posting of posters then I think all campaign posters should be posted on government buildings and installations and not on private properties,” he said.
A councilor in Kakuri area of Kaduna South, Theophilus Madami, said all the political parties and all the aspirants are guilty of the offence. According to him, even though the beauty or the widespread of one’s posters cannot make him/her to win the election, it will surely increase such person’s popularity and people’s awareness.
 “There is no politician or political party that is not guilty of this offence. Posters are a veritable and strategic aspect of political campaign and that is why politicians are taking full advantage of it to connect and communicate with the electorate. There are politicians who never even get to contest the elections but you will see their posters flooding everywhere. Such people use the posters to announce themselves at the beginning of a political dispensation but probably withdraw after due consultations or after finding out that they won’t make it. Yet, they have used the posters to test their popularity. All these are still political tactics,” he said.
On how the posters can be removed and the town cleaned up after the elections, he said he can’t tell, but believes that government must have put measures in place to beautify the places that must have been made untidy by the posters.
When contacted, the General Manager of Kaduna Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA), Alhaji Sani Aminu, said they have met and resolved that issue and that soonest they will begin to implement the decisions reached.
He however said he was not mandated to talk on the issue or give details as only the Kaduna State Commissioner for Environment can speak on it. Meanwhile, efforts to reach the commissioner and get his reaction on the matter proved abortive.
Nevertheless, Kaduna State is in dire need of post-election cleanup in order to beautify the places that have been badly littered by the indiscriminate posting of political posters.