This trend is scaring

The Daily Trust newspaper in its March 6, 2013 edition carried a story on page III of the Aso Chronicle pull-out that a 40-year-old supporter of the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP), Mohammed Bawa, was shot dead. The deceased was allegedly shot by a tout sympathetic to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the area. […]

The Daily Trust newspaper in its March 6, 2013 edition carried a story on page III of the Aso Chronicle pull-out that a 40-year-old supporter of the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP), Mohammed Bawa, was shot dead. The deceased was allegedly shot by a tout sympathetic to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the area. According to media reports, the suspect was protecting a PDP’s candidate posters and warned that he would shoot anybody who came closer to the posters. The deceased being a brother to the suspect (even though a supporter of a different political party) did not take the latter serious, and thus decided to come closer the posters. The suspect there and then shot him on the chest and he died instantly.
The suspect and the deceased are said to be brothers from Tungan-Maje village (near Zuba) who have been on political rivalry since the campaigns for today’s elections began. The Zuba Divisional Police Officer, Chief Superintendent Adelegan Femi, confirmed the incident and added that the deceased and the suspect were touts at Tungan-Maje Motor Park, and both were supporters of ANPP and PDP respectively.
Now, the suspect has killed his brother. Yet, today’s polls are still taking place. The elections were never postponed to honour the deceased. If the PDP contestant whose poster led to the killing of Mohammed Bawa did not shoot anybody to feature or win today’s election, what is it that prompted the suspect to sacrifice his brother in a contest that he is no more than a supporter? Was the suspect under the influence of drugs when he committed the crime? If yes, who empowered him with the drugs as well as arms and ammunition which he used in killing his brother? This trend is scaring and politicians are to blame for most of these violent crimes as they are central to providing the enabling environment for the survival of political thuggery and thugs. They harbor thugs and touts to protect their self-centered interests. The keeping of thugs by politicians is evidently becoming part of the informal structures built and explored by politicians to manipulate political processes.
The strange dimension in the electioneering campaigns by politicians in the last three weeks in the FCT has been a matter of concern to peace-loving Nigerians. You are likely to regret Nigeria’s model of politics if by chance you run into a campaign procession in some of the Area Councils. What I saw last week in Gwagwalada when I ran into one of such political processions was indeed frightening. The retinue of supporters was led and also closed from behind with over a hundred motorcycle riders.
It was not the large number of motorcycles that was disturbing. More upsetting was the nuisance caused by the deafening noise produced by the motorcycles which mufflers were removed from their silencers. Many of the motorcycles were carrying three and even four riders at a time. Some of the riders were displaying dangerous riding ‘skills’ endangering the life of other road users. Some of the thugs also wore matches, swords, knives, bows and arrows as if they were going for war. Some of the cars in the procession also had their exhaust pipes removed to produce high roaring noise. This, I assume, is the common character of Nigerian politicians and politics. I don’t know whether this sort of violent noise and wild-looking youths are both part of a political party’s manifesto. I’m not also sure if this scaring trend is intended by politicians to guide the electorates in casting their votes.
How I wish Nigerian politicians were in practice (and not necessarily in ideology) like Alhaji Aliyu Abdullahi (Magajin-GariAgaie), a retired Deputy Comptroller-General of Immigration, who contested for the House of Representatives in the 2011 elections. Although the stalwarts of the party he joined (PDP) made sure he never went beyond primary elections, he stands out among his colleagues as a politician with a moral sense of decency and responsibility; which were some of the values for which he was detested. When he declared intention to contest, he boldly told the congregation of political thugs who paid him a solidarity visit that he needed no single thug to follow him about; and added, “If you cannot see any of my children following me or any other person as a political thug, why do you think it is good enough for you to be a thug?”. Well, Magaji-Gari Agaie should have no regrets if the intrigues and manipulations that rigged him out of the contest were because he had no thugs.
Political education in Nigeria is so low that the electorate is not even aware of what to look for in a politician aspiring for a political office. The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to blame for the poor political education of the electorates. Are there no laws, if we may ask INEC; that define the conduct of political campaigns? Are there no laws that restrict party supporters from carrying weapons with them during campaigns? I guess there are. Why then are sanctions not applied on those who contravene provisions of the law? Could it be that INEC has merged with the political parties engaged in these vicious acts as General Muhammad Buhari recently suggested that INEC has merged with PDP?