Election Violence in Nigeria
Election violence in Nigeria is nothing new but expectations this year are evoking fears that are sending out the country’s business and political classes. It is reported that they are emigrating in their numbers in anticipation of violence during the election of March 28. It is difficult to understand why mere elections should lead to violence.
The incidence of election violence is one that is hard to understand, especially among people living in the metropolitan world. In Africa it is more complicated. When it happened in Kenya in 2007, more than one thousand people, including women and children lost their lives and among those implicated were the current president and his senior aides. In the 2011 elections in Nigeria, Buhari’s loss to Jonathan triggered three days of riots in the north that killed 800 and displaced 65,000. The loss of life, limb and property usually impact the poor in society who are always vulnerable. It is currently reported that those who can afford are fleeing the country in their numbers to escape the anticipated carnage.
The perception that politics in Africa hinges on power and greed must be expunged once and for all and these elections in Nigeria must prove that the nation can hold its own without resorting to violence.
The large pool of unemployed youth provides fertile grounds for violence as it is a ready resource for power-hungry politicians. Never mind the rich and powerful fleeing their own country in fear, they would employ others to do their dastardly bidding even at the risk of their [the youths’] lives. Nigeria, whether we like it or not, is a Sub-Saharan African leader to who many others look up. Its break up will not inure to anyone’s benefit. Worse still the repercussions on neighboring states, the continent and the world in general would be catastrophic. Amandla joins well wishers and admirers of Nigeria to appeal to politicians to desist from connotations engaging in tragic acts of violence. The founding fathers of the nation did not write unnecessary violence into the struggle for sovereignty for Nigeria. Nigeria after half a century of political independence is still seeking for a commonality that would usher the country into a united entity. Nowhere has violence been the accepted tool for national unity. Seventy five years of Soviet Communist engagement could not save Soviet power and influence in the Union itself and its satellite states in Eastern Europe. Violence is a spurious tool whose impact is momentary. It is not sustaining. Africa wants to see a united and peaceful Nigeria leading the continent into a prosperous future. May the best be elected!
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