Despite Section 97 of the Electoral Act, 2022 prohibiting political conduct based on religion or tribe, there is concern about the potential consequences of borderline ethno-religious statements by some individuals and groups, making enforcement of the law a necessity in the interest of the country’s unity and security. ROBERT EGBE writes.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, stirred up an hornet’s nest in the political space on October 15, following his advice that Northerners should vote for him in the 2023 election because, among other things, he hails from the region.
Atiku, who spoke during an interactive session with the Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna, told his audience not to support a Yoruba or Igbo candidate, in what has been interpreted to be a reference to the presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi.
According to Abubakar, a Fulani from Adamawa State, “what the average Northerner needs is somebody who’s 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. It doesn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate. I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin,’’ the ex-vice-president stated in a viral video.
The condemnations – whether right or wrong – were swift and many from the PDP flagbearer’s critics, particularly the other political parties with presidential candidates in next year’s polls and concerned interest groups. In their view, the self-proclaimed “unifier” was playing an ethnic card.
In a statement signed by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) said Abubakar’s comment was a breach of the national peace accord all presidential aspirants recently signed.
The CNPP added that “inciting people of one’s ethnicity or religious extraction against others after signing National Peace Accord with a pledge to commit to campaigns based on their programmes and the capacity to deliver on campaign promises is a national disservice that must be condemned.”
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide said it found it “weird and disappointing” that Abubakar, “could mount the podium at a public function and play such an ethnic card.,” adding that the PDP man “is further pushing the country into disintegration.”
The APC Presidential Campaign Council condemned the comment.
In a statement signed by the Director, Media and Publicity of the Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, the council described the speech as the “worst expression of ethnocentric opportunism ever uttered by a former Vice President.”
There were also insinuations that Abubakar may have breached Section 97 of the Electoral Act, 2022, which prohibits political campaigns based on religion or tribe, among other laws.
Reacting to the comment, the Director of Voter Intelligence, Strategy and Policy Analyst of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Osita Chidoka, said Abubakar would not apologise for the comments.
Chidoka, who spoke last Tuesday during an interview on “Politics Today,” a programme on Channels Television, said the comment did not warrant an apology.
“I think we need to move beyond these political gimmicks and political gimmickry that goes on when people say one thing, we turn it the other way round and we use it for political ends.
“So, I don’t think that it is a statement that warrants any apologies or discussions. It is for Vice President Atiku to continue to explain himself to the public,” the former aviation minister said.
Similarly on July 23, constitutional lawyer Jiti Ogunye Saturday warned religious leaders that it was unlawful to engage in political campaigns based on religion or tribe.
Specifically, he condemned a Christian cleric who threatened his congregation with hell, if they failed to vote in “the favour of the Church”.
In Ogunye’s view, the cleric’s comment violated the 2022 Electoral Act, and was thus, “a criminal offence.”
The lawyer’s comment made on his Facebook page was directed at a video of Bishop David Abioye, the First Vice President of the Living Faith Church Worldwide. Abioye is the Senior Pastor of the Abuja church, Living Faith Church, Goshen City with over 30,000 worshippers.
In the video, Abioye advised Christians to only vote in favour of the church, or risk eternal damnation.
“This is a clear instruction; when it is time to vote, vote only in the favour of the Church, not for your party. Any believer that sells out his faith in the name of a party is heading for hell,” Abioye said.
Ogunye responded in a post titled “COURTING ELECTORAL CRIME IN THE NAME OF GOD”.
The lawyer said: “This statement, when appropriately situated and contextualised, is a violation of the provisions of Section 97 of the Electoral Act, 2022. Making such a statement to a congregation and members of a church denomination, amounts, in our view, to committing a criminal offence.
“This statement is not protected by Section 39(1&2) of the Constitution which guarantees the right to freedom of expression and the press. Verbal or written threats to life or defamatory statements, for example, do not enjoy the constitutional protection of the right to freedom of expression and the press.”
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) also sparked a debate in June 2021 when it kicked against voting a Yoruba Christian as president in next year’s elections.
The group claimed that voting a Yoruba Christian in the next presidential election would amount to sentencing Muslims in the South West region to “perpetual slavery’’.
Its leader, Prof Ishaq Akintola, warned in a statement that any political party that fields a Yoruba Christian in 2023 would “lose woefully”.
Akintola’s words: “MURIC is not saying Christians cannot be president in 2023. We are only wary about such a Christian candidate being a Yoruba. The reason for our opposition to the emergence of a Yoruba Muslim president is two-fold.
“One, Yoruba Christians do not give their Muslim neighbours their Allah-given fundamental human rights.Examples abound in the way female Muslim children are persecuted in Yoruba schools, particularly over hijab and their refusal to allow their fellow Yoruba Muslims to apply civil Sharia which does not affect Christians in any way. We are reluctant to come under the presidency of people who do not respect our civil liberties.
“Two, Yoruba Christians have been military heads of state and president but no single Yoruba Muslim has had the opportunity to taste power in the centre.
“Therefore, it will be unfair to give the slot of the presidency to a Yoruba Christian again if the post is zoned to the region…
“To give the position to a Yoruba Christian is to sentence Muslims in Yorubaland to a life of perpetual slavery. Our Christian neighbours are yet to learn the art of living and letting live.”
What the Electoral Act says
Section 97 of the Electoral Act, 2022 states:
“97(1) A candidate, person or association who engages in campaigning or broadcasting based on a religious, tribal or sectional reason for the purpose of promoting or opposing a particular political party or the election of a particular candidate, commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction-
“(a) to a maximum fine of N1,000,000 or imprisonment for a term of twelve months or both; and
“(b) in the case of a political party to a maximum fine of N10,000,000 “.
2023 elections candidates
All 18 political parties have fielded candidates and their running mates for the presidential election.
For legislative elections, 1,101 candidates are vying for 109 Senatorial seats and 3,122 candidates for Federal Constituencies i.e. House of Representatives seats, making a total of 4,223 candidates contesting for 469 legislative positions.
In terms of gender distribution, 3,875 candidates are male, made up of 35 for Presidential and Vice Presidential, 1,008 for Senate and 2,832 for House of Representatives.
Similarly, 381 females comprising 1 for the Presidential, 92 for the Senate, and 288 for the House of Representatives are contesting.
There are also 11 Persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the race.
Presidential candidates
There are 18 candidates for the 2023 presidential election as published by INEC.
• Imumolen Christopher – Accord Party (AP) • Al-Mustapha Hamza – Action Alliance (AA) • Sowore Omoyele – African Action Congress (AAC) • Kachikwu Dumebi – African Democratic Congress (ADC) • Sani Yabagi Yusuf – Action Democratic Party (ADP). • Tinubu Bola Ahmed – All Progressives Congress (APC) • Umeadi Peter Nnanna – All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) • Ojei Princess Chichi – Allied People’s Movement (APM) • Nnamdi Charles Osita – Action Peoples Party (APP) • Adenuga Sunday Oluwafemi – Boot Party (BP) • Obi Peter Gregory – Labour Party (LP) •Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso – New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) •Osakwe Felix Johnson – National Rescue Movement (NRM) • Abubakar Atiku – Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) •Abiola Latifu Kolawole – Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) • Adebayo Adewole Ebenezer – Social Democratic Party (SDP) •Ado-Ibrahim Abdumalik – Young Progressives Party (YPP)
•Nwanyanwu Daniel Daberechukwu – Zenith Labour Party (ZLP)
INEC mum on Abubakar’s comment
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) National Commissioner in Charge of Information and Voters Education, Festus Okoye, did not respond to The Nation’s enquiry on whether it had received complaints on the PDP flag bearer’s comments and if it was going to act on them.
Why INEC may not act
A lawyer, Deji Jayeoba, gave an insight into why INEC does not act impulsively where Section 97 of the Electoral Act is concerned.
He argued that the Electoral Act 2022 has not annulled free speech and religious liberty, but urged that such rights “must be exercised with abundant caution, respect for the rights and religions of others and a duty to promote peace and harmony.”
Referencing Abioye’s comments in his article “There is still an effective constitutional protection of religious liberty and free speech in Nigeria: The Electoral Act does not abridge those inviolable rights”, Jayeoba disagreed with Ogunye that the cleric breached the law.
He said: “It is clear from the cleric’s statement that he did not advocate for or oppose any particular political party or candidate. The law does not allow anyone to prove a crime by insinuation or assumption. The intent must be patently clear and not permissible of having more than one possibility. That is what proof beyond a reasonable doubt means!
“One may be tempted to assume that the statement is opposing the candidacy of a leading presidential candidate or his political party. However, when one carefully considers the phrase “vote only in the favour of the Church and not for your party” one would readily realise that the cleric’s admonition does not in any way target any political party or candidate. Each (or at least each of the leading) political parties participating in the 2023 general elections in Nigeria would field a mixture of candidates professing different faiths or even those professing none.
“Coming up in 2023 are presidential, governorship, national and houses of Assembly elections for which political parties have fielded thousands of candidates of different faiths. The cleric did not refer to any particular candidate or a particular election. The cleric has simply asked his congregants not to consider any political party; all that should matter to them is that they vote for candidates of their faith whichever party they or the candidates belong to. Isn’t it clear, therefore, that the cleric had no candidate or a political party in mind either to oppose or to support?”
What INEC should do
Cross River-based lawyer Daniel Mgbe urged INEC to consider implementing the section, as a way to discourage harmful campaigns.
Mgbe said: “Laws are meant to be obeyed. Nigeria has been highly polarised especially in the last eight years. The issues of ethnicity and religion have been on the front burner, so it is important that Nigerians begin to move away from. such sentiments.
“INEC should bring the full weight of the law on anyone who stokes ethnic sentiments because it is against Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
He urged the electorate to vote on the basis of, among others, the character, antecedents and manifestoes of the candidates.
“As a product of a unity school, I am averse to Nigerians making choices based on ethnic considerations. I’ve personally experienced discrimination when I vied to represent my people in the House of Assembly as my ambition was short-circuited principally because the seat was zoned outside my area by my party,” the lawyer said.