For obvious reasons, the issue of security in today’s elections has provoked serious discourse across the land, especially after President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to security agencies to deal ruthlessly with ballot box snatchers. His argument is that he did not want a situation where the elections would be disrupted by political thugs while he would be the one to blame for it.
Understandably, the opposition parties have sought to make a political capital of the President’s instruction, describing it as an invitation to jungle justice while there are punishments the constitution stipulates for electoral offences, including ballot box snatching.
Interestingly, many of the security experts whose opinions were sought on the matter tend to sympathise with the President’s position. They see the issue of ballot snatching and other electoral crimes as desperate problems requiring desperate solutions. They also expressed their expectations from the elections in terms of security.
The Pioneer Commandant of the Nigerian War College and two term Minister of Science and Technology, Gen. Sam Momah (rtd), believes that there may not be need for security agencies to bare their fangs in today’s elections because he expects it to be free of violence.
“I think the President’s directive about ballot-box snatching was misinterpreted by people because the law, as it is, adequately takes care of the punishment for anyone who takes part in snatching of ballot boxes,” he said.
He noted that although the one-week postponement had put the nation at crossroads and further raised the tension in the polity, the electoral process will henceforth be faultless on account of tight security. He called on the government to henceforth be careful of the actions it takes in respect to today’s polls.
He said the onus right now rests on the government to ensure that the elections are free, fair and devoid of violence all over the country.
“The mistakes that were made in the past whereby a frosty relationship existed between the executive and the legislature will be corrected,” he said. “The government should also lessen the tension in the polity in today’s elections. INEC must ensure that all forms of tension are defused by making sure that there is no more election postponement. INEC should do things professionally so that the organisation can regain its credibility.”
An ex-army officer and CEO of August Security Limited, Ambassador Roy Oamien Okhidievbie, was relieved that “the brouhaha of the election postponement from last Saturday has simmered down. The blame throwing, name calling, hate speeches and wanton display of democratic gymnastics have taken their toll.
“Behind and under all of these, grave security pluses and minuses came to fore and active actors in our political and security spaces could rightly tell where the pendulum would have swung to.
“INEC, the international observers, the political parties and the party candidates must have gone through what is statutory, what was prepared for and what would have gone amiss.
“Politicians were shocked to discover that their teams were either not prepared or compromised, and certain trusted persons were exposed by this postponement.
“The security agencies must have been plagued and bombarded with intelligence reports, providing and proving that a lacuna existed in what they thought was a water tight security architecture.
“I saw videos and footages of planned but foiled infractions like fake electoral materials, abducted electoral materials and stranded materials arriving at wrong destinations.
“I saw NYSC youths stranded and saddled with the responsibility of their own welfare and security. I saw security officers without any care or concerns about their motivations nor payments for their agreed daily stipend.
“My recommendation would be that international observers must separate junk media from reality and plan adequately to position themselves for first-hand information.
“The political parties must understand that no one can be trusted with sustaining the integrity of their party. They should immediately conform to the rules of engagement for this election.
“The candidates must speak to themselves rather than anyone else. They must embrace the sad reality that any infractions on this electoral process traced to them would incur international wrath and may attract visa restrictions to them and families, medical travel bans, confiscation of assets abroad, and so on.
“Personnel of security agencies must adhere to the rules of engagement and international best practices in the discharge of their roles, while Nigerians as a whole, at this point, should simply be of utmost conformity. It is my prayer that we have peaceful, free and fair elections today as stated in the postponed register.”
On his part, Commodore Abimbola Ayuba (rtd), believes that electoral violence has historically been a common occurrence in Nigeria’s political history. “However,” he said, “a lot of concerted efforts have been geared towards voter education and reinforcement of civil society capacity to mitigate the causes of it. The security sector has equally been reforming itself in line with global best practices.”
“The President is right with the order to checkmate the issue of thuggery and ballot box snatching in this 2019 election with the use of the military,” says Retired Army Captain Ali A. Mohammed. “If anyone was planning to disrupt the election in anyway or planning to snatch a ballot box, at least the President’s order gave the immediate guideline of what will happen to such a person. The presidential order involves both the law enforcement officers and the military and the President did not say that people should be shot at but implied that such people who snatch ballot boxes, would be ruthlessly dealt with. But even if the President said that snatchers of ballot boxes should be shot at, it is still in accordance with the law. You know doing things unlawfully or taking things by force is the literal meaning of thuggery. If you compare that interpretation with what an armed robber does, is it not the same thing? If an armed robber is caught, what happens to him or what are you expected to do? Are you going to wait for the armed robber to kill you? Those thugs who go out to carry ballot boxes go armed! And they disrupt the peace of the public and sometimes even kill people in the process of snatching the boxes and getting away.”