NIGERIA-POLITICS: Increasing Opposition to Local Government Poll

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Jan 16 1996 (IPS) - Opposition to local government elections due in two months time has been growing in Nigeria, with many here viewing the poll as a futile exercise given the political climate in the West African nation.

The latest group to come out against the elections is the Eastern Progressive Forum (EPF), an umbrella grouping civic organisations in the east of the country.

The forum ended a meeting in the eastern town of Enugu over the weekend with a call for all politicians to boycott the poll, which is due in March and is to be held on a no-party basis — a 1993 ban on party politics remains in effect.

“No politician worth his salt will seek elective post under the military regime,” said EPF spokesman Chuck Winke, who noted that Nigeria would not move forward unless the issue of the 1993 presidential election was resolved.

A presidential election held on Jun. 12, 1993, was annulled by then military leader Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. The country’s current military government, headed by Gen. Sanni Abacha, has disregarded calls for it to rescind the annulment and release Moshood Abiola, the man widely believed to have won the poll.

Abiola has been in jail since mid-1994, when he was arrested and charged with treason for proclaiming himself the winner of the 1993 election.

In recent weeks, the military has been trying to persuade politicians to participate in the local government poll, part of a three-year transition to democracy set by the Abacha government on Oct. 1, 1995.

“Be prepared to participate in the transition to civil rule or risk being sidelined,” Brig. Gen. Neral Fred Chijuka, director of defence information, warned Nigeria’s politicians recently.

But pro-democracy groups maintain that any polls here are devoid of meaning as long as the annulment of the 1993 election is not lifted and while Abiola remains in prison.

“The local government election slated for March is unacceptable to Nigerians and should be stopped at all cost,” Frederick Fasehun, co-ordinator of the Campaign for Democracy told IPS. “If the government did its homework well, it should know that Nigerians are against any election in the absence of June 12.”

Opposition to the upcoming poll appears strongest in the south of the country, especially in Lagos and other parts of the southwest, which includes the region Abiola comes from.

“What happened to the vote we cast during the 1993 presidential election?” Aina Okeowo, a petty trader in Lagos, told IPS. “I doubt if any sensible person will go out this time. We voted for somebody who is yet to be installed. I am not ready for any voting again.”

Many politicians argue that taking part in the local government election would be tantamount to legitimising the annulment of the 1993 poll.

“Participating in any of the phases of the transition programme will be inconsistent with the struggle for the actualisation of June 12,” said Femi Aborisade of the National Conscience Party (NCP — led by Lagos human rights lawyer Gani Fawehinmi.

“To embark on another round of transition programme without actualising June 12 is to lay the basis for the annulment of any future election,” Aborisade added.

However, opposition to elections appears to be lukewarm in the north of the country, which has traditionally hogged political power in Nigeria: seven of the nine presidents since independence from Britain in 1960 have come from the north.

In the Middle Belt, which usually acts as a power broker between north and south, some political groups like the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) have refused to join the boycott movement.

At a meeting in the north central city of Jos, the PDM said that although it would have preferred the planned elections to be held on a party basis, it would still participate if the military government insists that candidates must register as individuals.

How effective the anti-election movement will be is anyone’s guess even though an ‘all-politician summit’ held here in December agreed to boycott Abacha’s transition programme.

The Campaign for Democracy (CD) has threatened to disrupt any poll in the country unless the Abacha administration hands over power to a government of national unity. But calls for a boycott of elections held to select delegates to a 1994 constitutional conference met with mixed success. While mainstream politicians refused to participate, others regarded as politicial lightweights did.

The CD has warned that, this time around, those who disregard the boycott call will not get off scot-free.

“We are aware that some sell-outs will always identify with the programmes of any evil genius, but this time the good people of Nigeria will mete out poetic justice on those who work against their will,” Fasehun said.