NIGERIA-POLITICS: A Campaign Stroll Down Memory Lane

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Mar 14 1997 (IPS) - The old times are back. Drummers, women, men, children, the young and the old, waving party flags and freely distributing posters, dance in neighbourhood streets as Nigeria prepares for Saturday’s local government elections.

“Winner o o o winner, winner o o o winner, CNC you don win o, you go win forever winner”, sang some 50 supporters of the Congress for National Consensus (CNC) as they filed past a street in the densely populated shanty twon of Makoko here.

As the supporters of one party move from a street, another group takes their place singing, clapping and dancing.

For many Nigerians here the campaigning brings back memories of the 1993 elections when the country thought the military had finally gone back to the barracks.

As the CNC supporters sang, listeners were reminded of the signature tune of the National Republican Convention (NRC) which slugged it out with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) during preparations for the now controversial June 12, 1993 elections.

The results of that election were annulled by the military, and the SDP flag bearer Moshood Abiola who claimed victory is in detention. Tom Ikimi, chair of the NRC, is Nigeria’s Foreign Minister in the military regime of Sani Abacha.

Now, Nigerians are on the eve of the much delayed start of another march to democracy with five political parties slugging it out for the attention of an estimated 60 million voters in the local government elections.

The parties are leaving their signatures everywhere. Unguarded brick walls, sidewalks, vehicles and overhead bridges have been decorated with buntings of the different parties’ colours.

Since the race for the local government seats was kicked off a week ago by the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), the political parties have assembled what one advertising executive here described as “hurriedly assembled television campaigns”.

During prime time on the government-owned Nigerian Television Authority late Wednesday, each of the political parties ran one minute adverts twice to extol their virtues. A one minute advert slotted during prime time on television costs as much as 120,000 Naira (about 1,500 U.S. dollars).

“Times have indeed not changed,” says the advertising executive. “All these parties are promising free education, free water, free this, free that…the pity of it all is that they all believe that the Nigerian electorate is stupid,” she says.

“Of course, we know that no party under the present economic circumstances can deliver everything within a short period. Why can they not be realistic for goodness sake,” the executive told IPS late Wednesday.

But the myriad of campaign posters insist that good life is possible for Nigerians within the shortest possible time.

One of the candidates, Bashir Omolaja, has promised citizens of the Lagos Mainland Local Government that he will “provide free learning aids in all primary schools, subsidise drugs in health centres, (provide) gainful employment, good roads and drainages, street lights and sporting facilities”.

This is a tall order for Omolaja, who is contesting under the umbrella of the CNC, given the fact that there are less than 10 health centres in the local government area and the lack of basic facilities in the densely-populated areas.

It appears also that prospective politicians have no new tricks in their campaign bags as IPS has learnt that some candidates have resorted to canvassing for votes by giving food and money.

“Voters are not ready to vote for anybody for free at present because of what they have been used to, so they ask you for money when you visit them in their houses to campaign. One is forced to dish out something if they must cast their votes for you,” one local councillor candidate told IPS.

Reports of bribery and other political chicanery have also come to light in the past few days. In the northern state of Adamawa, one candidate, who had been cleared to contest the elections, is reported to be on the run over an alleged attempt to bribe the state NECON Administrative Secretary with 50,000 Naira (about 625 U.S. Dollars) and a cow.

NECON has repeatedly announced that fraud in any form would not be tolerated, and it has been the main reason for the disqualification of aspiring candidates by the Commission, according to its headquarters in Abuja.

Some of the candidates were reported to have falsified birth and education certificates, but the exact number of disqualified persons is yet to be released by NECON.

The Commission’s guidelines require that any candidate seeking election as a councillor or chairman of a local government should have passed the secondary school-leaving examinations arranged by the West African Examination Council.

Also, an aspiring local government chairman must be at least 35 years old and a person seeking election as a councillor must be at least 25 years old.