One-shot campaign for all political parties
By ANIEBO NWAMU
The current electioneering in Nigeria should be the simplest and the easiest. All political parties — whether APC, NDC, ADC, ARM, PDP, LP, PRP, AAC or any other — that are genuinely seeking power SHOULD surrender to the electorate by campaigning on one point: a resolve to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
Deal? Why not?
Any politician or political party that is plotting to subvert the wishes of the people is a thief. There’s no difference between them and bandits, kidnappers, murderers, rapists or other criminal gangs.
If we accept that criminality has no place in our politics, if we agree that good people are preferable to evil people, then, we must agree, from this day forward, to go after criminals wherever they may be found: on social media, in the streets, at campaign rallies, in secret cults, at marketplaces, in schools and offices.
Accordingly, all parties must keep INEC on its toes and help it to organise free and fair elections. One ethnic group now occupies most important positions in INEC; the clique must be broken. Insiders in INEC used AI to register an estimated 30–50m fake voters; the register must be cleansed. INEC must not be allowed to give any party preferential treatment; any such act must be tackled beyond social media.
Under the new deal, party stalwarts are free to preach that hunger is okay and poverty is acceptable, that high fuel prices will bring prosperity and constant borrowings will stabilize the economy, that non-implementation of budgets is fashionable and crushing taxes are palliatives. It’s left for an enlightened electorate to choose their leaders.
What the politicians must not say is “snatch it, grab it and run with it” or “All is fair in politics.” They must not brag about compiling fake results before polling day or getting INEC to announce losers as winners. Any self-confessed vote thief caught in the act should be given the same treatment we usually give armed robbers and kidnappers.
Only evil people would not accept this deal. Therefore, when we find them boasting or supporting election rigging, we should not fail to call them thieves and robbers. We should always remind them that there is no dishonour in being a crime victim, but there is dishonour in being a criminal.
Our duty now is to enlighten the unenlightened and mobilize the masses to stop vote thieves in their tracks. They should be ready to disfigure any person — politician or INEC or security agent — caught in the act of rigging an election. That is the stand of many good politicians and NGOs today.
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