Elections
Jibrin Ibrahim
Watching the 2023 Elections
Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy, Daily Trust, 24th February 2023
Tomorrow is the big day when for the seventh election since the return to democracy, more than 93 million Nigerians are registered to vote. It is likely to be a closely contested race with four candidates – Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) being the front runners.
I am observing the elections from the privileged standpoint of an analyst working with colleagues at the Centre for Democracy and Development – Election Analysis Centre (EAC). We have identified five key issues that are likely to shape the 2023 election. These ‘five I’s’ are identity, insecurity, institutions, information disorder and inter and intra party squabbles.
Nigeria’s political system, both at the federal and state levels, is characterised by prebendal patronage where political actors capture state power and use the same to advance the well-being of their ethnic or religious groups. A consequence of this is that state resources are unevenly distributed to the advantage of majority groups, thereby making political representation and access to power highly competitive in the country. In addressing these concerns, the political elite, across party lines, have adopted approaches such as power rotation and zoning to improve the inclusivity of minority groups.
The three leading presidential candidates Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the APC, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party are from the Yoruba, Fulani and Igbo ethnic groups respectively. Candidates are expected to perform better than their opponents in their ‘home’ geo-political zones, while opposition party members may face repression from state and non-state actors in these areas. Religion may also be a prominent determinant of the outcome of the 2023 elections. The APC’s decision to run a Muslim-Muslim ticket has heightened religious tensions in the country. Conventionally leading parties have sought to balance their presidential tickets to ensure that both major faiths are represented and there are concerns about what impact a single ticket victory would have for faith relations in the country.
Nigerians will go to the polls in 2023 amidst a host of security challenges. All six geopolitical zones of the country are confronted by insecurity, which has led to the deployment of the Nigerian military across the federation. Northern states are engulfed in long-standing violence with extremist jihadist groups, criminal bandit gangs, and other non-state armed groups who are engaged in deadly attacks against local communities. In the south, civil unrest continues against the backdrop of ongoing violence between farmers and herders and secessionist agitators. Over half of the 36 states experienced an increase in the number of conflict events in 2022, as compared with 2021, according to data from the Nigeria Election Violence Tracker a partnership between the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD). The situation is further complicated by fuel and currency scarcity which is increasing economic hardships on the more than 130 million Nigerians classified as multidimensionally poor.
The insecurity challenges have the potential to impact on the quality of the forthcoming elections. It could even determine whether elections will hold all across the country given the threat they pose to the security of voters, electoral materials, and poll officials across the more than 176,000 polling units. Targeted attacks on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) offices and staff have been on the rise in the last year.
The success of any electoral process is dependent on the credibility, transparency and efficiency of stakeholders that manage, regulate, and secure the process. Saddled with the responsibility of establishing the rules of play and conducting the 2023 elections, INEC is a central election stakeholder and has demonstrated a strong commitment to ensuring the holding of safe, credible and on-time elections. The introduction of the 2022 Electoral Act supports the use of technology such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), a facial recognition system aiding voter accreditation, and the INEC result viewing portal have boosted confidence in the system.
Already faced with a gargantuan logistical operation, those charged with managing the elections across the country are further challenged by the prevailing insecurity and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) efforts to push a cashless policy. INEC and its supporting agencies rely heavily on cash to deploy more than a million-field staff and to ensure the safe delivery of election day materials. Local printing of materials and other sub-contracted services have already been affected by the cash shortages. INEC will also find it extremely difficult to effectively deploy logistics and staff to remote locations. It normally pays transporters and provide resources for more than a million ad-hoc staff in the 8,809 political wards in cash.
Whilst social media has opened avenues for citizens to engage more robustly with their prospective representatives the volume of misinformation - the sharing of falsehoods without knowing they are false - and disinformation – which implies a deliberate intent to mislead - circulating online can also lead to citizen actions based on incorrect information. Tactics used by social media influencers, who are often paid to promote a particular political agenda, include hashtag manipulation, the use of automated or controlled networks, deliberate mistranslation, false impersonation, and manipulated audio and video material. More than in previous polls digital misinformation and disinformation on social media has shaped the coverage of the campaigns of mainstream media, with online influencers having an outsized role in setting the agenda. Information that begins as a rumour on WhatsApp or through Twitter can be picked up by media houses or shared by influential community figures creating a litany of indirect users alongside those with direct access. Pre-existing cleavages, identity politics and the insecure political and ethnoreligious landscape of the Nigeria’ democratic system further engenders the spread of disinformation with the risk that it can even impact on national cohesion.
Trust is a scarce commodity in Nigeria and this fact is only being exacerbated by the volume of misleading content online. Ahead of the forthcoming polls renewed sophistication and organisation in the push of disinformation has been observed with efforts generally focused on glorifying or delegitimising political aspirants and undermining the credibility of INEC.
Ahead of the February 2023 elections, violence targeting political party supporters has trended upwards. In the last quarter of 2022, violence targeting political parties reached its highest point since the previous general election in early 2019. In total there have been 60 attacks recorded on political rallies, resulting in nine fatalities since the start of campaigning on 28 September.
Intra-party contestation has also been a feature of the 2023 campaign. The APC initially experienced some internal division from Christians in the party, unhappy at the unwillingness of Tinubu to balance the presidential ticket. But more substantive divisions have emerged, and spilled into the public sphere, following the CBNs demonetisation policy. Prominent APC governors have openly accused senior officials in the presidency, and tacitly the president himself, of working against the interest of the party and in favour of Atiku, a fellow Fulani and northerner. Atiku himself has endured a divided party throughout the campaigns, with the G5, refusing to support his candidacy in frustration at the PDPs failure to adhere to zoning principles in the selection of its flagbearer and party chairman. This could result in the PDP losing votes in the south-south geopolitical zone, historically a stronghold of party.
To enhance Nigeria’s elections, the government should ensure that key election stakeholders – in particular INEC and the security agencies – have the necessary resources at their disposal to roll out their comprehensive plans for election day operations that ensure polls take place in a safe, free and fair environment. Political parties must ensure that their members and supporters adhere to the conditions laid out in the National Peace Accord through the voting process and after the announcement of results. INEC continues to communicate regularly with Nigerians about the ongoing election process and is as transparent as possible during the collation and announcement of results. The Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security must ensure that all security personnel on electoral duty adhere to the agreed code of conduct and rules of engagement. Social media companies support the work of fact checking organisations by promptly taking down digital content that promotes political disinformation or hate speech that relates to the election.
Cornelius Hamelberg
What would Ayo Olukotun not have been saying these last few weeks, if he was still here with us? And Obadiah Mailafia…
Many, many thanks to Professor Jibrin Ibrahim for the courage and for the enlightening honesty in this very last analysis on the day before they split the atom, part the red sea, or, as the soothsayers say, the day before the day when the sheep will be separated from the goats
God bless the child that has his own
Urban poverty, rural poverty: North, South, East, West, the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the tourist, the in-between: The demographics of 93.4 registered voters .
Sadly, no live and direct presidential debate, not even of the heavyweights!
Hopefully, there will be no rigging, and, insecurity notwithstanding, there will be more than 70 percent turn out to play their part in fulfilling the wry adage that “ Every nation gets the government it deserves”
The weeks leading to the Nigerian Presidential elections tomorrow have been very stressful for many. As the saying goes, “ uneasy is the head that wears the crown” be it the kingly or the intellectual crown earned by the sweat of his brow. So much worrying about the future of the country is possibly one of the reasons why Ojogbon Falola is prayerfully recovering in hospital presently.
No doubt about these last twenty-four hours: it should be unimaginable how the pressure is mounting on the oldest horse in the race, 76- year-old Atiku Abubakar and some of the other wannabes who are also ardently following Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah’s dictum, “Seek ye first the political kingdom and all other things shall be added unto you”, manifestly at variance, in contradiction and at loggerheads with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in which he said
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” - and added, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Manifestly too, not all the Naija politicians are seeking first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness. Nor are we to imagine that e.g. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would take kindly to you telling him not to worry about tomorrow ( his sixth attempt to be Nigeria’s democratically elected First Citizen.
If I were a registered voter I’d be voting for the one who I think would be best not only for the country but for the poor man’s economy. I would certainly not be voting for anyone I sense wants to be elected next president of Nigeria in order to have more direct access to the national treasury, the central bank, etc - or someone who wants to “ privatise” Nigeria’s oil wealth, a backdoor way of saying that he would like to give a few oil blocks to his cronies, as if all he has to do is ensure that by hook (or if possible by crook) he is elected next president and then oil, all the oil will be in his dictatorial hands, will belong to him, to do as he, please. Just as he imposed himself on PDP , to be their flag nearer when it was the turn of a candidate from the South, That kind of dictatorial tendency that thinks, “ by any means necessary, whether fair or foul” it ‘s OK to trample on the rights of others in order to be elected Nigeria’s president so that he can then say with a contrite heart, “ God bless Nigeria”
“The Five I's are identity, insecurity, institutions, information disorder and inter and intra-party squabbles' “ all factors that mitigate fractures, disunity in our Nigeria
The first of the “five I’s’ IDENTITY, an all-encompassing euphemism for the horn of the fitna, calling phenomena by their proper names, identity would be a potent admixture of not only class and cultural identities, ranging from tribal kings and court musicians, and in a country where an equal right to access quality education is no longer a divine right ( leading to greater inequalities in that national sphere) - hence we have on the one hand the Almajiris, and street hawkers, spare part entrepreneurs, ransom kidnappers and on the other hand, heiresses, dollar and new naira billionaires, weakly-paid but nonetheless, aspiring, chest-beating tenured professors at home and abroad ( I’m thinking of Gladius Lewis, one of the smartest guys I used to know - a real Creole )
identity = ETHNICITY, CORE RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION be it Christianity, Islam, Animism, Witchcraft or even Atheism. The Nigerian sauce is hot, 100 times hotter than Harrisa from Tunisia, it’s a sassy sauce, and with harmattan temperatures and Sahara dust winds blowing across the North at this moment in time it’s crazy, the political melting pot that’s Nigeria, with her infinite variety of qualities and forms, a real microcosm that reflects all the problems of Africa (except that, n.b. in Sierra Leone, thank God, we do not have a religion problem )
Abner Cohen’s The Politics of Elite Culture about the inner workings( machinations may be slightly out of date but still of relevance to tomorrow in Nigeria and 23rd June, in Sierra leone,
Speaking or rather singing of identity no one has put it more elegantly than Oliver De Coque, Igboland’s greatest highlife guitarist, in his song IDENTITY.
What else, but to pray for a peaceful, free, and fair election in Nigeria, tomorrow
No Big English: George Galloway at Oxford Union