Peace is Fair Play -By Seun Elere

I remember in my primary and secondary school days, my mother always warned me against going to watch football matches. She would always tell me that every football match always ends in violence between the opposing teams. Confirming my mother’s fear, unfortunately, every football tournament I snuck out to watch always ended in riots. In some cases, we would run through the bushes for miles to avoid being leached by the host team. This riot always happened because one team always believed they didn’t deserve to lose. The referees are not spared; they were always the first to be attacked for allegations of bias or poor officiating. Sometimes, the wrong tackle could easily spark riots. In all these, I realized the coaches played a huge role. I heard about a coach who would tell his players not to miss the leg if they missed the ball. Of course, this automatically becomes a mantra for the team and, more often than not, breeds violence.

In college, I also saw these ugly traits manifest in different ways. Every time we got our test score, it was either “oh, I passed” or “that useless lecturer failed me.” When we pass, we believe we deserved it, and when we fail, we have been dealt an ugly blow by the lecturer. Sometimes you will even hear unfounded allegations against the lecturer involved, all to justify why we think they failed us. Unfortunately, this trend also continued in the workplace. When my colleagues pass a promotion examination, they attribute this to their hard work, but when they fail, a boss must be responsible.

We carry this mentality into all we do in this country. Sadly, it has become an integral part of our politics. No candidate believes he lost an election in this country. Even those without followers would cry foul when they didn’t win an election. Even when the case is decided by the court, they still won’t accept they lost. Politicians, always afraid to lose, now invest heavily in political thuggery to ensure they win at all costs. They intimidate weaker oppositions and even the electorate. Their supporters, engulfed with selfishness and hatred, also stoke violence. Their hatred is manipulated along religious and ethnic lines. Politicians just don’t know how to lose.

Another factor contributing to the heavy militarization of our political space is poverty. Many venture into politics not to serve, but see politics as a strategy for eradicating poverty. It is a quick route to access and chop public funds. Sometimes they are so desperate, they will borrow from friends, family, and even banks to fund their political journey. Ergo, thuggery is seen as a means of protecting their investments. They just can’t afford to lose.

A third factor is the unhealthy hunger for power. There are a few wealthy politicians who venture into politics for power, mostly driven by the selfish desire to deal with perceived or real enemies and, of course, to be worshiped by all. They have all the resources to procure all forms of “assets” to ensure they win. These politicians are simply too big to lose.

Most of our politicians, if not all, are not in the race to serve, to advance the course of the poor and downtrodden, to feed the hungry, provide infrastructure, etc.; they are just serving their selfish interests. Why borrow money to serve your people? Why mobilize thugs to kill the very people you are contesting to serve? Why incite the same people you claimed to be passionate about against each other? Why are you so bitter when you lose? They simply don’t believe that the electorate has the right to choose who they prefer to lead them. Every trader goes to the market to display his or her wares and works hard to convince every buyer to patronize them. They wouldn’t position thugs at the entrance of the market to harass buyers into buying from them or threaten their competitors to leave the market. Why can’t politics in Nigeria (and even Africa) be this simple?

Just like football was in my primary and secondary school days, elections in Nigeria have been viewed as war. Schools are shut, businesses are closed, people run to their enclaves, and the streets are filled with apprehensions just because we want to hold an election. The people do have reasons to be afraid, judging from the experiences we have had in past elections. As a result of protests that ensued after the 2011 election, 800 lives (maybe more) were reportedly lost. Unfortunately, that election was referred to, in some quarters, as one of the fairest elections in Nigeria, yet hundreds of lives were lost, businesses and properties were destroyed, and we spent billions of Naira that we could have used to advance development to rebuild those infrastructures. The 2015 election was not going to be any different but for the constant reminder by the then president (President Goodluck Jonathan) that his ambition was not worth the life of any Nigerian.

In 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan introduced the fair play rule. This is alien to the Nigerian political space, but, believe it or not, it saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. He has all state assets at his disposal, but he chose to congratulate the then winner (President Muhammadu Buhari) even against the will and wishes of his supporters. Surprisingly, he also refused to file any legal suit against the victory and prevailed on his party not to institute any case against the then opposition party. Oh, did he suffer political persecution for this? Gladly, the fair play rule is gradually making its way into Nigerian politics. Evidently, the 2019 election recorded not so much violence and witnessed the exchange of a lot of congratulatory messages across party lines. Some, however, argued that this was so because the two major contenders were from the same region of the country.

The dynamics in 2023 are slightly different. We have a N50 note kind of election: wa, zo, and bia. We have candidates from the three major ethnic groups and religious lines in the country. While these three top candidates haven’t made many provocative public remarks, their supporters are dangerously divided along these ethno-religious lines. A lot of hate and dangerous speeches are thrown and are still being thrown across these lines. We have had supporters publicly call out religion leaders because they refuse to declare support for candidate(s) in their faiths. Some are berated for being quiet, while others have been lashed at for being cryptic. Unfortunately, some religious leaders are also using their spaces to spew dangerous speeches and heat up the space. It does seem that we are throwing caution to the wind and have completely forgotten the challenges of the past. It is, however, unsurprising that an ideologically bereft political space can generate such heat, but it is foolish to repeat the same mistakes. We are now at a place where every supporter believes his or her candidate must win.

All the candidates need to keep to the spirit and letter of the peace accord. Yes, there haven’t been many dangerous speeches by the candidates, but keeping quiet can easily be perceived as a go-ahead. They need to start speaking out and telling their supporters that no matter the outcome of the elections, no ambition is worth any Nigerian’s life. Making remarks like “make or break” is just not right, and statements like this could easily be misinterpreted. The time is right for all candidates to be making statements of peace that appeal to the consciences of their supporters. Their supporters need to know that losing is okay and not the end of the world.

The people must be allowed to freely exercise their rights to choose who they think is right for the country without fear of attack. We don’t want violence; we want peace, and fair play is peace.

Therefore, all the candidates must ensure that we have peace before, during, and after the elections. If we believe in you, we will elect you. It is not a do-or-die, make-or-break, or winning at all costs race. It’s just an election, not a war. You must not be the president of Nigeria to help us solve our enormous challenges.

Peace, peace, and peace, and the only way is fair play.