Against the wild reactions which have greeted the deployment of soldiers in many parts of the country for election duties in the past two years, DAVID CHUKWU examines the legality and exigencies of the action in this analysis ahead of 2015 elections
In the past one year, one issue that has drawn the ire of the electorate and politicians alike, is the deployment of military in many parts of the country during elections. The deployments of military in polling booths during the governorship elections in Edo State and later Ondo State in 2012, was greeted with criticism.
The outrage grew louder recently with the heavy presence of soldiers in Anambra, Ekiti and lately, Osun governorship elections. In the Ekiti, the protest reached high heavens, when some governors of the All Progressives Congress were denied entry into the state capital a few days before the election.
To them, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP-led government is militarising the nation’s hard-earned democracy. The APC and its sympathisers across the country, the human rights organisations and civil society groups, accused President Goodluck Jonathan of militarising the democratic system.
To them, President Jonathan is using soldiers to perform certain functions, which should be carried out by the Police -an arm of the Force in charge of internal security in a civilian administration.
Rather than rely on the police to provide the security needed during the gubernatorial elections in the four states mentioned above, the Federal Government deployed large detachment of soldiers and other security operatives in there to assist and ensure peaceful conduct of the elections.
For instance, at least 73,000 security personnel were reportedly deployed in Osun State for the just concluded governorship election, which the incumbent Governor, Rauf Aregbesola won. There was also a mass deployment of soldiers, policemen, SSS operatives, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NDLEA in in Ekiti State during the governorship election on June 21, 2014.
This development has continued to attract mixed reactions from political analysts, commentators and other opinion molders in the society. Whereas the opposition party members and their supporters see the action of government as militarisation, undemocratic and unconstitutional, others say that it was the use of soldiers that facilitated the peaceful conduct of elections in those areas. They also implored government to continue to involve soldiers in future elections until Nigeria grows to a point the Police alone can handle the situation.
APC’s position
Expectedly, most APC chieftains have expressed concerns that the use of soldiers to conduct elections was dangerous for the country’s democracy. Former Lagos State governor and National Leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, while reacting to the matter, described what happened in Osun as abominable.
He said: “The massing of the military and over sixty thousand security men to intimidate and harass a peaceful people is the sign of an unsecured government and party. It is a pre-condition to manipulate and perpetrate electoral fraud. Under any democracy, there can be no moral or political justification for the security armada against our party leaders and followers in Osun. The implications for our democracy foretells of dire consequences.”
Renowned Lagos lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), had earlier decried the mass deployment of security personnel in Ekiti State for the governorship election on June 21, 2014, saying that it was illegal for President Jonathan to use the armed forces to maintain law and order during elections.
Falana explained that sections 215 and 217 of the Constitution clearly stated when the President could deploy armed forces, noting that such duties bordered on internal security and are limited to the suppression of insurrection, including insurgency and aiding the police to restore order when it has broken down.
Falana also said that rather than use soldiers during elections, the police should be properly equipped to perform the duty of ensuring internal security while the armed forces are restricted to the defence of the nation’s territorial integrity. He said under the current constitutional arrangement, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces lacked the power to involve soldiers in maintaining law and order during elections.
“Even in the Northe-East region, a state of emergency had to be declared by the President to justify the deployment of members of the armed forces as part of the extraordinary measures he was required to take to restore law and order pursuant to section 305 to the Constitution. Even then, the President had to seek and obtain the approval of the National Assembly for the said deployment for a specific period of time,” Falana stated.
Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) of Lagos State, in his congratulatory message to Governor Rauf Aregbesola and all members, supporters and the leadership of the APC nationwide for the victory, expressed optimism that election times in Nigeria would become periods of interaction and healthy exchange of ideas among contestants and their parties, instead of turning it to periods of mudslinging, harassment and intimidation of the electorate and perceived political enemies.
On what appeared to be his recommendation for ideal election, the Chief Security officer of Lagos State suggested that Election Day should be carnival-like, saying, “People should freely go out to cast their
votes without excessive militarisation and harassment of perceived opponents as witnessed in recent elections”.
Moreover, Jiti Ogunye, a lawyer and public affairs analyst, also condemned what he described as the excessive deployment of security personnel for election duty. Speaking on a TV programme in Lagos on Sunday after the Osun election, Ogunye said there was no basis for the militarisation of elections in the country, pointing out that such development was inimical to the growth and survival of the nation’s democracy.
Another APC Chieftain and former Governor of Kwara State, Senator Bukola Saraki, called for the probe of the arrest of opposition leaders in Osun by the security operatives, saying that the trend was disturbing and alarming. Saraki, who represents Kwara Central at the Senate, questioned the motive of security agents, whom he said illegally arrested opposition leaders during the Osun election.
“We must begin to investigate the new trend of arresting opposition leaders prior to elections. This is unconstitutional. What were the specific functions of the various armed agencies that were deployed in Osun State? Even though APC won Osun Gubernatorial election, we must ask questions on the illegal detention of party leaders and intimidation of members,” he noted.
Similarly, the National Publicity Secretary of APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in his reaction said: “This is definitely not an ordinary election. It is the total hijack of the process and direct violation of the rights of the people. Osun State has been turned into a theatre of war. An ongoing state-sponsored political terror against the Osun people and the entire people of Nigeria has been unleashed by an elected President against his own people, against his own country, in an unprecedented act of political desperation.’’
He decried his alleged arrest of over 250 APC members and leaders all over Osun State by the security task force on Election Day. According to him, President Jonathan, in an unparalleled desecration of national institutions, had simply turned the men and women in uniform against the people, as the entire security outfits now owe their allegiance to the president, rather than to the nation, and are at his beck and call.
Apart from criticisms by other chieftains of the opposition party, the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, in his victory speech also spoke bitterly about the purported militarisation of elections and indeed democracy in Nigeria. He accused the Federal Government and the PDP of using security agencies to harass, intimidate and brutalize the APC members in particular and the people of Osun in general.
His words: “Ordinarily, this should be a moment of joy and celebration consequent upon the hard earned triumph of the people’s will. However, this election shows that democracy is still gravely endangered in Nigeria. We witnessed gross abuse of power and, of due process before, during, and even after the actual voting process. It is so sad and unfortunate that what should be a normal, routine process was maliciously allowed to snowball into a needless virtual war by the Federal Government and the PDP.
“Osun State was unduly militarized in an unprecedented manner through criminal intimidation and psychological assault on our people. This election witnessed an abuse of our security agencies and amounted to a corruption of their professional ethics and integrity.
“The security agencies were unprofessionally utilized in Osun State to harass, intimidate and oppress the people whose taxes are used to pay their salaries and provide their arms. Hundreds of leaders, supporters, sympathisers and agents of our party were arrested and detained. Also, hundreds of other innocent citizens, including women and the aged, were harassed, brutalized and traumatized. In spite of this condemnable repression and abuse of human rights, the unflagging spirit of our people triumphed.”
Despite all these attacks on Jonathan and the PDP on the use of soldiers to conduct elections, some people still feel that the Federal Government’s action is in the best interest of Nigeria, which is to ensure peace and security of the citizenry in a volatile country like Nigeria when it comes to elections. Many are of the opinion that, without the presence of soldiers during the polls in Edo, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun, the situation would have turned violent because of the desperation of the politicians to win or get their parties and candidates win at all costs.
INEC’s defence
To the amazement of the APC, their sympathisers and other Nigerians who have condemned the involvement of the military in elections, the Chairman of the nation’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, defended the use of military personnel in the conduct of elections in Nigeria. He insisted that the security operatives provided security to officials of the commission and the voters.
It is imperative to note that before the just concluded Osun election, the APC had approached the court, seeking an order, restraining the Federal Government from deploying military personnel in the state for governorship election. But Jega disagreed with people who said the deployment of soldiers in Ekiti during the election amounted to militarisation.
The former university teacher vividly told critics that, although he was strictly opposed to military rule in the country, he was in support of the role the military had played so far in ensuring that voters were encouraged to come out and vote, and accused some politicians of creating excuses to undermine the electoral process.
He said: “People raised the issue of militarisation in Ekiti State. By the strict definition of militarisation, I am a student of politics and military rules. I have even published papers on militarisation. So, I know the definition. So, there is no way anybody can conceivably define what happened in Ekiti as militarisation of electoral process. The electoral process in Ekiti election was not militarised. Yes, there was heavy security presence but I don’t think it can be conceived as militarisation”.
Instead, Jega cautioned the people, particularly the politicians, on careful use of words because according him, the concern of people was that there should not be overbearing presence of military on election day.
“The military performs what we describe as peripheral outer cordon. It is the mobile police that handle internal movement in terms of movements in the towns but away from polling unit. And it is unarmed policemen that you have on an average of three per polling units, and that is exactly what happened in Ekiti,” Jega explained.
Former Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju, in his contribution to the seeming debate on the perceived militarisation of the system said, “If you call it militarisation; if there was anything like that, then I can tell you that it did not start with Jonathan administration. If you want to think of when we started using the military and the Police, it has been a long while. Under the civilian administrations of Obasanjo and Yar’Adua, it was like that. Then with Jonathan, again it is the same problem. It is the problem created by the opposition, APC; it is that problem that the President is trying to solve. And he has not stepped out of the way Obasanjo did his own or Yar’Adua did his own. In fact, what he has done which is better than what Obasanjo and any other past President has done is this one-man-one-vote. It was applied in Edo, Ekiti and Anambra; although with some hitches; and it was there again in Osun a few days ago. Rather than vilify the President, he should be praised for his efforts. So, the use of soldiers will be on until Nigerians change their minds. I don’t see the APC riding on powers of this country in 2015. But whenever it is their turn, let us see who will conduct the elections. That is all I can say.”
Also, reacting in support of government’s use of soldiers, a former member of the Senate, Senator Emmanuel Anosike, who represented Anambra North from 2003-2007 said, “First of all, I have to start by congratulating the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, for making it possible for this election to hold under a very peaceful atmosphere. Initially, there was a lot of insinuations, a lot of negative languages from the APC, trying to incite the system that the President and by extension, the PDP did not want the election. They wanted to achieve this by trying to create bad impression about the system. Thank God that, at the end of the day, the president did what he was supposed to do as the Commander-in-Chief, by making sure that the election held and also made sure that there was no violence at all by taking complete charge of the security situation.”
Peculiar security challenges
However, many Nigerians believe that the current security challenge, which commenced with the killing of 11 corps members in Bauchi State in a post-election violence and the Boko Haram insurgency/ terrorism in the North-East have made it imperative to deploy soldiers in states for election duties. Other pre and post elections killings in Lagos, Kaduna, Anambra and Ogun states in the past 10 years have left much to be desired.
Also, such crimes as kidnapping, which suddenly became a lucrative business in the Southern Nigeria, is also believed to have emanated from the politicians who sponsor all manner of criminalities and societal vices just achieve their inordinate ambitions. These politicians see election as a matter of life and death.
Unarguably, it is as a result of these untoward activities in the country that the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, in the North-East Nigeria, are currently placed under a state of emergency by the Federal Government to stem the tide of insurgency and terrorism in the area. The do-or-die attitude of politicians towards elections also compelled the Federal Government to start using soldiers to conduct elections as a means of ensuring that there is no violence at the polling centres or any part of the states where elections are being held. This was exactly what happened in Edo, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states during the gubernatorial elections
A member of the House of Representatives and chieftain of the APC, who did not want his name mentioned for fear of victimization by his party, argued that it was not true that the current democracy was being militarized. He was of the view that Nigeria had not embraced sufficient democratic ethos in her fifteen years of experiment to leave elections totally in the hands of the police.
“At this point in time of Nigeria’s political development, police cannot do it alone. So, minimal military presence is acceptable. We have to face the reality of Nigerian situation as of today. We will grow to a stage where police presence at elections will not even be needed. But for now, we have to tolerate the soldiers,” he said.
While the parties argue from a biased standpoint most of the time, a neutral perception and analysis will certainly draw out universally acceptable position. Going by the various views expressed on the issue, observers believe that, much as we desire to have a reasonably solid democracy devoid of any dictatorial incursion, we have not got there yet.
Moreover, Nigerians, especially the political class, are yet to show readiness to enjoy the kind of democracy prevalent in developed world. It is better to climb the ladder gradually than to make a swift leap and miss the step and crash with devastating injuries. As the APC stalwart suggested, minimal military presence is acceptable in elections to help minimise potential violence, while our politicians and indeed all Nigerians should hasten up and change their attitude and perception towards politics and governance, so that the democracy can mature fast, such that the military can be restricted to performing their constitutional duties.