The 2023 general election may not take place in some regions of the nation because to persistently escalating insecurity, according to Prof. Abubakar Siddique Mohammed, director of the Centre for Democratic Development, Research and Training in Zaria and a university instructor.
He claimed, “We have been researching this (banditry) for the past ten years, and you can see that it is growing. People with ideological inclinations are now moving in after it first started as criminal activity.
He continued by saying that they wished to convert Nigerians to their viewpoints. More lands are coming under their control. Criminals, the bandits are primarily concerned with the territory for financial gain.
He stated that the opposing faction is more concerned with regions than they are with money. They believe in their own cause, thus it will be challenging.
On Tuesday, he made the claim while speaking about the event’s theme, “Party Politics and Electoral Violence in Nigeria,” at the 6th annual Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) Day, which was held to commemorate the union’s 72nd anniversary and was hosted by the Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies at Mambaya House in Kano.
According to Prof. Mohammed, the nation is losing more territory to terrorists. He cited examples from Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State and the majority of Zamfara State.
His words,“I am not a soothsayer but I know that if nothing is done to stem the tide such as we have seen, election may not hold in many places. Take for instance, Birnin Gwari, they have taken over the place. So how would you conduct election there? Another instance is many parts of Zamfara, can you conduct election there? Unless they have been defeated.”
He however noted that “unlike in southern Nigeria where political violence was incidental and spontaneous whenever it broke out, political violence was deliberately institutionalized in northern Nigeria through the collaboration of the British colonial administration and the Native Authority whose officials were partisans of the dominant political party the Northern People’s Congress as the experience of NEPU proves.
“Since its formation on August 8th, 1950 NEPU and its members were subjected violence both in the form of harassment and direct physical assault. Extant police intelligence report has shown that all the meetings of NEPU from that of its inception and subsequent meetings, conferences and congresses came under effective police surveillance.
“Since its formation, the NEPU was feared by both colonial administration and the Native Authority both because of its radical political ideology and its association with what colonial officials described as aggressive and extremist southern agitators in Kano and elsewhere who were intolerant of colonial government and bitterly hostile towards the Native Authority. Hence the formation of the Association Political Party Thugs, in Jam’iyyar Mahaukata by the then ciroma of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi. These thugs were usually unleashed on members of NEPU and other opponents of the colonial administration and the Native Authority.
“In response to the frequent attacks and molestations by these NPC thugs, the NEPU formed a defence committee known as Yan Akussa, who retaliated those acts of violence. This was how political violence came to be institutionalized in the party politics of northern Nigeria.
“As a matter of fact, election and other political violence being witnessed in Nigeria from the second republic to the recent in 2011 and some of the most recent have their genesis in this phase of the political history of Nigeria.”
The culture of political and election violence still exists in Nigeria, despite the efforts of previous governments to address this issue, he continued, which is more worrying.
Prior to this, Prof. Sagir Adamu Abbas, Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, BUK, noted that one of the major issues facing modern political parties, as opposed to NEPU, is the lack of ideology.
However, Prof. Abbas thanked the event’s organizers and noted that the event’s theme, “Party Politics and Electoral Violence in Nigeria,” is particularly pertinent and timely given that the majority of political parties today lack overt ideologies and well-articulated programs. Prof. Abbas was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Prof. Sani Muhammad Gumel.
