Political campaigns and creeping scandals

The 2023 electioneering campaigns officially kicked off Wednesday, September 28, but not without discordant tunes across political parties. In the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP for instance, we hear of allegations of bribery and diversion of party funds at the very top. And in the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, the debate is still raging in respect of alleged high-handedness in the selection of members of the Presidential Campaign Council, PCC. The APC headquarters in Abuja has denied any friction exists between the party chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu and the Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu over the suspected one-sided PCC list, but there cannot be smoke without fire, as it is often said by wise men. In the Labour Party, LP also, we saw the clandestine moves by the party to, under the guide of independence day rally, kickstart its presidential campaign from the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, the scene of the controversial October 2020 #EndSARS protest that left infamous marks on our socio political experience. The #EndSARS, we recall, was a decentralised mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria in October 2020 which called for the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious unit of the Nigerian Police with a long record of abuse on Nigerian citizens. The protesters were majorly composed of young Nigerians whose ranks, it was feared, could be infiltrated by people with sinister motives. Peter Obi, the LP presidential candidate ought to have taken that dangerous factor into account before resorting to the Lekki Toll Gate as venue for his campaign flagoff. Perhaps, Obi was desirous of exploiting the symbolism of the Lekki Toll Gate to his advantage, but the court was careful in granting their request by allowing them to pass through the Toll Gate only, and not to assemble there. This, clearly, was to prevent a breakdown of law and order by opportunistic hoodlums and hooligans who could take advantage of the rally to cause mayhem. The court acted in order, prompting the Lagos State Police Command to build up in compliance. On Friday September 30, the police vowed not to allow the Peter Obi’s independence day rally to hold at the Lekki Toll Gate on Saturday, October 1, 2022 as planned.

Police Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, in a statement said in part that:

“In conformity with its mandate to protect life and property, the Lagos State Police Command under the leadership of CP Abiodun Alabi, will leave no stone unturned in ensuring total compliance with the court order and an emplacement of adequate security in the state.”

The police said that while the Command is not averse to the people’s right to freedom of assembly and association; and expression, the Command will equally live up to its mandate of ensuring that no person or group of persons is allowed to infringe on the fundamental human rights of others, especially the rights to freedom of movement and right to dignity of human persons, especially under the guise of rally or procession.

“The warning therefore goes that anyone found flouting the court order or infringing on the rights of other Nigerians will be dealt with in accordance with the law,” he said.

Political Parties and their candidates should strive to convince the electorate on their selling points based on issues, and not to capitalise on existing faulty lines to gain undeserved advantage. This type of political opportunism can be counterproductive for the very society that presidential candidates aspire to govern and must be discouraged.

Back to the APC. Only one week after releasing his presidential campaign council list, Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was reportedly accused by the party chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu and national working committee of the party of running a one-man-show.

In a strongly worded letter allegedly written and signed by Adamu to Tinubu who is still having a vacation in London, the party accused him of arrogantly ignoring their contribution to the composition of his Presidential Campaign Council.

Tinubu had earlier released a 422-man committee comprising political heavyweights and other notable members to drive the various subcommittees of the campaign council. The list of members was released by the Secretary of the Presidential Campaign Council, James Faleke, in Abuja. But Adamu reportedly wrote that the council membership list was not a true representation of the three-man committee set up to harmonize it.

“Your Excellency will no doubt recall our meetings in my office and also at the NWC Conference Room at the Party’s National Secretariat, on Wednesday, 7th September 2022, during which we discussed the details of the Organogram of the PCC and its composition, as a collaborative project between the two entities. Our recollection of those meetings clearly leaves us in no doubt that a breach of agreement has occurred, and that a return to the principles of cooperation and respect for each other is required.

“At the same time, such a development would undoubtedly come as “Manna from Heaven” for the opposition parties, whose only desire when all else fails, is to see the introduction of rancour, division and disinclination in the leadership of our Great Party.

“Without further admonishment or complaints, I wish hereby to call upon Your Excellency to restrain the PCC from undertaking solo projects of this nature and agree to work with all stakeholders towards taking our Party to victory, ” Adamu was quoted as saying in the alleged letter.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Felix Morka in a statement on Thursday said the letter purportedly written by Adamu over the PCC composition was fake. But the Director-General of PCC, and Plateau State Governor, Mr Simon Lalong proceeded to announce the postponement of the campaign earlier billed to start on September 28. Lalong said the postponement was to allow for the expansion of the PCC list to accommodate more members. For a keen observer, the postponement could most likely be in response to the alleged alarm raised by the party chairman, Adamu, despite the denial from the NWC of the genuineness of Adamu’s letter. The approach of the APC in managing internal crises by first denying their existence in order to douse tension, but only to proceed to address the complaint seems to me a strategy of crisis containment to mitigate their impact. That strategy can be effective only if the response mechanism is sufficiently sincere and well intended.

In the PDP, there has not been sufficient defence, so far, to the allegation by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state that party leadership might have taken N1billion bribe to simplify the emergence of Atiku Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the party. And we also hear of claims of some N9 billion missing from the PDP account, out of the about N10 billion raised from the sale of nomination and aspiration forms to aspirants. The PDP needs to explain to the public whether those monies are intact or not and why. And only last week Thursday, some four National Working Committee, NWC, members raised the alarm of some strange monies paid into their accounts cumulatively to the tune of N122. 4million which they returned to the party. PDP spokesman, Debo Ologunagba however explained that the money was paid to them as part of their housing allowance and was not intended to bribe them for any purpose.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the PDP states in an unequivocal term that no funds were paid into the account of any member of the NWC as a bribe for any purpose whatsoever for that matter.

“To set the record straight, the housing allowance being referred to went through the due process of the party in line with the conditions of service and entitlement of the staff and principal officers of the party,” the PDP spox said in a statement on Friday.

Although these bribery claims are so far in the realm of unsubstantiated allegations, all the same, they still cast a shadow of corrupt tendencies in the administration of political parties which require the attention of anti corruption agencies. Political parties that aspire to enthrone leadership at the national and state levels must conduct themselves in a transparent manner, otherwise they do not deserve our votes.