Aregbesola: Political Violence, Money Politics Bane of Credible Polls

Governor Rauf Aregbesola

• Zoning negates principles of democracy, says Ayoade

By Gboyega Akinsanmi

The Governor of Osun State, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has identified a spiral culture of political violence and money politics as the bane of credible elections since democratic transition in 1999.

Also, Africa’s foremost political scientist, Prof. John Ayoade, buttressed Aregbesola’s position but described zoning as an elite political doctrine, which according to him, practically “negates democratic principle.”

The duo expressed the views in a statement issued after the public presentation of a book, ‘Nigeria’s Critical Elections: 2011’, at the Ralph Bunche International Affairs Centre of the Howard University, Washington D.C. last week.

The book, which was edited by Prof. John Ayoade and another political scientist, Prof. Adeoye Akinsanya, critically x-rayed the process of the 2011 general elections with a conclusion that Nigerian elections since democratic transition in 1999 “raise issues, which the system postpones rather than resolves.”

As quoted in the statement, Aregbesola explained that the electorate “are denied the right of free choice in the successive elections through a regime of violence” often unleashed to scare the voters at large.

The governor, who was a guest of honour at the book presentation, further explained that money would not have been enough to people’s choice in the 2011 general election without the resort to political violence.

He also differed from Ayoade’s viewpoint that the current Nigerian political parties “have no explicitly stated ideologies. What overshadows the activities of some political parties in this regard is that there are some other parties that employ violence and deploy cash and carry.”

He therefore cited a grievous example of how twelve of his agents were killed in the 2007 governorship election in the state, which consequently culminated in the stealing of his mandate.

According to him, “besides twelve of my agents who were killed in the violence unleashed, my 80-year-old mother was chased out of my hometown for giving birth to me. I could have been killed too.”

He therefore explained that there “are no people without ideology. They may not state it professionally. However, what overshadows the activities of some political parties in this regard is that there are some other parties that employ violence and deploy ‘cash and carry’ as an ideology.”

At the book presentation, Ayoade examined the major problems of Nigerian political practice and consequently identified zoning as the country’s fundamental bane of democratic and electoral practice.

Ayoade, former Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ibadan, described zoning as an elite political doctrine and a mere political hat trick for the benefit of the political elite.

He said the principle of zoning “is an opium for the electorate necessitated by the situation that the more politically endowed North dominated   the politically-disadvantaged South which has economic advantage.

“Zoning negates the vital principles of democracy because it shrinks the political space of choice.  In a multi-state zone and multi-ethnic state, the distributive network of the dividends of democracy lacks clarity,” he explained.

He therefore cited an instance of some states of the South-south geo-political zone, which he said, questioned the myth of zoning by saying that they had not benefitted from the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency.

He said: “Rivers State argues that the President has not shown sufficient neutrality in the inter-state disagreement between Bayelsa and Rivers States. Similarly, the Urhobo in Delta State of the South-South complain that they have not benefitted by federal appointments.

“It is also difficult to see how zoning aids or assists the equitable percolation process of governance to the grassroots. Some people have pointed to what they perceive as the undue advantage of the Ijaw in the present dispensation.”