The docility that had dogged politics in Kwara State over the past two decades seems to be giving way, in the last six months, for active political awareness and participation.
The two leading political parties in the state, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and unarguably the leading opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are calling the shots.
The development is such that within the duration under review, both the APC PDP had never agreed on any policy of the Federal Government or its agencies.
The parties have become so reactive to issues like a ban on political rallies until sometime in November this year, the presence of security personnel at centres for registration of voters, and the use of billboards as conveyors of political messages, that it has started to cause a sharp disparity between members of the two parties.
Although there has not been any record of physical assault of members of the rival parties, billboards are being defaced and reports are constantly lodged with the state’s Police Command and the Directorate of State Security (DSS).
Nonetheless, a social critic, Alhaji Abdulkarim Olola-Kasum, has described the development as healthy for the democracy in the state.
According to him: “No empire will stand forever. Something must be wrong somewhere if we are under the control of a political system in perpetuity.
“But all we clamour for is the need for the concerned politicians to uphold the existing peace in Kwara.
“The voters should be allowed to express their franchise without fear or molestation. Any results gotten under this condition should be lauded and accepted.”
Meanwhile, the APC, Kwara State chapter, has dismissed the ban on rallies and political meetings by Kwara State Police Command as an affront to democracy and the Nigerian Constitution.
The party admonished that the Nigeria Police, as an institution established by law, must allow itself “to be guided by law and history” rather than abuse of the Electoral Laws and the Constitution of the land.
Still, the spokesman of the state’s Police Command, Ajayi Okasanmi, has reiterated the determination of the police to commence prompt enforcement of the relevant portion of the Electoral Act outlawing political meetings and rallies before the required time under the law.
Okasanmi said: “Politicians in Kwara should not misrepresent the stand of the police on this issue. The law had been in existence for long; what we are saying is not new.
“We are only saying we want to start the enforcement of the law in existence. We are not creating any new law.”
But the local APC Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Suleiman Buhari, has described the ban as not only illegal and unwarranted, “but it is also null and void in the face of Nigerian Constitution.”
“The Police Command lacks such powers to ban rallies, procession and political meetings in Kwara State; only the governor of Kwara State, who doubles as the Chief Security Officer of Kwara State, has such constitutional powers,” he said.
“The fundamental rights to freedom of conscience, expression, assembly and association of the good people of Kwara State, as guaranteed by sections 38, 39 and 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, cannot be unilaterally violated by the NPF, an institution responsible for the enforcement of same fundamental human rights.”
On the directive that party agents should steer clear of polling units during the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, Alhaji Buhari said: “CVR exercises are conducted by INEC, and not the Police Command. It was INEC that requested the participation of political parties and deployment of party agents to polling booths.
“In any electoral process, the duty of the police is to ensure compliance with INEC laws and guidelines, not to give counter, unlawful orders.”
The APC said the Kwara State police command should be reminded that when a Commissioner of Police attempted to impose ban on political rallies in Rivers State, law and the people of Rivers State defeated the ban.
“Again, when a Commissioner of Police banned rallies and protests at Abuja in June 2014, the Inspector-General of Police overruled the ban and reiterated that Nigerians have the rights to organise protests and rallies,” Alhaji Buhari said.
“Aside facts, that the statement conveying the purported ban on political rallies is conspicuously devoid of why political rallies were banned and where the police command derived such powers, there is fundamentally no basis for such ban in Kwara State.”
The APC holds that the police, who should halt any attempt to arrest the freedom of the people, must not infringe upon the rights of Kwarans.
“Kwara State is not under siege; no form of siege not even police siege is acceptable to our party and the people of Kwara State,” Buhari said.
“Since we have highlighted, plus proved without doubt that the ban on political meetings and rallies is illegal and unconstitutional, the Kwara State police command should summon the courage to reverse itself on the unlawful ban forthwith.”
HOWEVER, the Kwara chapter of the PDP has berated the ruling APC for rejecting the police ban on unauthorised public processions and protests in the state.
The PDP believes that by allegedly rejecting the police order, the APC leadership had overtly confirmed the fears of Kwarans that the party “is unruly and deviant.”
According to Chief Rex Olawoye, the local Publicity Secretary of the party: “All the police command seeks to prevent is the continued degeneration of the security of the state and nothing more. It is not targeted at the APC alone but all groups and individuals, irrespective of their political leaning.
“So, why is the APC crying more than other institutions that are affected by the order? Does the APC have other motive than what it is making the public to believe?
Chief Olawoye said the PDP believes that the police would not have handed down the banning order but for the violent conduct of some members of the APC in Kwara State.
“And as an institution, whose primary responsibility is to protect life and property in the state, the police would not stand by while the APC turns the state into a theatre of war,” he said.
“For instance, over the last two weeks, under the guise of rallies and public processions, members of the APC in Kwara have wreaked untoward havoc on the lives and properties of Kwarans.
“This situation came to its head on Friday, 15th August, 2014 when some sponsored APC thugs invaded the Ode Belgore and Alege Compound polling units in Ilorin South local government area of Kwara State, and assaulted innocents PDP members who had queued to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC), including an innocent NYSC member, whose only offence was his insistence on due process.
“But instead of owning up to the criminal conducts of its members, the APC has characteristically turned the table against the victims of their crime.”
Chief Olawoye alleged that the following day, Saturday, August 17, some APC members in Ode Opobiyi polling unit, Ilorin West local government Area, in obvious attempt to provoke majority of PDP members, also reportedly swept the footprint of a prominent chieftain of the PDP in the area.
“But for the maturity of the members of the PDP who are in the majority in the area, the situation might have degenerated into a violent confrontation,” he said.
“Would the police have banned rallies and political gatherings around the registration points if the APC had not moved to subvert the rule of the game?
“Would the police have placed a temporary embargo on public procession if the APC had acted within the confines of the law? These are the questions that all right-thinking members of the public are now asking.”
Chief Olawoye contended that the right of the APC to protest or hold rallies in whatever guise is not elastic, but subject to their leaders’ responsibility to ensure decorum and sanity — a commitment, he alleged the APC leadership had not been able to extract from its members across the state.
“This is the spirit and the letters of Section 48 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which creates exceptions where right could be deviated upon when the collective security of the people is at stake,” he said.
“It, therefore, behoves on the leadership of the APC to call their violent members to order, especially as INEC commences the second round of the registration exercise.
“As a peace-loving party, we are in full support of the bid by the Kwara police command to stem the tide of violence that now threatens the corporate existence of Kwara State, no thanks to the violent activity of the APC in the state.”
Chief Olawoye said the PDP was confident that the police would relax its order as soon as the political class in Kwara, particularly the APC, “shows a firmer commitment to uphold the sanctity of the rule of law and the security of life and property of the citizens of the state.”
WITH the recorded build-up to the 2015 polls in the state, the people of Kwara may not have seen the end of “hostilities” between the two contending parties — APC and PDP. But as Alhaji Olola-Kasum said, the need for peace should be the watchword of all the politicians in the state.
Already, the APC has declared that its members and the people of Kwara State were fed up with the politics of violence being allegedly orchestrated by the opposition PDP.
Alhaji Buhari, the APC publicity secretary in Kwara, said: “The politics of violence being orchestrated by the PDP is a threat to the sustainability of democracy in Kwara State.
“The opposition PDP took its record of violence up by a notch few days ago when the PDP thugs ignited a fracas in Ilorin West local government area.
“The fracas led to the untimely stoppage of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise in the entire stretch of Okekere, Alanamu, Adeta Primary School, Surelere and other areas of Ilorin West.
“The fracas would have been more bloody if not for the prompt and professional intervention of men from State Security Service (SSS) who arrested seven PDP thugs from the scene of violence.”
Alhaji Buhari said it’s shocking that in spite of the public outcry over alleged brutal activities of PDP thugs in Oke Ogun Ajanaku zone, Ilorin South, where they terrorised INEC agents and APC members, “the PDP has relentlessly persisted in its politics of thuggery and bloodletting.”
“We call on all security agencies in Kwara State to act on PDP’s fertile record of violence before it is too late,” he said.
“The Police Command is enjoined to step up efforts, lawfully, to protect the good people of Kwara State from further attacks by agents of Abuja politicians.
“We plead with all men of good conscience and friends of Kwara State to prevail on the opposition PDP to play politics without arms and ammunition.”
Meanwhile, Alhaji Buhari said that preliminary report from 193 wards of Kwara State has shown that the registration of voters was unsatisfactorily slow.
“With the massive turnout of would-be voters, one registration machine per polling booth is grossly inadequate,” he said.
“We urge the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to urgently find solution to the drawbacks.”
But Chief Olawoye described Buhari’s claim as “senseless, barbaric and a devilish propaganda aimed at calling the dog a bad name in order to hang it.”
According to the PDP spokesman, “We don’t have any record of violence. In any case, what should have warranted violence when our aim is to rule the state come 2015?
“The APC is one party that had been a clog in the wheel of progress of this our dear state. The party is talking of continuity; continuity in what?
“It was the PDP government that ruled between 2003 and 2011. So, if they are talking of continuity, it must start from Abdulfatah Ahmed’s era and between us; what are his achievements as APC governor?
“APC has no vision for Kwara; that is the main reason it is accusing other party of violence.”
As claims and counter-claims continue between the two parties, the people of the state may be the beneficiaries of the development due to the emergence of a virile opposition that would, in the long run, engender a more proactive politicking in the state.
