Peace committees stand up for democracy
By Dapo Olaosebikan
The establishment and entrenchment of peace-mediating organisations in Nigeria’s politics and social space, particularly from the second decade of this century, is a response to a series of election violence which have become a culture in the country’s ongoing political dispensation.
The violence which began as isolated sparks in some parts of the country between 1999 and 2003, soon enveloped the nation’s horizon as massive conflagrations in the six geopolitical zones, consuming lives and properties in a most unimaginable manner.
There was widespread violence following allegations of election rigging and manipulation of election materials in the 1999 election which ushered in the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. It is estimated that about 80 people died. Similarly, at least 100 people were killed during the elections in 2003. Over 300 people lost their lives in connection with electoral violence four years later, with pre-election violence alone claiming more than 70 lives.
A notorious case of election violence during this period was assassination of Chief Marshal Sokari Harry, former National Vice-chairman of All Nigeria’s People’s Party, ANPP, in Abuja during the presidential election of 2003. Similarly, it was reported that more than 70 incidents of election-related violence occurred between November 2006 and middle of March 2007 in 20 of Nigeria’s 36 states.
Election violence soon escalated and intra-party squabbles resulting in assassinations and attempted assassinations were recorded. For instance, two PDP gubernatorial aspirants in south western Nigeria, Funsho Williams and Ayo Daramola, were assassinated in Lagos and Ekiti States in July and August 2006 respectively.
Former Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, said 520 persons, including nine National Youth Service Corps members, died in the violence that followed the outcome of the 2011 polls in Niger, Jigawa, Bauchi, Kano and Kaduna States while hundreds were displaced.
In the same vein, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room reported that 626 persons, including one INEC worker, were killed across Nigeria in the six months between the beginning of the election campaign and commencement of the 2019 general and supplementary elections. According to an INEC report, more than 1,149 persons, including employees of the organisation, were killed in the three general elections held in 2011, 2015 and 2019.
Human Rights Watch,an organisation involved in monitoring violation or abuse of fundamental rights of individuals and groups in Nigeria, particularly since the beginning of current political dispensation in the country, stated that deadly election-related and communal violence in northern Nigeria following the April 2011 presidential voting claimed more than 800 people. The victims were killed in three days of rioting in 12 northern states.”
The group further stated that in 2011, violence began with widespread protests by supporters of the main opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change, following the re-election of then incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, from the Niger Delta in the south, who was the candidate for the ruling People’s Democratic Party. The protests degenerated into violent riots or sectarian killings in the northern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara. Relief officials estimated that more than 65,000 people were displaced in these areas. The fledgling Nigerian democracy was threatened.
Thus, local and international groups and even the European Union said that the federal government should investigate and prosecute those who orchestrated and carried out these heinous crimes and address the root causes of recurring election violence in the country. This led to the establishment of the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee, NPC, in 2014. It has become a part of the political process and development of Nigeria today.
The Committee is composed of eminent elder statesmen including Rev. Father Mathew Kukah, Mr. Femi Otedola and Rev. Father Atta Barkindo. They work to support free, fair and credible elections as well as intervene in critical issues of national concern through high-level mediation and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. The core values of the Committee include neutrality, integrity, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness through fairness; confidentiality; meritocracy; justice and patriotism.
At inception, the NPC had an urgent, broad based mandate to make modest contributions towards a smooth and peaceful conduct of the 2015 elections, devoid of any breakdown of law and order before, during and after the electioneering process. In collaboration with the NPC, ECOWAS and Africa Union, United Nations Organisation, UNO, assured Nigerians of its full support in organizing general elections that are peaceful, credible, inclusive and transparent.
The NPC has initiated several moves and overseen signing of peace accords between political parties at state and federal levels at critical times since 2015 to forestall election violence before, during and after major electoral activities in the country.
Before the 2015 presidential election, NPC superintended over the signing of an inter-party peace accord between PDP, then ruling party, and other opposition parties, to accept the outcome of the presidential election of that year. This was also repeated in 2019 and earlier this year with APC as the ruling party.
Also, peace accords were signed at the state level among political parties in the 2023 November gubernatorial elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States.
Since it began its role as mediator in 2015, the NPC has reduced tension in the land just before the elections by committing the contending parties to sign peace accords that they should shun violence if the elections did not favour them. It advocated constitutional and peaceful means of ventilating their grievances regarding the conduct and outcome of the election.
In 2015, the body prevailed on Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, then incumbent president, to call and congratulate Muhammadu Buhari, his main rival, on his success at the polls even when the result had not been officially declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
On the eve of 2019 general elections, NPC repeated what it did in 2015 elections by making leaders of the contending political parties sign another peace accord, which relatively made the elections of that year less violent. The 2019 peace accord compelled the parties to uphold the following:
1. Run issue-based campaigns at national, state and local government levels; to refrain from campaigns that will involve religious incitement ethnic or tribal profiling, both by parties and by all agents acting in their names;
2. Refrain from making or causing to make any public statements, pronouncements, declarations or speeches that have the capacity to incite any form of violence before, during and after the elections;
3. Commit themselves and political parties to the monitoring of the adherence to the accord by a National Peace Committee made up of respected statesmen and women, traditional and religious leaders;
4. Support all the institutions of government including INEC and security agencies to act and be seen to act with impartiality, and,
5. Forcefully and publicly speak out against provocative utterances and oppose all acts of electoral violence, whether perpetrated by supporters and/or opponents.
Again, in the build up to the 2023 general elections, the Committee initiated the mobilisation of all stakeholders in the process in order to ensure a peaceful atmosphere generally in the country before, during and after the elections. The candidates signed another peace accord. The move was to measure compliance by political parties, their spokespersons and presidential candidates to make their campaigns issue-based and avoid character assassination of any kind.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by eminent Nigerians including Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar II, the Sultan of Sokoto, Femi Otedola, Aliko Dangote, Sam Amuka, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, and Priscilla Kuye, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN.
For its efforts, the NPC has received commendations from many Nigerians. Muhammadu Buhari, former president of Nigeria, said the great work of the NPC contributed significantly in shaping the 2015 elections. Alan Doss of Kofi Annan Foundation remarked that NPC’s efforts have promoted electoral integrity in the country.
Ameh Ebute, Nigeria’s former Senate president, told Newswatch Plus that integrity and perceived capability of the leadership of NPC is why the organisation has been able to attain some positive strides in forestalling and mediating crises before, during and after general elections since 2015. He said that the NPC should be applauded for its great role which was one of the reasons that made this year’s general elections relatively less violent than the ones from 2003.
Also, Jibrin Baba Ndace opines that the National Peace Committee must be applauded for doing an excellent job in the nation’s electoral processes. In a newspaper publication, Ndache remarked that the Committee deserves commendation for bringing together all the contestants to commit themselves to a peaceful electioneering process. According to him, to see political opponents shake hands and embrace one another on national television in the spirit of peace, goes a long way in reducing tension in the country during the election.
Adams Otakwu, chairperson of the Abuja-based Conference of Civil Societies, applauded NPC “playing a great role in strengthening our electoral system in Nigeria.” He, however, said that peace efforts should not be left to the NPC. According to him, more societies should be encouraged and given recognition to engage in evolving mechanisms that can effectively deal with election related violence and crises because the task in this regard, requires a multi-dimensional approach.
Olalekan Babatunde, professor at the Zhejiang Normal University, China, contends that the current dynamics and realities of vicious cycles of never-ending structural, direct and cultural violence and violent extremism in Nigeria have demonstrated the urgent need for a new peace strategy. According to him, since 1999, Nigerians have witnessed worsening causes, new and ignorant conflict actors, the enlarged geographical spread of violence and exploitation of violence by conflict entrepreneurs.
Babatunde argued that the major problem is lack of better-coordinated efforts at building peace and managing conflicts, and that the fragile contexts and protracted violent conflicts have raised concerns about the country’s capacity to deal with such levels of violence at their underlying and proximate causes and dynamics.
Explaining further, he says the issues of conflict seem to have divided us more than unified us and to address them as responses have often been reactive rather than strategic, long-term, and preventive approaches to peace building.
He concludes that with a history of inter-ethnic communal violence, violent extremism and election-related violence, Nigeria is overdue for a national framework to guide efforts to prevent, build peace, and promote human rights and justice in a more coordinated manner.
Emeka Okolo, a public affairs commentator, said that there is need for a legal organisation with all-inclusive mechanisms to deal with the issue of violence and election-related crisis in Nigeria. He said the calibre of men driving NPC informed its excellent performance over the years. “This is arguably the reason many, if not all of the so called civil rights organisations and activists, have suddenly gone both dumb and numb while the Committee still stands out as a beacon of hope in Nigeria,” he said
Okolo and Babatunde have called for legal and constitutional recognition of the NPC like the Ghana Peace Council. Said Babatunde: “There is need for a legally constituted institution for the purpose of timeless and general peace in the country, not just a committee to deal with isolated cases of election crisis and violence.”
Ghana’s National Peace Council (NPC) is an independent statutory national peace institution established by the 818 Act of the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana, named The National Peace Council Act, 2011. Thus any activity undertaken by the Council must be derived from its mandate under Act 818. The core function of the Council is to prevent, manage, and resolve conflict and to build sustainable peace.
This Council is similar in nomenclature, organisational structure and functions to Britain’s National Peace Council (NPC), founded in 1908 and disbanded in 2000. The Council acted as the coordinating body for almost 200 groups across Britain, with membership ranging from small village peace groups to national trade unions and local authorities.
The groups were all united in their interest in peace, human rights, justice and the environment. However, in 2001, another organisation, Network for Peace, was set up in Britain to continue the networking role of the disbanded National Peace Council.
