The Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, officially declared and gave political parties the green light to flag off political campaign on September 28, 2022 across Nigeria.
Before INEC’S permission to resume political campaign, political candidates who are aspiring to contest for various political positions in their party had expended so much money and resources into the printing of campaign posters.
Allegations that state governments are trying to stifle the electioneering activities of opposition political parties and their candidates is real.
Some candidates hired private organisations to paste their campaign posters in their immediate communities, across their local government area, and in some cases, across State capitals.
Penultimate weekend Saturday, Newsbaxket crew, took a deliberate tour of some local governments in Lagos State, to confirm allegations of the destruction campaign posters in the State.
The journey started from Alimosho Local Government, through Agege, Ikeja, Bariga/Oworonshoki, Obalende, Victoria Island and terminated at Lekki Phase II, along the Lekki-Ajah Expressway. The crew also drove past and through the Lekki toll gate.
In all the areas mentioned above, the posters of the ruling party in Lagos had dominant visuals across the routes of roads covered.
On the Third Mainland bridge, the posters of the State’s governor and his party’s presidential candidate, were conspicuously displayed intact, across the entire length of the bridge.
However, there are evidences of posters of other political parties on the sidewalls of the bridge but they were all defaced through deliberate efforts to tear/peel them from the wall.
Interestingly, the team noted that on the Island, starting from Obalende, through Mcwen bridge, Victoria Island, and to Lekki-Ajah expressway, the posters of a particular opposition candidate, who is running for the House of Representative, were visible albeit there were attempts to tear and peel them of the walls on that route. This candidate must have learnt the trick to stop those responsible for destroying campaign posters that belong to opposition parties. The posters of the candidate were posted multiple times, as much as 25 in three layers with strong adhesives – thereby making it almost impossible for those that have been employed to destroy, deface and tear the posters. His method and the materials he uses in pasting his posters will frustrate even the most ardent poster destroyer! In most cases, the posters can’t be peeled or torn from the wall unless defaced. This left most of his posters intact.
However, this cannot be said of other political parties in the areas mentioned above. There are no awareness poster announcing the participation of other political parties for the 2023 elections.
Interactions with local residents of the areas mentioned, revealed that those who destroy posters, (the Lagos State Signage agency is the only legal body empowered by legislation to remove posters) perpetrate their evil act in the middle of the night, between midnight and 5a.m. in the morning.
Recall that in the 2018, Ikeja police command arrested six men at about 2:30a.m. for destroying campaign posters of opposition parties. The Spokesman of the Police Command in the state, CSP Chike Oti, confirmed the arrest in a statement, The prosecution of the men arrested and conclusion of that matter is as as good as you can guess!
When we talk of ‘level playing field’ for all aspirants, irrespective of political party, the act of destroying campaign posters of opposition candidates is criminal.
The practise of destroying opposition candidates posters is not particularly limited to Lagos State but across all States of the nation.
State governors may as well submit a legislative bill to their various House of Assemblies, to enact a law that prohibits and criminalises the participation of opposition candidates in elections. Perhaps this will save opposition candidates the trouble and financial loses incurred in printing campaign posters, especially considering the huge financial costs attached to the procurement of printed posters.
The case in the areas mentioned above, in the destruction of campaign posters, is a reflection of what happens to opposition candidates in each state of the nation.
Some state governors are so brazen to sustain this evil, criminal act, that they have perfected a quasi-legal way, to engage thugs as part of government officials, to execute the criminalise act of frustrating young, and upcoming budding candidates from contesting for political positions.
A nationwide investigation had shown that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the states controlled by them have not allowed the opposition parties unfettered electioneering since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lifted the ban on campaigns for the 2023 general elections.
Apart from imposing huge fees on venues, the governors of the two parties use their signage agencies to destroy the campaign billboards and posters of the opposition candidates under flimsy excuses.
Worse still, the governors also prevent the opposition parties from having their secretariats in strategic locations. Instead, they are forced into obscure areas under the guise that they cause traffic gridlock whenever they hold their meetings.
The irony of the whole saga is that the governors allow billboards, posters and party offices of candidates of their parties in the same locations where the opposition are dislodged.
Shockingly, the APC and the PDP also persecute themselves in the states they are in firm grip.
So brazen are incumbent governors in the act of frustrating opposition parties and candidates, that they use their State legislature to pass evil, unpopular laws that places humongous monetary demands and fines on opposition parties to paste campaign posters, banners and advertisement signs in their States. Perhaps this accounts for why governors are described as emperors.
Yet, in another breathe, governors ‘preach’ the gospel of ‘a level playing field for all candidates’ while engaging criminal gangs to destroy the campaign posters of opposition candidates.
Perhaps, the enthronement by election, of a truly democratic candidate, who have respect for the rule of law, and sanctity of the 1999 Nigeria constitution albeit in its skewed form, will send the necessary bill to the National Assembly to put a stop to this evil conduct of governors to remain in office at all costs and by all means.