As political activities heighten towards the 2023 general election, politicians have been urged to eschew ethnic and religious campaigns capable of promoting divisions in Nigeria.
A lecturer of the University of Calabar, Professor Chris Nwamuo made the call while speaking at a stakeholders’ forum of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, southern Nigeria.
Professor Nwamuo, who is the Orator of University of Calabar, speaking on the theme “voter education and peaceful electioneering processes” said that it was time candidates and political parties desist from playing ethnic and religious cards during campaigns.
Nwamuo noted that continuous use of the two sensitive areas was causing further divisions amongst Nigerians and may rock the 2023 political system as a generality of the electorate assimilate such sentiments rather than pay attention to political programmes, ideologies or policies.
He advocated for “an active and serious continuous civic and voter education anchored on the imperative to embrace issue-dominated politics because it has more potential to bring about change, sustainable development and lasting in a polity.
“So, with issue based campaigns, people representatives go to office having specific issues to be addressed as key element of their political agenda. Issue-centred politics has enormous potentials of bringing about serious socio-economic development, while personality-dominated politics, as experienced in the country, is susceptible to breed conflict and community unrest,” he posited.
Voter Apathy
Professor Nwamuo attributed voter apathy to several factors ranging from the belief that candidates would be selected rather than make their votes count to the ‘doctoring’ of the real election results as well as the belief in the vote buying culture.
Other factors he listed included “fear of the effectiveness of the BVAS (Bimodal Voters Accreditation System) in the coming election and electronic transmission of results to INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) office. The people also have the belief that corruption would not allow for a free and fair election and the fear of danger when observing the counting process at the polling unit.”
On electoral violence, the don stressed the need to constantly sensitize politicians and their supporters towards embracing responsible and discipline electioneering, noting “most of the political violence are engineered directly or indirectly by the actions of the politicians.”
He suggested that the electoral umpire and the political parties should devise peaceful, simple and effective methods to harness the potentials of the electorate to enhance participation in elections and enshrine good governance come 2023.
N.O
