NIGERIAN POLITICS: A FILTHY, DIRTY, EVIL AND WICKED VENTURE? By Pelumi Olajengbesi, Esq.

I developed an interest in politics when I was around 15 years old. Since then, I have watched politics being played, read extensively about it and followed political developments with great interest. For many years, I saw politics primarily as an instrument through which society could be transformed and the lives of the people improved.

However, my active involvement in Nigerian politics has exposed me to a completely different side of it. I have seen enough to conclude that Nigerian politics, as presently practised, can be filthy, dirty, wicked and sometimes outright evil. I have seen how lies can become political strategy, how desperation can drive people beyond reasonable limits, how institutions can be dragged into partisan battles and, most painfully, how human lives can become secondary to political ambition.

Of course, this does not define everyone in politics. I have encountered people of character, conscience and genuine commitment to public service, and these experiences continue to give me hope. But I have also come to believe that walking away because politics has become too dirty will not make it cleaner. Those who believe politics can be better must be prepared to participate, take the risks that come with it and insist, through their conduct, that there must be a better way.

The recently concluded Osun State governorship election brought these realities closer to me than anything I had previously experienced. An election should ordinarily be about the people and their right to choose. It should be a contest based on the records of the candidates, their character, programmes and capacity to govern. Candidates should present their ideas, make their case before the electorate and ultimately allow the people to decide who deserves their votes.

Instead, what should have been a democratic contest gradually became something frightening. The political atmosphere became poisoned by threats, intimidation, violence, arrests, lies and allegations of abuse of government institutions. People who had lived peacefully together suddenly became divided because they belonged to different political parties.

Political disagreements became personal warfare, and in the process, innocent people suffered. Some were arrested, some were injured and, most painfully, some lost their lives. I saw families thrown into mourning because of an election, and I asked myself: can political power ever be worth the life of another human being?

On August 15, the people of Osun went to the polls. Despite everything that had happened in the build-up to the election, the people came out to make their choice, and at the end of the process, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Governor Ademola Adeleke the winner of the election.

The election had been won and lost, but the bitterness, injuries and human losses remained. For many, that moment could easily have been entirely about celebration and political triumph, but what happened immediately afterwards left a lasting impression on me.

Shortly after the election, Governor Ademola Adeleke invited some of us who had been very close to the election and the events surrounding it. Naturally, one would have expected the conversation to be dominated by celebration. Instead, the Governor was deeply concerned about the violence that had characterised the election and, particularly, the number of people who had lost their lives.

He spoke about families that were mourning and communities that had become divided by politics. He told us that the election was over and that the responsibility before him was no longer simply to celebrate victory, but to begin the difficult process of healing the state.

He spoke about extending a hand of reconciliation to everyone who contested against him, supporting the victims of election violence, ensuring that those who deserved justice were not forgotten and bringing political leaders together irrespective of party differences. What struck me was that these were not merely words spoken in the emotion of the moment; he immediately began the process.

In the days that followed, Governor Adeleke publicly declared that he held no grudge against his political adversaries and announced a ₦500 million Election Violence Victims Endowment Fund to provide relief to verified victims and their families. Scholarships up to university level were also announced for the children and dependants of those who lost their lives.

He began reaching out across political divides and made it clear that assistance to victims should not be determined by their political affiliations. Whether a victim belonged to Accord, APC or any other political party should not matter. They were Osun citizens first before they became members of political parties.

Gradually, the political temperature in Osun began to come down. Governor Adeleke reached out to former Governors, elder statesmen and political leaders across party lines. Then Asiwaju Bola Oyebamiji, the APC governorship candidate and the Governor’s major opponent in the election, publicly congratulated Governor Adeleke. Other major political actors also began embracing reconciliation. For me, these were important developments because democracy must ultimately respect the verdict of the people, while anyone genuinely dissatisfied with an election retains the constitutional right to seek redress through lawful means.

However, despite the collective efforts of key political leaders towards reconciliation, some politicians and their supporters continued to promote bitterness and hostility. There have been reports of unwarranted killings and violent attacks on innocent individuals even after the election. This is one aspect of Nigerian politics that I find particularly disturbing. Why? How? And for what reason?

People insult one another, destroy friendships, threaten each other and sometimes even become violent in defence of politicians. A few weeks or months later, the same politicians meet somewhere, shake hands, laugh together and discuss their common interests. Meanwhile, those who fought these political battles may be left with broken relationships and, in the worst cases, permanent injuries or the loss of loved ones.

Whatever length you go to in pursuit of power, do not surrender your humanity because of politics. No politician is worth killing or dying for.

While the parties are gradually healing, the most disturbing episode in the entire election matter, and one that made me reflect even more deeply on the bitterness and desperation that sometimes characterise our politics, was the controversy surrounding petitions purportedly filed before the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in the names of the APC governorship candidate, Asiwaju Bola Oyebamiji, his party and, in another instance, the PDP.

Ordinarily, there is absolutely nothing wrong with filing an election petition. The law gives every candidate who is dissatisfied with the conduct or outcome of an election the right to approach the tribunal. What made this particular situation extraordinary was the controversy surrounding whether the petitions had actually been authorised by the candidates and their parties.

Senior members of the APC legal team came out publicly to disown the petition. They explained that consultations had taken place after the election and that their professional advice was against challenging the result at the tribunal. The candidates and their parties also publicly denied authorising petitions challenging the election.

The entire episode raises a fundamental question about desperation in Nigerian politics. How can an election petition purportedly filed on behalf of a candidate and political party become the subject of public controversy over whether the candidate, the party or their established legal team actually authorised it?

It also speaks to the troubling reality that some people appear to profit greatly from political crisis and conflict. Sometimes, one is left wondering whether those behind such desperate actions have dined with the devil and sold their souls to his kingdom.

Perhaps this is one of the biggest problems with Nigerian politics, there are people whose relevance depends entirely on crisis. Insecurity in Nigeria has already become a business venture for some people. When there is peace, they become irrelevant. Therefore, they must constantly create new fights, new enemies, new accusations and new reasons for society to remain divided.

These experiences have made me understand why many people want nothing to do with politics. Politics can expose you to lies, betrayal, intimidation, blackmail and attacks from people who may never have met you. It can turn lifelong friends against one another and sometimes make otherwise reasonable people abandon every principle they once claimed to possess.

Nigerian politics may presently be filthy, dirty, wicked and sometimes evil, but perhaps the answer is not to abandon it to those who made it so. The answer is for more people who believe in a better way to enter the arena, remain courageous in the face of intimidation and insist that politics can still be about service, development, ideas and the people.

I am glad to note, in what I consider a commendable development, that the APC candidate, Alhaji Bola Oyebamiji, and his party have instructed that the petition be withdrawn, and the withdrawal has been effected.

Pelumi Olajengbesi, Esq. is a legal practitioner and Accord candidate for the House of Representatives, Oriade/Obokun Federal Constituency.