The presidential candidates of Nigeria’s biggest political parties risk jail time if they are investigated and charged for their campaigns leading up to the intensely contested February 25 election.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) all campaigned on ethnic, sectional, or religious grounds, which violates Nigeria’s electoral legislation.
Peter Obi’s phone call with influential Nigerian preacher David Oyedebo, founder of the Living Faith Church, was leaked in April. Peter Obi called the February 25 presidential election a holy war, and Mr Oyedepo repeatedly said, “I believe that.”
Before that phone call on the night of the presidential election, Peter Obi had been repeatedly accused of targeting churches with thousands of followers, and political actions contradicted his denial.
At a campaign visit to the Revival House of International Church (RHOGIC) Abuja’s “Men of Valour” conference in June 2022, Mr Obi urged Nigerians to “take back” their country.
Addressing the conference “Navigating the Corridors of Power, the Church, and the Politics,” Peter Obi called Nigeria’s political arena an “asylum” and urged Nigerians to change it.
But Peter Obi is not alone in using religious, sectional, and ethnic feelings for political campaigns. Bola Tinubu of APC and Atiku Abubakar of PDP ran comparable campaigns.
Bola Tinubu, Peter Obi
Mr Tinubu’s June 2022 “emilokan” outburst stunned Nigerians. The former Lagos governor spoke to APC delegates at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta, Ogun State, before the presidential primary voting. He stated the Yoruba—and thus him—should succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.
“If not for me, that led the war front, Buhari wouldn’t have appeared; he contested first, second, and third times and lost. He grieved on TV about not competing again. I went to his home in Katsina and assured him he would win but not mess with Yoruba things. Since he arose, I have not been nominated a Minister nor requested a contract. “Yoruba’s turn and my turn in Yorubaland.”
Mr. Tinubu referenced Robert Ogunde’s 1964 musical symphony “Yoruba Ronu,” which urged southwest Nigerians not to abandon one other politically. Many Yoruba voters supported Mr. Tinubu after his historical allusion and outburst.
Atiku Abubakar’s northern campaign
In October 2022, former vice-president and PDP presidential contender Atiku Abubakar stated northerners needed a president like him, who is from the north.
Mr. Abubakar urged northerners to vote for him because he was one of them and best equipped to be president.
He claimed to have travelled the nation.
I know this nation, and I built bridges nationwide. The ordinary northerner needs someone from the north who understands the rest of Nigeria and has built bridges throughout the country.
“Northerners need this,” he said. Northerners don’t need Yoruba or Igbo candidates. Northerners need this.
“I am a northern pan-Nigerian.”
Religious campaigning is acceptable.
During Peter Obi’s phone call with Mr. Oyedepo, Labour Party leader and professor Pat Utomi claimed religious campaigning was acceptable.
He claimed religious groups occasionally form political parties. Mr. Utomi told African Independent Television this (AIT).
He said that all politicians seek religious endorsements.
They are breaking the 2022 Electoral Act, and facing incarceration.
According to Mr Utomi’s statements, campaigning along ethnic, sectional, and religious lines violates Nigeria’s electoral legislation and can result in jail time.
Section 92(3) of the Electoral Act 2022 states that “places designated for religious worship, police stations, and public offices shall not be used for political campaigns, rallies, and processions; or to promote, propagate, or attack political parties, candidates, or their programmes, or ideologies.”
Again, Section 97 of the same law forbids campaigns based on religion or tribe, stating that “any candidate, person or association that engages in campaigning or broadcasting based on religious, tribal, or sectional reason to promote or oppose a particular political party or the election of a particular candidate commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction — (a) to a maximum fine of N1,000,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both; and (b)
In 2022, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) advised candidates to avoid religious spaces and inter-faith discord.
Festus Okoye, INEC’s publicity commissioner, read portions of the Election Act, warning offenders of incarceration.
Mr Okoye urged parties and candidates to follow and prioritise the law, noting that the Act provides punishments for violators.
INEC may not have the political will to pursue Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu, and Peter Obi for campaign violations of the Election Act.
