Terrorism Will Threaten  2023 Polls In Northeast, Group Raises Alarm 

By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan

The Conflict Research Network, West Africa (CORN West Africa) on Tuesday, alerted the federal government and security agencies that terrorism will threaten the conduct of 2023 elections in Northeast Nigeria 

CORN West Africa raised the alarm  as part of the recommendations at its Colloquium webinar themed, “Nigeria Decides 2023: Conducting Elections in Context of Political Violence and State Fragility”.  

The body quickly added that this could be if proactive context specific security plan is designed for the zone.

Speaking on the topic, “Election amid Terror: Terrorism and the 2023 Elections in Nigeria’s North East”, Dr Babayo Sule of the Department of International Relations, Federal University of Kashere, Gombe state and member Conflict Research Network, West Africa maintained that improved security of lives and properties before the elections in Northeast will encourage people to come out to vote.

Dr Sule pointed out that ” terrorism remains a major threat to the conduct of 2023 elections in the Northeast, and that elections may not hold in areas under the control of terror groups in the Northeast ” except counter-terrorism capmpaign is stepped up to clear the way”.

He stressed that government must “significantly reduce the areas that are under the control and influence of Boko Haram before the 2023 general elections. Extra security personnel should be deployed to ensure the safety of lives, properties, INEC officials and electoral materials”, adding, many areas in the Northeast remains inaccessible while several people have been internally displaced which will impact on their participation in the elections.

“On Election Day, in 2015, the Boko Haram terrorists coordinated multiple attacks on polling units in in Gombe, Bauchi, Yobe, Borno and Adamawa killing election officials while destroying electoral materials.”, he said.

Dr Sule added, ” Voters were killed while the electorates dispersed and never returned to cast their votes in the affected areas. Because of the activities of the insurgents, several remote areas could not be accessed and transporting election materials proved impossible. Elections did not take place in the 16 LGs under the control of Boko Haram”.

” The Islamic State in the West Africa Province and the Boko Haram insurgency keeps growing in the North-east. There are several flashpoints that could be difficult to reach with electoral materials because Boko Haram/ISWAP may attack or destroy the materials there. The process may disenfranchise many voters in Northeast even though, the turnout in the 2015 and 2019 General Elections in the Northeast appears encouraging compared to other geo-political zones, especially, in the South. Counter Terrorist Military Operations against Boko Haram have reduced the areas controlled by the terrorist group, but it is far from being curtailed. 

” The evidence we have gathered so far shows Boko Haram still has the capacity to block the distribution of election materials in some flashpoint areas, ostracising voters for fear of attacks, and killings and destruction of properties during the forthcoming 2023 Election”

Speaking, the Director of CORN WEST Africa, Dr. Tarila Marclint Ebiede, said “Nigeria is struggling with different forms of insecurity and violent conflicts that may affect the credibility of the elections in some regions such as the North East, and North West where there are ongoing conflicts”.

According to Ebiede, “Regions such as the South East also struggle with issues of insecurity associated with secessionists agitations. In the Niger Delta, armed groups still operate in rural communities.”

” We cannot go into an election as important as the 2023 general elections without reflecting on these issues and how to limit their impact on our democratic process. Hence, the colloquium series provides this opportunity for scholars to use their research on these different forms of conflicts to inform policy makers and advocacy groups on why it is important to pay attention to these issues, what to do to overcome these issues and provide policy recommendations on how to improve Nigeria’s democracy.”

In his opening remarks Dr. Ukoha Ukiwo who is the Technical Lead of Managing Conflict in Nigeria Program in his opening remarks disclosed that political actors in Nigeria pay lip-service to pacts of non-violence thereby staining the electoral process with conflict, violence and implications for the credibility of the 2023 elections.

“The problem, however, is that political actors still pay lip-service to pacts of non-violence, there has been breakdown in consociationalism and power sharing arrangements, non-completion of institutional reforms and challenges of implementation, state fragility and capacity issues on the part of electoral institutions and security agencies.”