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Former presidential aide, Babafemi Ojudu has urged political leaders, security agencies and citizens to act before scattered incidents of campaign violence become a national conflagration, arguing that no electoral victory can compensate for the destruction of the country.
The former Ekiti Central senator stated this in an opinion piece titled, “Before The Fire Spreads,” which he shared on his Facebook page on Saturday.
Ojudu said Nigeria is bleeding at a time of hardship, insecurity and deepening public frustration, with political meetings attacked, campaign vehicles burnt, billboards destroyed and citizens threatened for their choices.
He cited as urgent the scenes reported from Abuja on Friday where young men were heard chanting “Ba ma yi! Ba ma yi!”, an expression of rejection, as President Bola Tinubu’s convoy departed after Juma’at prayers amid disputed reports that stones were thrown at the convoy, and the attack on an NDC gathering in Lagos the preceding day, where thugs disrupted the town hall meeting, attacked participants and damaged vehicles.
Ojudu said, “Citizens have the right to reject a president politically, voice their grievances and campaign against his re-election. Peaceful dissent is a democratic right. Throwing stones at anyone, including the President, is violence. Equally, citizens attending an opposition meeting are exercising a constitutional freedom. Attacking them is an assault on that freedom.
“The President must be safe among the people he governs. The people must be safe when they disagree with him.”
He warned that no responsible government should dismiss expressions of public discontent without examining their causes, and no responsible opposition should celebrate violence because the person targeted occupies the presidency, recalling that the federal election crisis of 1964 and the violence surrounding the Western Region election of 1965 helped undermine the First Republic.
“My concern is the safety of Nigerians and the survival of our democracy. APC members must be free to campaign and organise in every part of this country, and that same protection must extend to every other party. No electoral victory can compensate for the destruction of the country we seek to govern,” he said.
Ojudu said he had earlier condemned attacks in Kaduna, Kebbi, Nasarawa and Katsina, including attacks against the ruling party, destruction of APC billboards, burning of campaign vehicles, and attacks against opposition supporters, including the reported assault on an ADC media convoy in Kebbi, insisting that “these incidents deserve investigation wherever they occur and whoever is affected.”
He said the attack on the NDC gathering in Lagos deserves unequivocal condemnation, just as any attack on the President’s convoy deserves the same, warning against explaining away an attack as retaliation for violence elsewhere, since an innocent person in Lagos does not become answerable for an offence committed in Katsina.
Ojudu also rejected assigning ethnic ownership to political parties, warning that labelling a party “Igbo,” “Yoruba” or “Hausa” can turn political disagreement into collective ethnic blame, and that his Yoruba ethnicity does not suspend his conscience, nor does his APC membership relieve him of the responsibility to condemn wrongdoing, including wrongdoing committed in its name.
He said violence is the visible symptom, while the deeper danger is the growing belief that opponents are enemies to be crushed, that public institutions are weapons to be captured and that victory confers ownership of the state.
Ojudu urged President Tinubu to urgently convene party leaders and presidential contestants with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security chiefs and credible peace mediators to agree practical arrangements for protecting political gatherings.
He called on security agencies to investigate attacks promptly and impartially, publish credible findings and bring perpetrators and sponsors before the courts, stressing that a party connection must offer no immunity, opposition status must attract no presumption of guilt, and political leaders must temper their language and take responsibility for the conduct they encourage, finance or excuse.
He further urged government to listen to public frustration, saying it cannot be wished away by dismissing every grievance as opposition propaganda, while opposition leaders must organise discontent through peaceful, constitutional means, restrain their supporters and condemn violence without calculating whether it damages the government.
This responsibility, he said, also extends to former heads of state, religious and traditional leaders, labour, professional associations, civil society, the media and concerned citizens.
“Elections must offer Nigerians a choice, not confront them with a threat. No candidate is indispensable. No party is entitled to perpetual power. No grievance grants a licence to maim or kill. Our responsibility is to preserve a country in which we can lose an election and still belong, win an election and still answer to the law. I call on every well-meaning Nigerian to act before condemnation gives way to mourning. No political ambition is worth Nigeria’s destruction,” Ojudu stressed.
