Various groups of civil society organizations within and outside Nigeria have clamored against the use of professional journalists and their media platforms by politicians to heat up the Nigerian polity.
According to a press statement sent to dnnafrica.com, eighteen civil society groups frowned against the violation of electoral guidelines, internal political parties’ democracy and hate speech featured within the political landscape of Nigeria as the 2019 elections draw near.
‘We are worried by the persistent violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act with the improper use of electoral timetable as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by political parties and politicians who continue to engage in premature campaign activities.
We are not unaware of the violation of various regulations guiding political party financing including deliberate effort to take advantage of individual’s socio-economic situation and buying of votes that resultantly undermine free, fair and credible electoral process”, they expressed.
As the political parties kick started their party congresses, the civil society organizations posit the posing threat against the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections if the brewing conflicts in parties’ conventions, congresses are not meticulously addressed.
On political campaigns, the CSOs challenged the political parties to adhere to the Section 95 (1-2) of the Electoral Act which forbids the use of political campaign slogan tainted with abusive language directly or indirectly, likely to conjure religious, ethnic, tribal or sectional feeling and the use of abusive, intemperate, slanderous or base language or insinuations or innuendos designed or likely to provoke violent reactions or emotions in political campaigns.
Verbal attacks and hate speeches which manifest in the utterances of politicians, political supporters, political party leaders, traditional rulers and religious leaders; were seen as great threats to the electoral process, peaceful-coexistence, unity and diversity of our beloved nation.
The media was urged in accordance to, the provisions of Section 102 of the Electoral Act to shun any candidate or person or association who engages in campaigning or broadcasting based on religious, tribal or sectional reason for the purpose of promoting, opposing a particular political party or the election of a particular candidate.
They also encourage the media to: avoid publishing or airing political adverts, advertorials and sponsored political news that seek to create hatred or incite violence; reject any material intended for publication or airing by parties, candidates and other interests that contains hateful or inciting words and messages; refrain from publishing or airing abusive editorial comments or opinions that denigrate individuals or groups on account of disability, race, ethnicity, tribe, gender or belief.
“We urge religious leaders to abide by the provision of Subsection 3 of the Act which emphasized that “Places designated for religious worship, police stations and public places shall not be used for political campaigns, rallies and processions or to promote, propagate or attack properties, candidates or their programmes or ideologies”, the statement partly reads.
The eighteen civil society organizations included: Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Partners for Electoral Reforms (PER), State of the Union (SOTU), Say No Campaign, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD)
Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Zero Corruption Coalition (ZCC), Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), Civil Society Network Against Agenda (CSNAC), Accountability Mechanism for Maternal New Born and Child health in Nigeria (AMHiN), Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), Youth Initiative for Advocacy Growth and Advancement (YIAGA), Protest to Power, Centre for Democratic Research and Training (CRDDERT), Organisations of Trade Unions of West Africa, National Procurement Watch Platform (NPWP)
African centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) and Borno Coalition for Democracy and Progress (BOCODEP).
