Understanding Nigeria’s political campaign laws

We’re on the fourth day of campaigns for the 2019 general election. According to Section 99 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, herein referred to as Act, “…campaigning in public by every political party shall commence 90 days before polling day and end 24 hours  prior to that day”. Hence, open campaign for presidential, senatorial and House of Representatives candidates began last Sunday, November 18, 2018 and will end on February 15, 2019 while candidates for governorship and state Houses of Assembly seats will begin theirs on December 1, 2018 and end on March 1, 2019.

Now that official campaign for the next general election has started, do the stakeholders know the role they are supposed to play during this period? Are the political parties and candidates vying for the various political seats during the next elections aware of the laws regulating campaigns in Nigeria? What role has been assigned to security agents? Any duty for the electorate, media and civil society? In this piece, I have taken pain to chronicle the various laws and regulations guiding campaign in Nigeria.

Section 94 (1) of the Act says, “For the purpose of the proper and peaceful conduct of political rallies and processions, the Commissioner of Police in each state of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, shall provide adequate security for processions at political rallies in the states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

In order to also forestall violence, the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, says in Section 227, “No person or association shall retain, organise, train, or equip any person or group of persons for the purpose of enabling them to be employed for the use or display of physical force or coercion in promoting any political objective or interest or in such manner as to arouse reasonable apprehension that they are organised and trained or equipped for that purpose.”

Section 95 of the Act prohibits certain conduct at political campaigns. Subsection (1) says: “No political campaign or slogan shall be tainted with abusive language directly or indirectly likely to injure religious, ethnic, tribal or sectional feelings”;  (2) says, “Abusive intemperate, slanderous or base language or insinuations or innuendoes, designed  or likely to provoke violent reactions or emotions shall not be employed or used in political campaigns”; (3) “Places designated for religious worship, police station, and public offices shall not be used: (a) for political campaigns, rallies  and processions; or (b) to promote, propagate or attack political parties, candidates or their programmes or ideologies.”

Section 95 (4) says, “Masquerades shall not be employed or used by any political party, candidate or person during political campaigns or for any other political purpose.”  Subsection (5) says, “No political party or member of a political party shall retain, organise, train or equip any person or group of persons for the purpose of enabling them to be employed for the use or display of physical force or coercion in promoting any political objective or interest or in such manner as to arouse reasonable apprehension that they are organised, trained or equipped for that purpose.”  Subsection (6) says, “No political party, person or candidate shall keep or use private security organisation, vanguard or any other group or individual by whatever name called for the purpose of providing security assisting or aiding the political party or candidate in whatever manner during campaigns, rallies, processions or elections.”

Subsection 7 stipulates penalties for infringement as N1m or 12 months imprisonment for individuals and N2m in the first instance and N1m for subsequent offence for a political party while subsection (8) says aiding and abetting of contravention of subsection (5) by any person warrants N500,000 fine or three years imprisonment or both.

In addition, Section 96 (1) says: “No candidate, person or group of persons shall directly or indirectly threaten any person with the use of force or violence during any political campaign in order to compel that person or any other person to support or refrain from supporting a political party or candidate.” Subsection (2) says: “Any person or political party that contravenes the provisions of this section is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction: (a) in the case of an individual, to a maximum of N1m or imprisonment for a term of 12 months; and (b) in the case of a political party, to a fine of N2m in the first instance and N500, 000 for any subsequent offence.”

It is important to emphasise also that Section 100 (2) of the Act says, “State apparatus including the media shall not be employed to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate at any election. (3)  Media time shall be allotted equally among the political parties or candidates at similar hours of the day.  (4)  At any public electronic media, equal airtime shall be allotted to all political parties and candidates during prime time at similar hours each day, subject to the payment of appropriate fees. (5) At any public print media, equal coverage and conspicuity shall be allowed to all political parties. (6)  Any public media that contravenes subsections (3) and (4) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable to a maximum fine of N500,000 in the first instance and to a maximum fine of N1,000,000 for subsequent conviction.”

The Act in Section 102 says, “Any candidate, person or association who engages in campaigning or broadcasting based on religious, tribal or sectional reason for the purpose of promoting or opposing a particular political party or the election of a particular candidate is guilty of an offence under this Act and on conviction shall be liable to a maximum fine of N1m or imprisonment for 12 months or to both.”

Of great importance is also the need to let candidates contesting the next elections to know the expenditure ceilings on amount they can spend on their campaigns, according to Section 91 subsections 2 – 7. Section 91 (2) says, “The maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a Presidential election shall be one billion naira (N1,000,000,000). (3) The maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a Governorship election shall be two hundred million naira (N200,000,000). (4) The maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred in respect of senatorial seat by a candidate at an election to the National Assembly shall be forty million naira (N40,000,000) while the seat for House of Representatives shall be twenty million naira (N20,000,000)”

Others include: “Subsection (5) In the case of State Assembly election, the maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred shall be ten million naira (N10,000,000). (6) In the case of a chairmanship election to an Area Council, the maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred shall be ten million naira (N10,000,000). (7) In the case of councillorship election to an Area Council, the maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred shall be one million naira (N1,000, 000). Section 91 (9) says “No individual or other entity shall donate more than one million naira (N1, 000,000) to any candidate.”

Now that you know some of the laws guiding campaigns in Nigeria, you may choose to ignore or obey them. However, remember that by flouting these regulations, you risk fines and jail terms. Should you think it’s going to be business as usual, the Independent National Electoral Commission, the police and other anti-corruption agencies may choose to make you a scapegoat to serve as a deterrent to others. Let us therefore learn to abide by the rules of the game.

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