Dos and don’ts of political campaign in Nigeria

 

It’s about three weeks to the official commencement of political campaign ahead of the seventh general elections taking place on February 25 and March 11, 2023. By September 28, 2022 campaign by presidential, senatorial and House of Representatives candidates will start in earnest and for the first time will last for 150 days, which is five months, according to S.94 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022. It is noteworthy that hitherto campaigns are held for 90 days.  I have read the press statement recently issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission as well as plan by supporters of a presidential candidate, who are abroad, to raise millions of dollars for him and the controversies this has generated. I will ventilate my view on that in a bit. As the saying goes, ignorance of the law is not an excuse.

Before the August 28, 2022 press statement of INEC, I have in a two-part article published in this column on March 16 and 23, 2022 titled, How Electoral Act 2022 impacts political parties, contestants (1) and (2), enlightened readers, particularly political parties and contestants on salient provisions of the new Act. Today, the focus shall be on campaigns.

Let me start from campaign finance. In an August 31, 2022 report, THISDAY newspaper said that in a bid to bolster his chances in the 2023 presidential election, Nigerians in the Diaspora have formed groups of committees to launch crowdfunding initiatives for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi. They plan to unveil in the coming days a crowdfunding portal with a target to raise $150 million from Obi’s supporters in the diaspora and N100 billion from those in Nigeria. This has generated a lot of furore with some people saying that it is illegal while others say it is legitimate. In fact, a group is reportedly seeking the disqualification of Obi on this basis.

Well, while crowdfunding is legit and permissible either from within or outside of the country, Obi’s promoters need to be aware of certain relevant provisions of the law they may be running afoul of if they make good their plan to raise the aforementioned gargantuan amount for their preferred presidential candidate. First is the provision of section 88(8) of the Electoral Act 2022 which says “No individual or other entity shall donate to a candidate more than N50,000,000.” Note that the currency is expected to be in naira not its equivalent in other currency. Furthermore, it should not exceed N50m per individual. More importantly is the provision of section 88(2) of the Act which says “The maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election shall not exceed N5,000,000,000.” If you consider the amount the Peter Obi’s support group are hoping to raise for his campaign, it’s far in excess of what the campaign finance law of Nigeria permits.

There are penalties for candidates and individuals who breach this campaign finance provisions. These sanctions are in sections 88 subsections 9, 10 and 11 of the Act. For avoidance of doubt, it states as follows “sub. (9) A candidate who knowingly acts in contravention of this section, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of 1% of the amount permitted as the limit of campaign expenditure under this Act or imprisonment for a term not more than 12 months or both. Sub. (10) says “Any individual who knowingly acts in contravention of subsection (9) is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of nine months or both” while subsection  (11) says “An accountant who falsifies, or conspires or aids a candidate to forge or falsify a document relating to his expenditure at an election or receipt or donation for the election or in any way aids and abets the contravention of the provisions of this section commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N3,000,000 or imprisonment for a term of three years or both”.

Other notable things include what INEC flagged in its August 28 press statement. This include non-financial issues. Prohibition of certain conducts at political campaigns has been expanded to include political parties, candidates and even aspirants who were previously not included. Thus, “Section 92 of the Electoral Act makes it mandatory that a political campaign or slogan shall not be tainted with abusive language directly or indirectly likely to injure religious, ethnic, tribal or sectional feelings”. Subsection 2 says “abusive, intemperate, slanderous or base language or insinuations or innuendoes designed or likely to provoke violent reaction or emotions shall not be employed or used in political campaigns. “Subsection 3 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”.

Subsection 4 says “Masquerades shall not be employed or used by any political party, aspirant or candidate during political campaigns or for any other political purpose.” Section 92(5) says “A political party, aspirant or candidate of a political party shall not 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 interests, or in such manner as to arouse reasonable apprehension that they are organised, trained or equipped for that purpose.”

It is important to bring to the attention of our law enforcement agency what the law expect them to do during the campaign season. S. 91. (1) of the Act says “The Commissioner of Police in each State of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, shall provide adequate security for proper and peaceful conduct of political rallies and processions in their respective jurisdictions and, for this purpose, the Police may be supported by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and any other security agency of the Federal Government.”

It is instructive to note that section 95.(1) of the Act says “A candidate and his or her party shall campaign for the elections in accordance with such rules and regulations as may be determined by the Commission” while subsection 2 says “State apparatus including the media shall not be employed to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate at any election” Political parties and contestants need to internalise what constitutes electoral offences as contained in Part VII (S. 114 – 128) of the 2022 Electoral Act. Other electoral offences are contained in S. 22. Offences of buying and selling voters’ cards. Particular attention should be paid to Sections 121 (Bribery and Conspiracy) and S. 127 (Undue influence) both of which criminalise vote-trading. Nigerian politicians should remember the old adage that says “a war foretold does not kill a wise and smart cripple”.