The United States Government has expressed fear that the Nigeria\u2019s general elections scheduled for 2019 are likely to be characterised by violence.<\/p>\n
It said the conduct of the elections could have significant consequences for the democratic trajectory of Nigeria, West Africa, and the entire continent.<\/p>\n
The US, however, said the public disturbance that the elections would cause might not be \u201clarge-scale nationwide conflict\u201d but \u201clocalised violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, disclosed this in his presentation during the US Congress hearing on Nigeria\u2019s forthcoming elections in Washington DC on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki; Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Ben Murray-Bruce; and the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Nnena Ukeje, were present at the hearing titled, \u201cNigeria at a Crossroads: The Upcoming Elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our correspondent obtained a copy of Nagy\u2019s speech on Friday.<\/p>\n
Nagy, who is a member of President Donald Trump\u2019s administration and his lead foreign policy adviser for Africa, said the Department of State agreed with the view that Nigeria\u2019s 2019 general elections would serve as critical test.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI can tell you from my impressions during my travels and my previous service in Nigeria that I fear there will be some violence around these elections, as has been the case with previous elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not anticipate large-scale nation-wide conflict, but rather localised violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are already seeing increased tensions and polarisation as the election approaches. We assess that politicians are turning to narratives of identity politics in an attempt to improve their popularity, with potentially serious consequences for national unity.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, Nigeria\u2019s political system and society have weathered such tensions before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nagy said the US government took the risk of any loss of human life during the elections seriously.<\/p>\n
To this end, he said when he was in Nigeria, he asked officials from both major political parties to sign pledges that their candidates would conduct peaceful campaigns.<\/p>\n
He noted that the major candidates had now signed a peace pact.<\/p>\n
Rivers, Borno, Benue, Kano listed as hotspots<\/strong><\/p>\n He listed states that might experience violence during the elections to include Rivers, Borno, Benue, Plateau and Kano.<\/p>\n He added, \u201cIn assessing potential \u2018hotspots\u2019 for violence, we look at places that are historically volatile around elections such as Rivers and Borno states.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look at states that are currently tense, especially if state-level politics are contentious like those in Benue, Plateau, as well as those in high-stakes locations with large populations such as Kano.<\/p>\n \u201cWe regularly engage with civil society organisations working in these \u2018hotspots\u2019 and support their peacebuilding efforts. USAID programmes and our public diplomacy campaigns also support peace campaigns across the country, such as #VoteNotFight.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough our YALI Network Nigeria campaign, Nigerians have made over 10,000 pledges to boost voter participation, reject violence, and vote with integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n On expectations and concerns, Nagy said the US government was monitoring and messaging \u2013 both publicly and privately \u2013 to mitigate a few key areas of risk that could jeopardise a free and fair process.<\/p>\n He listed the areas of concerns to include potential attacks on the legitimacy of the Independent National Electoral Commission and the electoral process for political gain; intimidation and partisanship by security forces; and heightened insecurity, terrorist attacks on electoral institutions, or violence towards voters, observers, or electoral officials.<\/p>\n Others are inability of large numbers of Internally Displaced Persons or persons with disabilities to vote; voter suppression, the use of armed gangs for voter intimidation as well as wide-spread vote buying that challenges the integrity of the electoral process.<\/p>\n According to him, the US government will be watching closely for instigators of violence or those attempting to undermine the democratic process.<\/p>\n He added that the US was helping Nigeria to strengthen its democratic institutions and processes through diplomacy and robust public engagement.<\/p>\n While saying that the US does not support any candidate, he said the government \u201csupports a democratic process that is free, fair, transparent, peaceful, and reflects the will of the Nigerian people.\u201d<\/p>\n Nagy said only Nigerians could determine lasting solutions and a path forward toward peace and stability.<\/p>\n \u201c2019 will be a significant year for Nigerian democracy \u2013 it has been 20 years since the country returned to democratic rule and this election\u2019s youngest voters have never known a Nigeria without democracy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n However, the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Coalition of United Political Parties have reacted to the development.<\/p>\n The first national spokesperson of the CUPP, Imo Ugochinyere, in an interview with\u00a0Saturday PUNCH<\/em>said the US government was 100 per cent correct in its fear of possible outbreak of violence.<\/p>\n He, however, claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari was the one promoting violence by his actions, inactions and body language.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cThe American government is 100 per cent right in its assertion.\u00a0 President Buhari is the one that laid the foundation for violence by not signing the Electoral Act (Amended) Bill that would have ensured credible elections.<\/p>\n \u201cThe President is promoting violence by giving an illegal extension of tenure to a rampaging Inspector-General of Police who has been behaving like an opposition member.<\/p>\n \u201cBuhari is encouraging violence by inviting security chiefs to the inauguration of his re-election document at a time insurgents were killing our soldiers on the battle field.\u201d<\/p>\n Also, the PDP said the ruling APC and Buhari should be held responsible if there is any crisis in the country before, during and after the elections.<\/p>\n The party said that actions, words and attitudes of the ruling party and the President were not indicating that the Federal Government and the Independent National Electoral Commission were ready to conduct credible elections.<\/p>\n The party\u2019s National Chairman, Uche Secondus, who spoke with one of our correspondents, therefore appealed to Nigerians and the international community to pay attention to happenings in the country ahead of the elections.<\/p>\n Secondus said, \u201cWe are aware that the Federal Government and the APC are jittery over the reduced popularity of the President and his acceptability by Nigerians as a result of poor performance of President Buhari.\u201d<\/p>\n The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Lanre Isa-Onilu, said the ruling party aligned with the fears expressed by the US government.<\/p>\n But he attributed the possible cause of electoral violence to what he described as the worrisome signals from the opposition PDP.<\/p>\n He claimed that the PDP\u2019s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had attempted to avoid signing the peace agreement designed by the National Peace Committee before he was put under pressure to do so.<\/p>\n Isa-Onilu said, \u201cWe align with the concern raised. It is a major concern to the Federal Government and the APC. We will do our best to provide a conducive environment for the elections.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The United States Government has expressed fear that the Nigeria\u2019s general elections scheduled for 2019 are likely to be characterised by violence. It said the conduct of the elections could have significant consequences for the democratic trajectory of Nigeria, West Africa, and the entire continent. The US, however, said the public disturbance that the elections […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2003,92,377,29],"class_list":["post-2932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2019-election","tag-nigeria","tag-us","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2934,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions\/2934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}