Stakeholders at a roundtable by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Challenges of Premature Political Campaign, fail to agree on continued retention or otherwise of the law prohibiting early campaign in the country, writes ONYEKACHI EZE
The roundtable organised by The Electoral Institute, the training arm of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which was supposed to resolve issues concerning premature election campaigns in Nigeria, ended up complicating the issue.
The election management body had cautioned political parties against engaging in early campaign as such is a violation of the Electoral Act and the Nigerian Constitution.
Citing Section 94(1) of the Electoral Act (2022, as amended), INEC says the Act permits “the period of campaigning in public by every political party (to) commence 150 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to that day.” At the same time, section 95(1) of the same Act, also invests in INEC, as regulator of registered political parties in Nigeria, the power to regulate and determine the conduct of political parties and their candidates during electioneering campaigns.
The roundtable, which extended invitation to Chairmen of registered political parties, Director General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), and his Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) counterpart, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Executive Secretary, Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) and the Convener of the Civil Society Situation Room, as well as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), was therefore aimed at finding solution to the problem and nip the alleged infraction by the political parties in the bud. Unfortunately, the discussants failed to find a common ground.
Campaigns and campaign activities, not only in Nigeria but in every democratic world, have various definitions, just as what constitute electioneering campaign means different to different people.
While Collins English Dictionary defines campaign as “is the activities that politicians and their supporters carry out in order to persuade people to vote for them or their political party in an election, for example making speeches and visiting voters,” the Cambridge English Dictionary sees election campaign as “the period of time immediately before an election when politicians try to persuade people to vote for them.”
A scholar, however, sees election campaigns as such that “involve hanging up election posters, holding events, and having candidates take part in talk shows and debates,” or as “the means by which candidates and political parties prepare and present their ideas and positions on issues to the voters.”
INEC said politicians can “engage in political discussions and express their views on the next general election,” but should not indulge in “any open campaign or canvassing for votes for the 2027 general election is not only inappropriate but a violation of the Electoral Act.”
This shows that there is a very thin line between what INEC allows politicians to do and what it says they should not do, prior to the 2027 general elections.
Chair of the Board of The Electoral Institute, Prof. Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, who opened the discussion during the roundtable, said politicians have denied engaging in early or premature election campaigns, but at the same time engage or use surrogates to engage in “cultural festivals and religious gatherings, billboards and branded vehicles, sometimes with cleverly crafted slogans.”
Another dimension in premature election campaigns is the use of social media, which Zuru said influencers and content creators have become key players and fronts, “flooding platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok, YouTube, and X with songs, skits, and hashtags that project particular aspirants many months before the permission of the law.”
But Adebayo Balagun, House Committee Chairman on Electoral Matters wondered if there is still need for law prohibiting premature election campaigns. The lawmaker also wondered who is to be held liable for premature electioneering campaigns, the politician or the third party, who amounts a billboard or poster, promoting the candidature of a particular person before the approved period by the Electoral Act.
According to him, every event by politicians or their supporters is a campaign activity. Said he, “When the government is commissioning a project … it presents itself” or “a House member is commissioning a constituency project, he starts the campaign, and when the opposition organises their own rally to oppose any programme of the ruling government, it’s also a campaign.
“The CSOs every day talk about policies of government, either for or against. The fuel subsidy debate is still on. It’s either you support it or you are opposing it. Do we consider this as campaign.”
Nigeria is not the only country guilty of premature election campaigns, he noted, as the United States of America (USA) believed to be bastion of democracy in the world, is equally guilty.
“The social media space cannot even be controlled,” Balogun stated, and cautioned that Nigeria should be careful when some of these laws are made.
“If we say you are campaigning, when you don’t know people that are doing many posters on your behalf! You see these posters from the airport to wherever you go in Abuja. Who do you hold liable? Is it the party or the person? We must be careful so that we do not create a situation where the law will be used to haunt some people,” he warned.
Even the police, the lead agency in election security, seem to align with this argument. The Inspector General of Police IGP, Kayode Egbetokun, who was represented by Abayomi Shogunle, the Commissioner of Police in charge of election monitoring, wondered whether Nigeria “really need to continue to regulate (election campaign) in 2025 based on the fact that there is a need to bridge the gap between our leaders and the public?”
Egbetokun again stated that “every law that is made, we in enforcement have a duty to enforce, and then we need to ask ourselves again, what are the relevance of these laws to issue of society and development?”
Although the Electoral Act criminalises premature electioneering campaigns, but does not impose any punishment. INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said while Sections 94(2) of the Electoral Act 2022 imposes sanctions a maximum amount of N500,000 on conviction, on any political party or a person acting on its behalf who engaged in campaigns 24 hours before polling day, there is no sanction whatsoever concerning breaches for campaigns earlier than 150 days to an election.
“Here lies the challenge for the commission in dealing with early campaign by political parties, prospective candidates and their supporters,” Prof. Yakubu regretted.
This is not only problematic and challenging to INEC but makes it difficult to track campaign finance limits by politicians. As Prof. Yakubu further noted, politicians, prospective candidates and third-party agents engaging in early campaign, expend large amount of money that cannot be effectively monitored before the official commencement of campaigns.
Former INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega, who described premature election campaigns as undesirable aberrations in democratic elections, because they create an uneven playing field, and confer unfair advantages to parties or candidates said they are largely carried out by candidates’ support groups. This even makes the problem more complicating, because the law targets only political parties and their candidates.
Jega noted that premature campaigns consist of, not only erection of bill boards with candidates portraits and messages soliciting votes and/or endorsements; but they also include, using public media and resources to advertise records of ‘achievements’ of incumbents, or use of official positions and commissioning of projects for electioneering purposes.
“When incumbents do it and get away with it, or other ‘third parties’ do it on their behalf and get away with it, a spiral of illegalities and lawlessness is unfolded, undermining the rules-based system and the integrity of the electoral process,” he said.
He however wondered whether the definition of what constitute campaign is clearly defined by INEC, or is it ambiguous? If campaign is defined as it concerns political parties and their candidates, how could that affect their supporters, the third party who are believed to be largely culpable?
Even in the case of politicians, Jega said Nigeria politicians have a clever way of circumventing the law to engage in premature campaigns, such as consultative meetings, project commissioning, ceremonial events, and distribution of palliatives.
“These acts ultimately make laws become ineffective; they encourage a culture of impunity, particularly for the ruling parties at all levels of governance in the federation,” he said.
That is why Jega believes candidates and their parties should be vicariously held responsible and penalised for premature campaigns for them by third-parties. And in determining whether candidates and parties’ expenditures fall within approved limits, the estimated or determined expenditure by a third-party campaigner for the candidate or party should be taken into consideration.
