April 2011 General Elections Bloodiest Since 1999 And Over 500 Lives/ N10Billion ($60.8M) Properties Lost To Election Violence Since July 2010
On the 1st day of October, 2010, Nigeria made history as a golden jubilee nation, which she celebrated with twin deadly bomb blasts that killed over 30 people and injured scores of others. Today, another history is in making. The 2011 general elections being conducted are on their way to the World?s Guinness
?Book of Records as the costliest and bloodiest set of elections in Nigeria since 1999, if not since independence in 1960. In the segments of the elections conducted so far, over 500 lives, public and private properties worth over N10Billion (about $60.8M) had been lost ?to election violence. Those injured and missing are in thousands. The statutory cost for the polls? preparations is conservatively put at N200Billion (about $1.5Billion) since 2009. In the armada of electoral fraud called ?2007 General Elections?, at least 300 lives were lost (Human Rights Watch, USA).
In the area of human losses, for instance, over 140 lives were reportedly lost between July 2010 and March 27, 2011. Between March 27 and April 1st 2011, at least 10 lives were lost.
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On the April 2, 2011 botched NASS poll, at least 5 lives were lost. On April 8, 2011, at least 13 lives were lost to the Suleja INEC?s office bombing. On the April 9, 2011 rescheduled NASS poll, 39 lives were lost. On April 16, 2011 Presidential poll proper, at least 10 lives were lost. And in the earth-shaking post Presidential poll violence that engulfed over half of the 19 Northern Nigerian States including Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Bauchi, Adamawa, Niger, Taraba, etc, which started in the evening of the Presidential poll?s day, at least 250 to 300 lives have been lost, with public ?and private properties including churches, ?palaces, mosques, residences and vehicular valued at over N7Billion ( about $50M) destroyed, according to eyewitnesses, disaster management, and visual, audio-visual and written media sources, and the barbarous killings and property destructions ?appear not ceasing . ?
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Between July 2010 and April 9, 2011, public and private properties worth over N2.3Billion ( $15M),including over 500 vehicles and tricycles burnt in Bayelsa State, South-south Nigeria, were lost to vandalism and arson in connection with the election ?violence. Over 48,000 residents have fled their homes and rendered homeless as a result, and the figure has not stopped soaring as at last count.
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It is very unfortunate and sad that homicidal culture has been permanently rooted in the polity. Jungle-justice and self-help mechanisms of dispute resolution have become the order of the day in Nigeria and the country?s policy makers are clearly encouraging them owing to blatant lack of political will and perpetually sickening law enforcement incapacities, in addition to archaic criminal justice legislation and policies. The sanctity of human life matters nothing to contemporary Nigerian leaders, especially when Nigeria?s opponents within the comity of democratic nations are making policies protecting their animals? rights and freedoms. ?It is shocking and disbelieving that Nigerian leaders have continued to ?apply the Malthusian theory of ?population control by forceful death?, a sort of disguised mercy-killing, when the contrary is the case in many contemporary climes.
It is not enough for the Nigerian leaders to merely call on those killers to ?sheath their swords and embrace peace?, they should also go far more than that and take full charge. Failure on their part expressly means gross violation of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended, especially its Section 14(2)(b). The President and Commander-in-Chief and the Governors of the affected States have the Constitutional duty to protect every Nigerian citizen irrespective of his or her place of origin. The secularity of the Federation of Nigeria must be upheld at all times.
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The attitudes of the Nigerian leaders towards official information with regard to casualty data are unreservedly condemned. The way and manner the 33 miners were rescued in the Republic of Chile in 2010 with the country?s President relocating to the site, would have taught Nigerian leaders a lesson, but sadly reverse is still the case. Official falsehood accompanying the casualty data management in the country encourages these killings and destructions the more. The killers of these great Nigerians must be brought to account for their heinous crimes and firm steps taken to block their re-occurrences.
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Finally, it is our firm advice to the governors and other traditional and political office holders in the North-west and North-east geopolitical zones including Niger State to cease henceforth these unprovoked and unwarranted attacks, killings and destructions, which are usually targeted against their guest-communities. The said zones should ?accept the ?New Nigeria? of six geopolitically structured Presidency and wait for next fifteen years when the turn of the North-east will come, that is to say: South- south-2011-2016; South-east-2016-2021; North-central-2021-2026;and North-east-2026-2031,etc, this is on assumption of a five-year single term.
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If not, they should come up with their own proposals, but certainly not by levying ?war? against other geopolitical partners, which may most likely be repulsed in unprecedented proportions if continued. Even if they want to opt out of the Nigerian Project, it will not be realized by these unprovoked attacks, but by dialogue and negotiation. They must be reminded that no group or person has monopoly of violence, not even the art of bomb-making and planting.
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A Public Statement By The International Society For Civil Liberties And The Rule Of Law ? ?21/4/2011
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Signed:
Emaka Umeagbalasi
Chairman, Board of Trustees
+234(0)8033601078
Intersociety?s Secretariat: 41, Miss Elems Street, Fegge, Onitsha, Nigeria
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