At a funeral Mass attended recently by Senator Godswill Akpabio, the former governor used the morbid atmosphere to paint a macabre picture of what would come in his state in the next general election. The senator who has fallen out with his godson, Governor Udom Emmanuel, and just decamped to the All Progressives Congress invoked the Nazi invasion of Poland to underscore the preparedness of his new party to win Akwa Ibom State from the Peoples Democratic Party.
In his words, “Recently, I had an occasion in Akwa Ibom State and this is what happened: I went just to make a floor declaration; others do it in the social media, others just sit in their offices, some do it by text messages that they have changed platform, what we call party. But in my own, I just decided to do it in an uncommon way because they call me uncommon transformer. It was watched in 59 countries and somebody asked what happened there, and I said just how it happened in Poland.
Wait for it: “When they asked Hitler’s minister for information how was the war in Poland? He said Warsaw saw war and war saw Warsaw. I will say that in the Ikot-Ekpene arena, when I stepped out, this is my first function after that, Warsaw saw war and war saw Warsaw. We can’t talk politics in the church but in 2019 Warsaw shall see war and war shall see Warsaw. The return will be victory. May God grant us all victory.”
While his knowledge of military history will be greatly useful in strategic studies classes, drawing such comparisons between a historical nightmare and a democratic process that is renowned for massive violence in this part of the world is totally unconscionable. For those who are unaware of the background of this historical allusion, the invasion of Poland by Adolf Hitler claimed thousands of civilian lives and ushered in one of the greatest ethnic cleansings in the history of mankind. Sometimes called the September Invasion, it saw Adolf Hitler’s troops decimate Polish citizens on an alarming scale in 1939 and this was the prelude to what was feared would be mankind’s final war.
Using Lebensraum (living space) as a pretext for the invasion, Adolf Hitler pursued his plans of territorial expansion in Poland and did not rule out the possibility of violence. In an address to his generals in May 1939 before the invasion, he clearly outlined the means to an end in the war, stating that, “with minor exceptions German national unification has been achieved. Further successes cannot be achieved without bloodshed. Poland will always be on the side of our adversaries.”
About ten days before the attack, a war-hungry Hitler delivered a speech to his military commanders at the Obersalzberg; he emphasized his mission of invading Poland in these few words: “the object of the war is … physically to destroy the enemy. That is why I have prepared, for the moment only in the East, my 'Death's Head' formations with orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language. Only in this way can we obtain the living space we need.”
Nigeria’s heterogeneity has earned it its own share of violence through the utterances of men as high and mighty in the society like Senator Akpabio. Like Hitler, all they need to do is to stretch the rod of violence towards a particular direction and watch men and women who have benefitted from their generosity march forward to unleash a red sea of violence and destruction on their enemies. This has been the story in much post-election violence so far recorded in the country. The post-election mayhem that greeted the 2011 general election is still fresh in mind; it was a case where the cynicism of a particular candidate in the electoral process sparked violence in many states of the North after results were announced. Also, the widespread violence that characterised the First Republic electioneering process, codenamed Operation We-ti-e was one of the reasons the military gave for truncating the civilian rule. The violence was like cancer and spread fast through the Western Region following the disputed 1964/65 general election; prominent politicians and their supporters lost both lives and property from the ensuing mayhem that disgruntled politicians and their supporters unleashed. All that was needed for the spirit of death to visit your doorstep was for the other side to know you belong to the opposing camp.
A repeat of these mindless killings in the power tussle between Akin Omoboriowo and Governor Adekunle Ajasin in the old Ondo State will again form another reason for the termination of the Second Republic. Nigeria has so far survived many more of these insensate electoral violence that one should hope that today they will serve as one of those chilling ‘never again’ reminders in the toolbox of our collective national memory; but the reverse seems to be the case as each generation struggles to outdo the previous in the cycle of despicable bloodletting.
The destruction of electoral materials in the recently canceled constituency election in Rivers State and the death of two people in the August 11 bye-election to fill the vacant position of Lokoja/Koton-Karfe Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives are reminders that these nightmares are once again upon us all. Therefore, rather than seeing political power as a do-or-die affair, as former President Olusegun Obasanjo once described it –he even used terms like “capture” to describe his party’s victory in elections-, politicians and the general public should remind themselves that it is about service to the nation and nothing more. Likewise, there is no better time for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the National Orientation Agency (NOA), and civil societies to reinvigorate their message of non-violence than now that politicians have started equating electoral victory to mass murder. The clock is ticking fast.
