Stakeholders drawn from a cross section of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the country have expressed fears of growing partisanship traits among security personnel, a development that may compromise the 2019 general elections.
Their fears had become heightened even as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had begun moves to ensure that security personnel that would be deployed to monitor each polling units had their names boldly embossed on their uniforms, while their employment details would be made available to the commission in case of any abnormality during the polls.
The CSOs, which voiced their worries through the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre(CISLAC), sited the case of Ekiti State in 2014, where security agencies became active participants and actually manipulated the process and till date, nothing had been done to review their role and bring them to justice.
The groups bared their fears on Wednesday in Abuja at the launch of preliminary findings of “Involvement of Nigerian Security Services in the Electoral Process: Guardian or Threat to Democracy? Research.”
According to them, even though Nigeria’s democracy had evolved for almost two decades, the over dependence on police and military personnel each time elections were to be conducted might send a negative trend to upcoming generation who might come to see it as normal.
Salaudeen Hashim, CISLAC’s security and defence programme manager, who took part in the research, argued that not all electorates could withstand the sight of soldiers in uniform, as such they might stay back at home and fail to exercise their franchise.
His words: “The trend of involvement of security agencies in elections is growing and increasingly worrisome. Between the time we started election in 1965, the involvement of security agencies was largely not as much as this and that was because at that time, the people were a little bit civil and there was not much pressure to hold on to power.
READ ALSO: NJC holds emergency meeting, gives Onnoghen, Ag CJN 7 days to respond to petitions
“But, the desperation and some levels of intrigues have also come into play. That has increased the level of involvement of security agencies in elections.
“So, we have a situation where some security personnel have become a little bit partisan. That calls for concern and there is need for them to be very neutral in terms of the role they play in the build up to the election and the election itself.
“The report also shows how security agencies have also participated in snatching ballot boxes and, of course, supporting politicians to engage in some kinds of unorthodox practices. This was part of what also informed this research.
“The trend is actually worrisome and we hope that something will be done to arrest it before it becomes a little of more concern to the international community.”
