The atrocious and violent acts of banditry and thuggery by cultists which marred the 2019 general elections in Nigeria, particularly, my community, Satellite Town, Lagos, and its environs, is one never seen before, when comparatively analyzed with the 2015 elections that saw to the exit of an incumbent president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and the coming of the President Muhammadu Buhari.
In 2015, with the hitch-free general elections, which saw for the first time in Nigeria’s chequered history, an incumbent President losing power and conceding defeat to an opposition candidate, many a Nigerians thought that the hope of organizing a Peaceful, Free, Fair, and Transparent elections is here.
But Hell No! The 2019 General Elections fell short and dashed the hope of many Nigerians. In fact, the confidence, many Nigerians reposed in the nation’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), was dashed.
No thanks to the inability of the government as well as its security agencies to curtail the excesses of politicians who foment troubles using violent cultists on their payroll.
It’s few weeks since the 2019 general elections was held, yet the carnage it left behind, as well as the deep wounds it left opened, remains hotly felt and visibly seen.
Many Nigerians, including Yours Truly, has continued to pour outcries on the pages of newspapers, as well as the social media, against the wanton thuggery and cult related election malpractices which marred the polls across various polling booths.
For the fact that those politicians in authority, including the security agencies whose job it is to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians, continue to keep mum, without going out of their way to arrest and prosecute these cultists and their sponsors, leaves a bitter taste in our mouths.
How long must we continue to live in denial that these cultists single out for maiming, murder and rape concerned citizens in our communities who speak out against their nefarious activities?
Two years before the 2019 general elections, it must be recalled that in several articles, Yours Truly, joined the plethora of voices that raised alarms over the increasing number of cult groups and their incessant widespread recruitment of youths across the country.
The concern caught the attention of the then Inspector General of Police, who in a chat with pressmen failed to address the deep lying issues as to why cult recruitments had taken a new dimension.
At the time, he failed to see the nexus between the spread, recruitment and the coming elections. Rather he considered it a social street ill, which for a long time had become common place in some neighborhoods. His reference to Ikorodu area, a suburb town in Lagos State Nigeria was illustrative.
Unfortunately, the top cop was either being economical with the truth or was not duly briefed on the rise in cultism and thuggery which was at the time taking a national dimension.
The fact that Lagos was the height was because of its cosmopolitan populated nature, and was never in fairness an isolated case.
Understanding this ugly trend and its nexus with elections in Nigeria resides in the ability to observe and analyze politicians whose political strength to win elections lies in their opulent support and funding of these miscreants whose value is political thuggery. In many instances, politicians have been either called out as sponsors or thugs themselves.
For instance, the 2017 news break over the confessions of the lead gang member arrested by the police in Kwara State -over an armed robbery incident in Offa, that saw to the death of many Kwarans and the carting away of millions of Naira in bank raids- exposed the relationship between the then Senate President and some of the suspects.
Then, the Senate President had distanced himself from the indictment claiming that he did not know the gang leader nor had any relationship with him. Yet the emergence of a picture, in which the Senate President and the gang leader were seen exchanging warm felicitation did not rest doubts nor calmed frayed nerves.
In Rivers State, the restiveness of its inner towns, the treacherous nature of her politics and the bitterness it imbues defines it as a hot spot during elections.
It ranked amongst the top states where cultism and thuggery perpetually lead to deaths of youths off and on election times. Infact, reports from Port Harcourt and its environs during the 2019 elections were predominantly heartbreaking.
It was in Rivers State that people were killed on election day including a 27-year-old corp member; and the INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner was held hostage and his head assaulted eventually with a broken bottle.
Infact, the House of Assembly in Rivers State is said to be a House of ex-thugs, cultists and militants. They are said to be the purveyors of authority and the makers of laws.
According to reports, one out of every four members of the State House of Assembly in Rivers State is a cultist or thug- that is how deep the problem is, and this is how widespread it has become.
In Lagos, every street corner is littered with whispers of cultism and thuggery.
In Lagos suburbs such as Egbeda, Ojuelegba, Ijegun, Amuwo Odofin and particularly Satellite Town, cultism and thuggery reached new heights following the elections.
Those who were valiant enough to put strong voices on radio, social media or newspapers have their lives put on the track of death. Gallantly, those who were built to resist codes of evil continued to speak, write and condemn.
The 2019 election was a pyrrhic victory for Nigeria given the malpractices, as well as the social imbalance it has created.
The deep lying inter cult rivalry, the fear of speaking against evil and the distrust in the polity are worthy concerns.
The government seems clueless, and unconcerned to the hues and cries of the people of these areas whose lives hang on a single thinly thread.
In Yours Truly’s community, Satellite Town, in Lagos, our lives hang on a single thinly thread, if government continues to keep mum and fail to curtail the activities of these cultists and their sponsors in high places.
Victor Gotevbe is a Media Consultant. He writes from Satellite Town
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