Violent Partisan Rhetoric and Turbulent Elections in Kano State, Nigeria

• In Event: Electoral Violence and Conflict in Africa

Abstract

1. In their quest for office and influence, party organizations can engage in systematic and lethal violence against each other as well as voters. Such violence is largely election centred. Therefore violent partisan mobilization is a common phenomenon in fragile societies and democracies. In democracies where electoral process and procedures are subject to various sorts of abuses and manipulations, violent partisan mobilization is always imminent. In Africa, the introduction of multiparty politics is associated with numerous challenges. For instance, instead of promoting smooth and peaceful transition of power at regular intervals, multiparty elections mostly instigate violent conflicts. The way in which electoral competitions are managed can make the difference between an election that proceeds peacefully and one that degenerates into violence. Unsystematic competition for power by actors within and between parties is mostly responsible for unprecedented violence and chaos in many parts of Africa. Violence has thus become one of the major features of multiparty politics in Africa. Weak and non-institutionalized party system remains the major source of instability and violent conflicts across democracies in Africa. Party platforms have become the arena of perpetual conflicts within and a source of destabilization and violence in the wider democratic political system. In most democracies in Africa, party platforms are controlled and manipulated by incumbents, opportunistic moneybags, godfathers who do not resort to peaceful and democratic means in their quest for power. Nigeria is one of the many budding democracies that is being undermined by the pandemic of electoral violence. Elections in Nigeria have always been a major source of conflicts and violent confrontations. The fragile nature of political parties in Nigeria is largely responsible for frequency of violence across the country’s political landscape. The truncation of the Nigeria’s constitutions by the military in 1966, 1983 and 1993 was triggered by the nature and patterns of violent partisan mobilization around elections. The relative democratic stability achieved in Nigeria since 1999 is however not without major concerns. Although, the country survived many transitional elections, the scale of violence that trailed these elections cast doubts on not only on the sustainability of the country’s democracy but also on its peaceful and corporate existence. For instance, the 2011 post-election violence was the most lethal in the country’s democratic history. The nature of electoral violence since 1999 is largely caused the nature of violent partisan rhetorics around elections. Across the country, violence has been reported in various election cycles since 1999. The Northern Nigeria has been historically the hotbed of violent partisan rhetorics and eruption of violent partisan confrontations. Since the1953 Kano Riot, violent mobilization linked to political parties in the vast region of Northern Nigeria has been reported. Kano enclave, the traditional hub of radical politis in Nigeria has been an incubation hub of violent partisan rhetorics. This has been a strategy for the survival of radical party platforms such as the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU), People’s Redemption Party (PRP) and the Social Demicocrat Party (SDP) in the First, Second and the aborted Third Republics respectively. The Fourth Republic though witnessed a near meltdown of radical politics, the 2019 and 2023 elections signified the resurgence of radical politics by the Kwankwasiya movement under the People’s Democratic Party and the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP). This resurgence of radical politics instigates the renaissance of violent partisan rhetorics as a strategy of survival amidst belligerent postures of the ruling parties. This paper thus examined the nature and patterns of violent partisan rhetorics and the turbulent nature of Nigeria’s electoral process. The paper focuses on the emerging Kwankwasiya movement and its use of violent rhehitorics as a response to the aggressive conduct of the ruling party at both the state and the central level. The paper will essentially be qualitative in nature be guided by a Case Study Design. In-Depth Interviews with key actors across the relevant platforms and Focus Group Discusions with Youth and Women Groups as well Elders will be the major instruments for data collection. This is in addition to documentary evidence from a diverse of sources. Tillt and Tarrow (2007) Contentious Politics Model will provide the framework of analysis for the study. The study will examine the nature and patterns violent partisan rhetorics by the leading contentious party platforms from the radical Kwankwasiyya Movement and the ruling party in the build up to the 2019 and 2023 elections in Kano state.

Authors

• Abubakar Mohammed, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto

• Yahaya Tanko Baba, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto- Nigeria