Nigeria 
Nigerian President warns against violent elections

afrol News, 24 March - Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned political leaders "not to truncate our democracy" ahead of the upcoming presidential elections. Nigerians should not have to return to fear, he added.

President Olusegun Obasanjo this week warned Nigeria's political leaders to "eliminate sources of and tendencies towards violent political conduct." This was necessary to assure the coming general elections on 19 April "be successful."

- Any victory emerging from an election conducted in the prevailing circumstances will be tainted by the scale of its corrupted political environment, according to the Nigerian President, who reacted to the growing incidents of political violence.

Mr Obasanjo expressed regret that "Nigerians still live in fear and not all necessarily in the excitement that they have an opportunity to exercise their mandate as citizens free to chose those to govern them."

According to a Nigerian government release, the previous administration previously had organised retreats "aimed at instituting a stainless political climate."

President Obasanjo expressed worry, despite these retreats, society had experienced "mysterious killings, assassinations, riots, disturbances and fights by so called supporters, the erection of barriers and other no-go structures against opposition, the highly inflammatory, condemnable and irresponsible comments and utterances by politicians."

Mr Obasanjo, who was speaking at a meeting of all stakeholders on containing violent political activity at the International Conference Centre in Abuja, said it was "a must" for the stakeholders to turn against this negative and destructive tendency.

He noted that lack of communications among political leaders, circulation of rumours, which were believed and acted upon without being cross-checked, uncontrolled and unchecked misbehaviour of supporters and thugs, and lack of non-partisan respected and responsible community leaders are the shortcomings that encourages conditions of violence.

The meeting, under the Chairmanship of former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, was attended by leaders of all the political parties and political office seekers.

The 19 April polls are the second free multi-party elections after Nigeria's return to democracy in 1999. The presidential candidates' campaigns so far have been relatively orderly, with the main candidates, President Obasanjo and opposition leader Buhari steering away from potential conflicts over religion and ethnicity. On a local level, however, campaigns have tended to become more polarising.

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