POLITICAL VIOLENCE ENDANGERS OUR DEMOCRACY.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE ENDANGERS OUR DEMOCRACY. The reported outbreak of deadly violence in Taraba State today is disturbing and frightening. The violence was a reaction to the judgement of the Election Petition Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, which unseated Governor Ishaku of PDP and declared his APC rival, Aisha Alhassan as Governor. According to the judgement, Ishaku was not validly nominated to stand for election by his party and, therefore, his participation in the gubernatorial election was illegal ab initio (from the start). Usually, court judgements produce joy on the part of the winner and anger on the part of the loser and their supporters. Such anger should not however lead to street violence. A window of opportunity for an appeal still exists, and therefore, the resort to violence is uncalled for. Have we forgotten how political violence in Plateau State spiralled out of control following the outcome of the Jos North Local Government election in 2008? Since then, the relative serenity of Jos has been shattered as the violence took wider and bigger dimensions that went beyond protesting the outcome of election. If aggrieved parties in Plateau State had taken advantage of the court, the State would have been spared the large-scale destruction of life and property. How we forgotten how many poor Nigerians died for nothing in the post-election violence of 2011 in Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi and other parts of the North? How we forgotten how the First and Second Republics came to an end on account of political violence? Resort to political violence is not an option. Political violence, either spontaneous or instigated, is indefensible anywhere. Why should the ordinary Nigerians who are struggling desperately to make ends meet become the cannon fodder for the ambitions of our politicians! If you die in political violence, you die for nothing. You die unsung, and forgotten, and life goes on for the politicians who continue to enjoy their privileges and their loot while you are pushing up the daises! Violence thrives when there are ready-made recruits willing to die stupidly for the politicians. If you don't want to become a mere statistics, think twice before you make yourself a willing tool for political violence.
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