The presidential candidates of the major political
parties taking part in this month’s general elections recently signed a non-violence pact, resolving to ensure peace before, during and after the polls.
A few days ago, the governorship candidates of the three most viable parties in the state – PDP, APC and Labour parties followed suit by appending their signatures to a similar agreement.
Will these accords minimize election violence that Nigeria’s elections are known for? What do Nigerians think of the development? How can we achieve peace in the country before, during and after the fourth coming elections.
Our chief correspondent, Calistar Ezeaku, sought answers to these questions from some members of the public.

Mr Ben Onitemeka
Community/NGO leader.
Peace agreement has noting to do with the followers of these candidates.  You see, those of us who have been opportuned to be in the social media, will discover that their followers say many things that are very annoying.  People use abusive languages and talk as if they are representing their pay masters.  But, in the actual sense those are not what they should be saying.
The non-violence signed by the presidential candidates and the governorship candidates here in our state should have helped in minimizing violence  but it is not happening the way it should have been because the followers are not following that agreement.
So the problem is not the candidates.  The candidates are always very peaceful. The problem comes from their followers.
Incidentally, most of the people who make a lot of noise didn’t even register, they don’t even have Permanent Voters Card (PVC). So the only way we can have a better society is by going out to vote.  It is only through your vote that you can retain or change a particular government. If you don’t have voter’s card and you keep making noise and all those things, it cannot change the situation.  The most important thing, is to go out and vote.
It is unfortunate that here in Rivers State we have a lot of pre-election violence, destruction of posters and all that but I think the security apparatus should be at alert. A lot of these cases can be blamed on the lapses from the security apparatus.  Assuming the police, civil defense, JTF and other security agencies are at alert, I think most of these incidents can be prevented.
However, to achieve a violence free election, all hands must be on deck. The civil society groups, NGOs, faith-based groups, have roles to plays.  The churches can actually reach out to their members.  Definitely every individual belongs to one religious group or the other or an association.  We have to reach out to these associations.

Miss Odilabiebuma Adline
-Civil Servant.
I will say the signing of the peace accord is a good move but in actual practice I have not see it working. It is a good move that the candidates of the major political partners signed peace pact, that they should not use abusive languages, that they should do things in a way that should not affect the peace of the society.  But after the agreement had been signed, looking at my locality, it doesn’t seem as if they signed anything.
You can still hear the politicians during their campaign attacking their opponents, they still use abusive languages.   All those things are still going on.
So, we can only achieve a violence-free election if those involved will stick to the terms of the agreements.  We can achieve a pre, during and post election violence if we educate the society. It might take time but we will certainly get there, remember Rome was not built in a day. We still need to talk, and talk and talk, create the awareness.  Somebody recently said that we don’t have poverty as such that what we have is poverty of the mind.  The mind needs to be educated.  People need to know their rights.  Not just knowing your right but knowing what to do and when to do it.
I want to also say that mothers have an important role to play. Most of the people causing these violent are youths.  Parents, especially mothers need to caution their children and educated them on the dangers of violence.
I also think we need to start from the primary school to educate our children on their civic responsibilities. You don’t bend a tree when it is old.  We have subjects like social studies and all that.  We need to educate these children on the impact of being good citizens.  So it is from the cradle that we need to build.
But what we are doing now is that we are trying to build from the top and you cannot achieve anything from the top when the foundation has not been laid.
So I think our foundation is part of the problem we have today because the people that believe in non-violence are very few.
Only a handful of people believe we can live amicably, that we can belong to different political parties, have different ideas but still live together peacefully.
I think we should always bear in mind that there will always be another election.  So, that I don’t win today doesn’t mean I will not win tomorrow. In sports we say, let the best man win and that is what it should be in election, let the best man win.

Mr Ifeanyi Ajaegbu
-Human Development Expert
It is a positive step that they came together to agree that the election should be violent free.  But beyond signing peace pacts, we need to ask further questions – how many of their constituencies have they visited with this message of peace.  How many of the constituencies have committed themselves to behaving non-violently because signing a peace pact at the national and state levels does not mean that in the rural communities, in the fishing pots the people are going to abide by such pacts.  So we need to go beyond agreement. We need to make more concrete commitments. There should be punitive measures agreed upon by all the aspirants that anyone who goes outside the agreement will be punished in this way or the others.  From the day they signed the agreement there have been shootings, burnings and all that.  So people will just sign the agreement and continue with what they are doing.
My advice to the young ones who are used to commit violence during elections is that they should remember that there is a future beyond the elections.  They should remember that they are worth more than the elections.  They are worth more than whatever they are going to gain from committing violence and a dead man has no future.  Secondly, they should also remember that if they fight and kill each other to put the wrong person on the seat, we are all going to bear the consequences of whatever wrong decision made by the person.  The worst thing is that they can even die doing what they are doing.
Each political party has a youth wing.  They should turn these youths wings into a conglomerate of young people who could work together for a better Nigeria instead of turning them into thugs.

Mr Anthony Ogina
-NOA Staff.
What I have to say is that we must ensure peace in the country.  We are all one Nigeria, so we should not take elections as a do or die affair. Election is just like a football match, a particular team must win.
So a loser should also embrace whoever emerges the winner.
It’s true the peace accord had been signed but the leaders of political parties are not helping matters.  They are supposed to tell their followers and the states where they come from to embrace peace that nobody should go into violence. I heard this morning that they stoned President Goodluck Jonathan’s convoy in Taraba State.  This is not what we want and it makes nonsense of the peace agreement. Everybody should embrace peace.

Mr Chika Emeh
-NGO Project Manager.
Looking at the violence going on in different parts of the country this period, we must ask ourselves what really do we want and how do we want to achieve it? If we say we want violence –free election then we must ask ourselves how do we achieve it. We should use the religions, the ethnic groups and other aspects of the community to address the issue.
So I will like to see a situation where religious leaders mount the pulpit or go to their mosques and preach violence-free elections.  I want to see a situation where ethnic group leaders speak to their people using the media and other means of communication to urge them to shun violence. I want to see a situation where political parties and politicians educate their followers on the dangers of election violence before, during and after the elections.
Infact, more and more studies are now showing that our problem is not pre or during election violence.  The major concern is post-election violence. Look at what is happening in Ekiti State. The elections were very free and fair, there were no violence but after the elections, the violence started.  Why? Because people do not seem to agree with the results of the elections.  There is also this attitude of winner takes it all and all of that.  So, if we must check-mate this type of violence, effort must be focused on dealing with post-elections violence-free activities.  And that has to do with setting up the necessary structures in the community that will actually looking into the grievances of those who are aggrieved and do we have the judiciary that will be empowered and are ready to dispense as at when do? Do we have the machinery in place to make sure that those who perpetuate violence are punished or are we just leaving them to do whatever they wish?
Again, many people are concerned about INEC’s preparadeness to conduct a credible election.  You see, INEC started early enough but surprisingly, it does appear that they are not really prepared.
What we are seeing now with the PVC distribution is not a good testimony because as we speak now, millions of Nigerians do not have access to their permanent voters card.  And if care is not taken some people might be disenfranchised and this can lead to violence.
So, I will advice INEC to make sure that every voter who has been registered receives his/his voters Card.