Few days ago, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike announced that he has signed into law Executive Order 21, a legal instrument that forces political parties to fulfill certain conditions before embarking on campaign in various parts of the state.
According to the order, political parties are prohibited from using public schools for political campaigns without the approval of the state Ministry of Education. It also added that application for approval must be submitted at least two weeks before the date of the campaign.
Wike said: “Applicants will also deposit the sum of five million caution fees in case attendees destroy the facilities in the schools.”
He stated that a local council chairman has the right to stop any rally if approval is not sought.
The governor warned that the state government will not allow political parties and their supporters to disturb the peace in the state, as the campaigns begin.
He advised candidates for the 2023 general election to be committed, peaceful, and responsible in their conduct as required by law.
He threatened that any head of school that connives with political parties to hold rallies without approval by the state government will be dealt with.
Wike reiterated his stance against the use of hotels and other leisure spots as meeting points by hoodlums and cultists ahead of the 2023 elections.
For the majority of the political parties, except the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Executive Order is not only draconian, but a legal instrument that must be opposed.
The leading opposition political party in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the order contravened Section 91 of the 2022 Electoral Act.
The APC, in a statement signed by its acting publicity secretary, Darlington Nwauju, said: “We wish to draw the attention of the public to Section 91 of the 2022 Electoral Act, which resonates with Section 40 of the Constitution. And in layman’s language:
“No political party in Nigeria can be prevented from holding rallies, processions or meetings. It is also the duty of the Commissioner of Police in each state to provide adequate security cover for such rallies or meetings and also in a consultative manner to resolve any conflict of time and venue amongst the political parties.
“No state government can amend any section of the Electoral Act by issuing decrees that are strange to the Electoral Act. The INEC Chairman recently warned state governments against using the power of incumbency to intimidate opponents.
“Will the PDP in Rivers State pay the cautionary fee of N5 million and write applications 2weeks ahead of time before it uses any public school for rallies?
“We suspect that there is a grand plot to deploy all sorts of underhand tactics to intimidate political opponents in the state; narrow the political space, shush every voice of reason and turn all known democratic ethos upside down.
“We ask again; does this move by the state government not completely make nonsense of the recently signed peace accord?”
On its part, the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), said it is in talks with its lawyers in order to challenge the Executive Order 21.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt, ZLP governorship candidate in the state, Rt. Hon. Leyii Kwanee, said: “Nevertheless, let us place it on record that the issue of Executive Order 21 by the outgoing Nyesom Wike administration and similar hardline postures in the past is inimical to the growth of business and employment opportunities in our dear State.
“As a party, we view Executive Order 21 as a quest to monopolize political power through monopolizing political activities and space in the State. However, we are committed to obeying legitimate laws of the land as we cannot trade the security of the lives and properties of people living and doing business in the State for anything.
“We are already talking with our lawyers. We will do everything legally to make sure that Order is not effective. Even if it means sitting on the road, we will mobilize people to sit on the road in protest over Executive Order 21.”
Also, the Action Democratic Party (ADP) said it will join forces with other political parties and civil society organisations in Rivers State, to take legal action against the state government over the order.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt, ADP governorship candidate in the state, Engr. Victor Fingesi, said although the state government has a right to issue such other, it is only the Court that can reverse the decision.
Fingesi described the Executive Order 21 as a subtle reintroduction of the draconian Decree 4 of the long forgotten military era’, pointing out that it was a deliberate slap on democracy.
He said: “We thought it necessary to invite our friends in the media to ask questions why the subtle reintroduction of the draconian Decree 4 of the long forgotten military era, which gagged freedom of assemblies, associations and speech in whatever shades and forms hiding under the disguise of security breaches.
“The recent Executive Order of the Rivers State government aimed at restricting in some way and regulating political parties’ activities, rallies and campaigns, is a deliberate slap on democracy and worst of distractions in the contemporary political system.
“It is inconsistent with the extant laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and in variance with international charters on human rights and people’s rights.
“What we want to do as a party, we have consulted widely . It is the right of government and the only way to tackle that order is to go to Court. It is only the court that will reverse it. We are going to court, not just as a party, but with other political parties and civil society organisations.”
The ADP governorship candidate, who stated that no government would conceive repulsive legislation that would hurt people under its watch, called on the media to speak out against the action of the state government.
Fingesi said: “We call on you, the watchdog of the society and true advocate of the masses to speak out and condemn that draconian rule of the Rivers State government in strongest terms.
“It is anti-peoples’ rights and painful breach of the socio-economic development of our dear state. One cannot imagine political parties going through such strict conditions and bottlenecks of government that is biased in all fronts to obtain permissions that are unnecessary before it could hold rallies.”
A senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Rivers State University, Dr. Chukwuma Chinwo, stated that the Executive Order 21 was a wrong policy from the Wike-led administration in the state.
He said: “It is a wrong policy. When Wike Campaigned in 2015 and 2019, he did not pay money to use public schools. I was teaching at the RSU then. The government should have directed each local government area to build civic centres for such occasions.
“Our youths should have where they should be exercising themselves. For me, that policy is wrong because he was never asked to pay any fee when he was campaigning,” he said.
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