The two major candidates for next month’s presidential election in Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Party (APC) candidate Muhammadu Buhari, today embraced and signed a pact to help keep the peace during and after the 2015 general polls. This was the climax of a workshop on how to ensure violence-free elections.

The workshop in Abuja chaired by former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, saw Jonathan and Buhari baring their minds on how to ensure that the February elections are not marred by violence.

Ex-Head of State Buhari, speaking before the President, argued that election malpractices are what lead to the heating up of the polity during and after elections. He recounted his last three shots at the presidency in 2003, 2007 and 2011, narrating how they were marred by cheating allegedly carried out by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Buhari said that to compound his situation, the head of the presidential election tribunal in 2011, Justice Ayo Salami, was replaced after he showed sympathy to his complaints made to the commission.

“He (rtd. Justice Salami) was heading the tribunal for the presidential candidates (in 2011) and again, we the opposition made a representation to him that in a number of states the election was not conducted according to the Electoral Act. The states were mentioned. We demanded the register (of INEC) to be brought to court to prove our case. The panel looked at it and said ‘yes, there’s nothing wrong with it’. And they wrote to INEC to produce it. It was not produced, Justice Salami was redeployed, another Justice was brought who reversed that decision. That has become history,” Buhari said.

In his speech, President Jonathan made a dig at Buhari, who was quoted to have made incendiary remarks about violence in the past election period. He noted that in 2011 the violence that attended the announcement of presidential election results came from states in the North (Kano and Bauchi) where Buhari won and where he (Jonathan) got the least percentage of votes.

The President cautioned politicians and their followers not to encourage violence during elections, while arguing that rigging of elections could be combated more easily through the courts than the violence that can follow election results.

According to Jonathan, “What leads to violence sometimes is not necessarily that there are electoral malpractices . . . One of the key things is the provocative statements we (politicians) make. And when you are making these statements your follower are listening to you. Your fans are listening to you.”

•Photo courtesy Pulseng.com shows Buhari and Jonathan embracing . . . today in Abuja.