2015 Polls: The Big Campaign Poster War In Lagos

Uzo Chikere

This is the much awaited election year in Nigeria, 2015. And the real race has already commenced with evident and visual manifestations staring everybody in the face. Campaign posters of political parties, signposting their candidates for the various elective positions for contention are all over the place praying for support and the votes of the electorate.

Just as it is in every other state in the federation, these beautifully designed posters, bill boards and out-door advertisement materials bearing well-crafted slogans by some of the best copy writers the country can boast of, in Lagos they are found dotted in every nook and cranny and occupying any available space to the extent that they have left many an observer in a quandary as to whether they are beautifying or defacing the city. But posters are a necessary component of electioneering campaigns in many climes including Nigeria.

As these posters compete for every available space in the villages, towns, cities, the sight creates an impression of a serious poster war more especially in Lagos where there have been series of complaints by political parties other than the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that their candidates’ campaign posters are being removed as well as destroyed by the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA), a state government agency.

This prompted the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Mr. Kayode Aderanti, to issue a stern warning to all political parties and LASAA in particular to desist from further removal and or destruction of campaign posters belonging to any candidate of all the various parties in the state just as he threatened to arrest any individual, group or operative of state cum corporate agency caught doing so.

Aderanti who premised his position on the Electoral Act of 2010 as amended, stated at a press briefing on the issue:   “The Electoral Act 2010 as amended is clear in section 100 (2) where it stated inter alia that state apparatus including the media shall not be employed to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate at any elections.” He therefore called on LASAA and other stakeholders to desist from any act that would call to question their purpose against any political party.

According to the CP: “It is in the interest of public peace for the agency to allow candidates of all political parties equal space to disseminate their campaign messages towards a successful conduct of the general election.” He insisted that should LASAA not cease from perpetrating the act he described as illegal, the Command would be compelled to invoke the full wrath of the law before, during or after the elections on any individual or agency of government that conducts himself or itself in any way that is inimical to peaceful campaigns and elections.

In what would appear like a tirade, the police boss’ action triggered off incensed reaction from the All Progressives Congress as well as LASAA who in separate fora fumed against the police approach to the issue. Reacting to the development, at a press conference, LASAA‘s managing director, George Noah maintained that it was an offence to deface Lagos with posters and that this law was backed with the promulgation of the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Law in 2006 which makes it an offence to paste posters on walls except in mapped-out zones.  

Noah who further stated that it must be a joke for the CP to think of arresting government staff for doing legal duties, however informed that the agency had published guidelines for deploying electoral materials in four national dailies in addition to a town hall meeting it convened with all the political parties where the guidelines were presented to them.

He said: “Let me state clearly that the removal of posters that deface our environment is a statutory obligation of LASAA. The agency is therefore baffled that the Nigerian police responsible for enforcing the laws of this nation is by the statement encouraging and expressly supporting the flagrant disregard and contravention of environmental guidelines issued to all political parties.”

He expressed his displeasure at the police for attempting to intimidate staff of the agency, saying that election materials not properly deployed or that which violates the agency’s guidelines will be removed regardless of the threat, pointing out that over 100,000 are deployed illegally in Lagos State on daily basis, and that the removal of these materials has been based on fairness and equity among all stakeholders.

In a separate forum APC Lagos spokesman, Joe Igbokwe, described as unbecoming and in bad faith what he called the police threat, insisting that the CP should tell other parties to seek permit before placing adverts or posters as Lagos State will not tolerate a situation where people will take laws into their hands because the police have spoken.

But the other political parties in Lagos appear to be growling in pain owing to what they perceive as lop-sided treatment by the state government-owned agency in respect of display of their candidates’ out-door advertisements, posters and other campaign materials in the state.

Lamenting his ordeal in the hands of LASAA, a representative of the National Conscience Party, Mr. Fatai Idowu, who said he had been a victim of the agency’s biased officials in the past added:

“LASAA says it is removing illegal adverts but if you go to the Alausa Secretariat, it is only APC posters that you will find all over the place. I remember that in 2011, when I was campaigning, I put up a poster in my area but about three hours later, my poster had been removed while that of the APC was still intact.

“LASAA is working for the APC, they only remove opposition posters and this is unfair, LASAA must be fair.”

Even as the LASAA boss denied that the agency was partisan, maintaining that it was non-political, a lot of observers of political development in Lagos State are varied in their opinions concerning the poster war currently raging on in the state.

Reacting to the issue, the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Lagos State, and Jimi Agbaje told The Union in a telephone chat that the removal and destruction of campaign posters of candidates of political parties other than APC is a reality which amounts to intolerance.

He said: “That is the intolerance we are talking about. They are the ones accusing others of impunity and intolerance but now we know who is intolerant. I have experienced it.”

From what has pervaded the political atmosphere in Lagos State with regard to political campaign posters vis-à-vis LASAA, a Lagos State Government agency, the state police command posturing, and the opposition parties’ perception on the matter, there seems to be quite a long road to travel. But only time will tell.