Odita Sunday 
By Dr. Chris Okobah, Award-Winning Author
A political rally should end with people returning home to their families—not with families searching hospitals and mortuaries.
Every Nigerian, irrespective of political affiliation, religion, ethnicity or social standing, must condemn political violence. We cannot allow intimidation, brigandage and bloodshed to become accepted instruments of political competition.
When the desperation for power becomes a willingness to sacrifice human lives, the entire country is in danger.
One person’s greed, one person’s ambition and one person’s political survival are not worth the blood of any Nigerian.
We must stop treating attacks on political opponents as victories for our preferred parties. The citizen attacked today may belong to another party. Tomorrow, the same machinery of violence may turn against you, your children or your community.
A bullet does not ask for a membership card. A grieving mother does not find comfort in the party affiliation of the person who killed her child.
Nigeria belongs to all of us.
When citizens become afraid to attend rallies, express opposing views or gather peacefully, democracy loses its substance. An election conducted under terror cannot express the free choice of the people.
What kind of country are we building if political participation becomes a gamble with death?
We must confront the danger of escalation before it overwhelms us. We must never reach a point where public gatherings become potential bombing targets, where airports and essential infrastructure require protection from violence fuelled by political rivalry, or where ordinary citizens organise their lives around the fear of another attack.
These are dangers we must prevent—not a future we should accept as inevitable.
We do not need to romanticise military dictatorship to recognise the failures of civilian government. Any government that cannot protect lives and uphold lawful freedoms is failing a fundamental duty. Democracy must offer more than civilian titles, campaign slogans and periodic elections. It must protect the people whose consent gives government its authority.
To those recruited to intimidate, attack or kill fellow Nigerians: poverty may explain your vulnerability, but it cannot justify taking another person’s life. Ask yourselves where the children of your sponsors are while you are sent into danger.
Will those politicians stand beside you in court? Will they provide for your family if you die? Or will they deny knowing you and recruit someone else?
Do not destroy your future to preserve another person’s power.
The response must be firm and lawful. Every credible allegation of political violence must be independently investigated. Those who organise, finance, order or carry out attacks must face prosecution where the evidence supports it. Security officers who facilitate violence or deliberately abandon citizens must also be held accountable.
A party ticket must never become a licence to terrorise. Public office must never become a shelter for impunity.
Where evidence establishes the legal requirements for crimes against humanity—including qualifying acts committed within a widespread or systematic attack on civilians—international criminal accountability may arise. Crimes within the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction carry no statute of limitations. Arrest abroad, however, requires a lawful basis and applicable cooperation procedures; it does not happen automatically because an allegation has been made.
The demand is clear: preserve the evidence, protect witnesses and pursue justice through competent institutions. Time must not become an excuse to abandon victims.
The international community must also pay attention. The African Union, ECOWAS, the United Nations and Nigeria’s partners should support urgent efforts to prevent violence, protect civic freedoms and strengthen accountability.
A major conflict in a country of more than 200 million people could produce devastating displacement, deepen hunger and destabilise communities far beyond our borders. Preventing that catastrophe is far better than responding after families have lost everything.
But our first responsibility remains here at home. Political leaders must reject violence unequivocally. Security agencies must protect citizens impartially. Nigerians must refuse to excuse atrocities because the perpetrators belong to their preferred party.
Enough of turning ambition into a death sentence for innocent people.
Enough of asking grieving families to accept condolences while those responsible remain protected.
Nigeria must not become a battlefield for politicians who can afford to escape the ruins they leave behind.
Chris Okobah PhD
Award wining author
If you love freedom, believe in peaceful political participation and want a prosperous Nigeria, speak out and share this article.
No ambition is worth Nigerian blood.
About the Author
