Political parties and presidential and National Assembly candidates on Tuesday signed the first National Peace Accord on issue-based campaigns ahead of the 2027 general elections, pledging to shun violence, hate speech, misinformation, personal attacks and other conduct capable of undermining the electoral process.
The accord was signed in Abuja at a ceremony organised by the National Peace Committee in partnership with The Kukah Centre, barely 24 hours before the statutory commencement of public campaigns and rallies for the elections.
The event brought together the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Joash Amupitan; political party leaders; presidential candidates; National Assembly candidates; the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, and representatives of the diplomatic community, among other stakeholders.
Those who signed the accord included President Bola Tinubu, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume; the Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Peter Obi; the Social Democratic Party candidate, Adewole Adebayo and his African Action Congress counterpart, Omoyele Sowore.
Other participants were the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Prof Nentawe Yilwatda; the presidential candidates of the Peoples Redemption Party, and Labour Party, Donald Duke, Chibuzor Okereke, the Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin; the PRP National Chairman, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed; federal and state lawmakers, party leaders and other candidates.
The event also featured goodwill messages from diplomatic representatives, including the European Union Ambassador to Nigeria, Gautier Mignot, and the Ambassador of Switzerland to Nigeria, Patrick Egloff.
However, some major political actors, including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, were absent from the ceremony. Atiku is the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, while Makinde is the presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples’ Movement.
The Chairman of the National Peace Committee, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), was represented by a former Chief of Defence Staff, General Martin Agwai (retd.).
The ceremony was held against the backdrop of growing political activities ahead of the 2027 elections, with the economy, insecurity, unemployment, poverty, infrastructure deficits and the credibility of the electoral process expected to dominate the campaigns. According to INEC’s revised timetable, the presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on January 16, 2027, while the governorship and State House of Assembly elections are scheduled for February 6, 2027.
Speaking through Akume, President Tinubu urged political parties and candidates to place national interest above personal and partisan ambitions, warning that the struggle for political power must not become a do-or-die affair. He also cautioned political actors against exploiting ethnic and religious sentiments to mobilise voters, insisting that the 2027 campaign should be based on competing ideas, policies and programmes. He described the signing of the accord as a solemn pledge to Nigerians that leaders would place national interest above personal or partisan ambitions.
The President acknowledged that political campaigns naturally generate disagreements and intense competition, but insisted that such disagreements should not threaten national unity. He said it was natural to disagree during campaigns and advocate competing governing visions, but stressed that political actors must never resort to divisive ethnic or religious sentiments as tools for seeking power, even while exchanging occasional political jabs as members of the same national family.
Tinubu urged the candidates to concentrate on the issues affecting Nigerians and offer competing solutions to the country’s challenges, calling for campaigns built around superior ideas and debate on policies to expand opportunities for the people.
The President said the APC remained committed to the provisions of the accord and would reject violence, hate speech, misinformation, incitement and digital manipulation, including through artificial intelligence, and pledged commitment to peaceful, transparent elections that would strengthen political stability, social harmony, economic progress and national prosperity, encouraging other parties to do the same.
Tinubu also commended the National Peace Committee for sustaining its interventions in the electoral process since 2014, noting that the initiative had helped bring political actors together to publicly commit themselves to peaceful elections. He said Nigeria had also recorded improvements in election management, particularly through the adoption of technology by INEC, citing the Permanent Voter Cards, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and electronic accreditation processes as measures that had strengthened confidence in the electoral system. He also referred to recent off-cycle governorship elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun States as evidence of improvements in electoral administration and voter participation.
Campaigns not wars
The INEC chairman, Amupitan, described the signing ceremony as more than a symbolic gathering, saying it was an opportunity for political actors to define the ethical boundaries of the 2027 contest before the campaigns officially commenced. He noted that Wednesday, August 19, 2026, marked the statutory commencement of public campaigns and rallies for the 2027 general election, stressing the importance of establishing ethical boundaries before political rhetoric filled the public space.
According to him, Nigerians were expecting political parties and candidates to use the campaign period to discuss the challenges confronting the country rather than engage in personal attacks and inflammatory rhetoric. The INEC chairman said information gathered by the National Peace Committee’s Election Security Information Hub had shown an alarming resurgence of hate speech, toxic polarisation, coordinated misinformation and personality-driven political discourse, describing the trend as particularly disturbing given that Nigeria was approaching what was expected to be one of the most fiercely contested elections since the return to democratic rule in 1999.
Amupitan challenged the candidates to make the economy, national security, infrastructure, healthcare, education and social inclusion central to their campaigns. He likened elections to a competitive job interview rather than warfare, stressing that Nigerians wanted solutions rather than insults.
The INEC chairman also warned political parties and their supporters against premature declarations of victory and the circulation of unverified information on social media. He said the growing use of artificial intelligence and digital platforms had created new challenges for electoral management, particularly through disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference. He challenged presidential candidates, party leaders and campaign organisations to ensure that their supporters and online teams complied with the spirit and provisions of the accord, warning that leadership attained at the expense of public peace, institutional integrity, or human life would be a hollow victory.
The INEC chairman assured political parties that the commission had no preferred candidate and would provide a level playing field for all contestants, stating that the commission’s moral authority to demand decorum from political actors rested on its own administrative and technological preparedness.
Amupitan disclosed that INEC was preparing to deploy approximately 1.4 million ad hoc personnel for the 2027 general elections across more than 176,000 polling units nationwide. He said the commission was drawing lessons from recent off-cycle elections, including the governorship elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states as well as the Federal Capital Territory Area Council election, to improve its preparations for 2027.
The INEC chairman, however, stressed that technology and administrative preparedness alone could not guarantee peaceful elections, insisting that the conduct of political parties, candidates and their supporters remained critical, describing INEC’s role as providing the pitch and the refereeing while the quality of the game depended on the players. He called on the political class to recognise that the credibility of the 2027 elections would depend not only on INEC’s conduct but also on the willingness of candidates to accept democratic rules and respect the institutions responsible for administering the polls.
Abubakar said the National Peace Committee had facilitated 30 peace accords since 2015, comprising five national-level accords and 25 subnational agreements, adding that the committee had also established faith-based peace structures in 23 states to complement its national peace-building efforts.
According to him, the issue-based peace accord was conceived in response to the increasing tendency of political campaigns to rely on sentiments, personal attacks and character assassination rather than manifestoes, policies and programmes. He further noted that the accord was intended to encourage candidates and political parties to compete on ideas, debate opposing views respectfully, organise supporters peacefully, protect voters, respect electoral institutions and reject hate speech and misinformation.
He lamented the declining quality of political discourse in the country, noting that political campaigns and rallies had over the years neglected the significance of party manifestos and programmes, becoming instead a platform for name-calling, personal insults, and character assassination.
He explained that the provisions of the accord were anchored on the Constitution, the Electoral Act and other relevant laws, stressing that the agreement was therefore more than a political declaration. The former head of state also disclosed that the National Peace Committee had established the Election Security Information Hub to monitor electoral offences and security developments and provide early warning and evidence-based analysis to stakeholders. He urged parties, candidates, campaign councils and spokespersons to use the campaign period to address issues of concern to Nigerians and avoid inflammatory statements.
Obi observed that politicians should not need a peace accord before conducting themselves responsibly. The former Anambra State governor argued that anyone seeking high public office should demonstrate exemplary conduct even before being elected, stressing that such an office demanded excellence from the person occupying it.
Asked whether he still had faith in the peace accord in view of reports of violence during the recent Osun governorship election, Obi said his participation was driven by his desire to change the system from within, explaining that his belief in the process stemmed from his desire to change it.
Obi said the central issue was not what the agreement was called but whether candidates would allow their personal conduct to reflect the offices they sought, stressing that whatever name it was given, a candidate’s personal conduct must reflect the office being sought at all times.
He urged the candidates to make their campaigns responsive to the problems confronting Nigerians, stressing the need for conduct that reflects the office being sought and campaigns centred on the issues Nigerians face today.
Reacting to the deaths recorded during the recent Osun governorship election, Obi called for remembrance and accountability rather than political point-scoring, urging that those who died in the process not be forgotten, that their families be consoled, and that the nation conduct itself in a way that ensures nobody needs to die for an election again, describing such losses as painful and expressing hope they would never recur.
Asked what concerned him most about the 2027 election, Obi said his primary worry was the integrity of the vote, expressing hope that Nigerians would have an election where votes truly count.
On what sanction should be imposed on candidates or parties that violate the peace accord, Obi said the electorate should have the final say, arguing that the appropriate punishment would be for Nigerians to withhold their votes from such candidates.
Sowore dismisses accord
The AAC candidate Sowore dismissed the peace accord as a ritual with little practical value. Sowore said his participation should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the effectiveness of the process, arguing that previous accords had not prevented violence, stressing that his presence reflected faith in the system rather than in the accord itself.
He questioned the characterisation of the recent Osun governorship election as peaceful, alleging that about 50 people died in connection with the poll, questioning how an election that led to such deaths could in good conscience be described as peaceful, especially given that Osun State involved fewer than two million voters.
Sowore also criticised INEC’s handling of the electronic transmission and uploading of results from the Osun election, alleging that INEC had yet to complete the upload of all election results three days later, and arguing that a free and fair election required the timely and complete upload of results before their announcement.
The AAC candidate argued that the experience of Osun showed that signing a peace pact without effective sanctions could amount to little more than a ceremony, questioning the sincerity of signatories who, in his view, had gone on to cause deaths after signing the Osun peace accord, and wondering what could be expected after signing the current accord if that pattern continued.
He described the accord as a ritual of sorts and an opportunity for Nigerians to see the candidates and assess their disposition towards peaceful elections. Sowore called for what he described as a “justice accord,” which would provide enforceable consequences for candidates or political actors who breached the peace agreement, questioning why the deaths allegedly recorded during the Osun election had not generated stronger political accountability, and lamenting that the victims appeared to have been forgotten.
Sowore also criticised Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke’s endorsement of Tinubu following his re-election, particularly the explanation that the endorsement was based on ethnic identity. He nevertheless commended voters in Osun for turning out despite the violence, describing an estimated 40 per cent turnout as evidence of civic consciousness.
Police pledge neutrality
IG Disu, represented by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Operations, Umar Shehu, pledged that the police would provide security for voters, candidates and other participants throughout the electoral process. Shehu said the police were not interested in which candidate or political party won the election but in ensuring that eligible Nigerians exercise their franchise without intimidation.
The police leadership urged political parties and their supporters to cooperate with security agencies and avoid actions that could trigger violence before, during and after the elections.
IPAC urges restraint
The Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, Yusuf Dantalle, also appealed to political parties, candidates, campaign councils and spokespersons to respect the terms of the accord. He urged political actors to avoid fake news, personal attacks, and insults, and instead promote tolerance, civility, and constructive political debate.
