By Igbotako Nowinta
The Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar of this world are old political cargoes, who have demonstrated the intent to continue to do business as usual with the way Nigerians are being ruled today. There is nothing dynamic or superb about their intentions to govern the Federal Republic of Nigeria, come 2023, except that they are billionaires, who are ready to indulge in the vexatious game of vote buying and selling to get at the highest political trophy in the land. In a country where crucial campaign issues are being relegated to the back ground, political parties are not functional in the real sense of the word, as we see practicable in advanced democracies. Where Ideological leanings have been consciously thrown into the garbage bin and the electorates are not helping matters, probably out of ignorance, dire hunger, extreme poverty and illiteracy, something unusual or paradigmatic must be made to happen. The role of Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) officials, in curbing vote buying and selling is loaded with suspicions, partiality and inconsistency. How many offenders have they apprehended or prosecuted, since vote buying and selling have become institutionalized in Nigeria? Nobody has been punished for vote buying and selling, period! We see organized treachery from the top, to continuously deceive Nigerians, even with the EFCC as an appendage of the rulers of political madness and darkness in Africa’s most populous nation. If EFCC is actually doing its job in this important regard, the fragrant issue of vote buying and selling would have been drastically reduced or eliminated by now. Are we saying that the Chairman of EFCC, and the rank and file of the Agency do not know the wheelers and diggers of vote buying and selling in Nigeria? If the EFCC is succeeding in tracking down and punishing the bloody internet fraudsters in our midst, why not the buyers and sellers of votes, right from party primaries, to actual election process in our country?
It is pathetic that the specter of heavy monetization of our electoral process, continues to ravage, scatter and incapacitate the chances of the electorates to choose competent, visionary and missionary representatives within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It also denies very competent and more qualified Nigerians, but who cannot buy vote, the chances of aspiring to political offices of their choice.
What we saw in Osun State during the governorship election is heart wrenching, disgusting and barbaric, where the cases of vote buying and selling again came to the fore, just like what painfully occurred in Ekiti State during that state’s recent gubernatorial election.
This is where we are; this is the reality on the ground: political office is being made available to the highest buyers and sellers of votes, rubbishing the idea of the people voting their conscience, in spite of the concerted efforts being made by concerned citizens cum patriots, across the country, who are frantically singing the gospel of sanitizing the electoral process.
For instance, in Osun State, the dominant political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were guilty of engaging in one form of vote buying and selling and the other, which they utilized to the tilt in attracting tumultuous crowd to their banners.
Probably, if the candidates of other political parties that participated in that gubernatorial elections had brought and distributed bags of ‘Ghana Must Go’, the results would have turned out differently?
Certainly, the winner of the just concluded Osun State gubernatorial election, Senator Ademola Adeleke is not the best guy in terms of articulation of profound ideas, that one expect to catapult the state to greater glories.
I took time to study and listen to the governorship candidates during the electioneering campaigns, neither the incumbent Adegboyega Oyetola, nor the just declared winner, Ademola Adeleke, also known as the ‘dancing Governor’, is the most enjoyable or fascinating in terms of articulating the real issues like education, employment generation, scientific projections, that l think the people of Osun desire at this point in the history of that state.
Someone has even joked to me that, in the next four years the ‘dancing Governor’, Adeleke Ademola, would open or establish more disco halls or rock and roll hotels across Osun State.
Looking at the level of blanket impoverishment confronting the people, existentialism pervading the political atmosphere and stark misplacement of essential governance issues in Osun State, say in the last four years under Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, the Governor- elect, Adeleke, who had battled with certificate scandals that even took him to the highest court of law in Nigeria, is one of the most unqualified materials for the number one position in that State.
How long are we going to continue like this, with the 2023 Presidential Election on my mind?
Certainly, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), are not the messianic politicians that the people of Nigeria presently need.
The Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar of this world are old political cargoes, who have demonstrated the intent to continue to do business as usual with the way Nigerians are being ruled today.
There is nothing dynamic or superb about their intentions to govern the Federal Republic of Nigeria, come 2023, except that they are billionaires, who are ready to indulge in the vexatious game of vote buying and selling to get at the highest political trophy in the land.
In a country where crucial campaign issues are being relegated to the back ground, political parties are not functional in the real sense of the word, as we see practicable in advanced democracies.
Where Ideological leanings have been consciously thrown into the garbage bin and the electorates are not helping matters, probably out of ignorance, dire hunger, extreme poverty and illiteracy, something unusual or paradigmatic must be made to happen.
The role of Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) officials, in curbing vote buying and selling is loaded with suspicions, partiality and inconsistency. How many offenders have they apprehended or prosecuted, since vote buying and selling have become institutionalized in Nigeria?
Nobody has been punished for vote buying and selling, period! We see organized treachery from the top, to continuously deceive Nigerians, even with the EFCC as an appendage of the rulers of political madness and darkness in Africa’s most populous nation.
If EFCC is actually doing its job in this important regard, the fragrant issue of vote buying and selling would have been drastically reduced or eliminated by now. Are we saying that the Chairman of EFCC, and the rank and file of the Agency do not know the wheelers and diggers of vote buying and selling in Nigeria?
If the EFCC is succeeding in tracking down and punishing the bloody internet fraudsters in our midst, why not the buyers and sellers of votes, right from party primaries, to actual election process in our country?
From all indications, the way out of the menace of vote buying and selling in Nigeria is to look holistically at a novel means of putting this disturbing, disgraceful and suffocating matter behind us.
I hereby call for a law to establish an independent National Commission Against Vote Buying and Selling to fight this monster in our clime.
A kind of special police to be trained specifically to arrest and prosecute offenders during party primaries and during general elections, should be part of this envisioned novel agency.
Also, the main sponsors of this corrupt enterprise must be traced and brought to book if we are to succeed in curbing this gross electoral malpractice.
Members of this proposed Commission shall be nominated and selected independently from the control of political capitalists cum buccaneers, rather civil society organizations and members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, the Nigerian Bar Association shall be involved in the entire process, where merits, intellectuality, morality and pedigree must be the hallmark of membership.
The time for slow and steady actions has passed. No one is under any illusion that, the next general election is very crucial for the oppressed masses of Nigeria.
Without any equivocation, the greatest challenge before us is to rise up to this fast approaching campaign, to make our votes count at all times in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and end the era of monetary and material inducements.
If ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, succeeded in coming out from the blues, with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), we must continuously and vigorously demand the setting up of the National Commission Against Vote Buying and Selling (NCAVBS), from General Muhammadu Buhari and the current members of the National Assembly.
If the Sri-Lankans could come out, staged massive revolt against ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and chased him out of office because of the collapse of the economic system there days ago, Nigerians could do the same by uncompromising advocacy plus massive peaceful protests, to make vote buying and selling a statutory offence here.
If the above prescription is not achieved before the commencement of the crucial 2023 Presidential/general Elections, the much desired positive democratic change in Nigeria will be elusive. We must all rise up to crush this monster and enemy of the nation, called vote buying and selling.
