The Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege; Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu; Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Bolaji Owasanoye and other stakeholders in Nigeria’s electoral process have identified weak sanctions and poverty as factors derailing the fight against vote buying and selling in the country.
They raised the concern at a policy dialogue on ‘Addressing Vote Trading in Nigeria from Global Comparative Experiences’ organised by The Electoral Forum in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and MacArthur Foundation.
According to Omo-Agege, vote trading is an unusual democratic experience, which serves as a clog in the wheel of free choice and democracy.
The DSP, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Dr Otive Igbuzor, called for stronger punitive sanctions against perpetrators as well as sustained information campaigns, community action and locally enforceable public commitments to collectively fight the menace.
“To stem the ugly behaviour, everyone should be involved, both voters and contestants. It needs sustained information campaigns, community action and locally enforceable public commitments to collectively shun vote-buying.
“Punitive sanctions strategies are more likely to be successful than moralistic pleas. Political actors who buy votes should face stringent consequences.
“Political financing reform, and ensuring election security and ballot secrecy, are equally vital in addressing vote-selling. Most of this was taken care of in the new Electoral Act 2022 passed by National Assembly and assented to by the president,” he said.
In the same vein, Prof. Yakubu not only said the speedy passage of the National Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal Bill by the National Assembly will checkmate vote buying, but called for sustainable measures to tackle poverty as well as increased voter education and sensitisation.
“As soon as people begin to have faith in the electoral process, they will begin to see the power that they have over the people who are running for offices.
And I believe that very soon, the story will change and the power will return to the people,” the INEC boss who was represented by Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu said.
On his part, chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Bolaji Owasanoye, warned that vote buying has a tendency of frustrating and undermining the war against corruption in Nigeria.
Earlier, Chairman of The Electoral Forum, Prof. Bayo Olukoshi said there appears to be a global consensus that seeking to eliminate the use of money in politics is almost impossible and waste of time because politicians would find ways to bring the use of money into the political equation.
He observed that democracies around the world have moved away from elimination to regulation of the use of money in politics, in a way to ensuring that the use of money does not corrupt integrity of the electoral process.
Olukoshi said: “So, money in politics is a global challenge, especially criminal money which unaccounted and very difficult to trace. However, in our context, the debate around the issue of money in politics is again not an entirely new debate for those who are old enough to know the politics of the 2nd Republic where we saw increasingly the significant role of money as opposed to issues and ideas entering the Nigerian political space.”
Speaking on the topic: ‘Sociopolitical Paradox of Vote Trading in Nigeria: Focus on the Political Party Primaries and the recent Ekiti and Osun Governorship Elections’ the immediate past Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers State, Obo Effanga said the malaise of vote trading requires the involvement of a multiplicity of stakeholders, agencies, and groups to address it.
He traced the root of the menace to the economic imbalance and inequality in Nigeria, which if fixed, according to him, would reduce the number of poor people in the country, to a large extent.
Effanga alleged that vote trading is also aided and abetted by officials at the polling unit, adding that this could happen either by failure to ensure adequate arrangement to guarantee secrecy of the vote or failure to take steps to prevent those who try to breach the rules.