While we are still relishing in the euphoria of the laudable provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, it has become necessary to address the growing menace of vote-buying in Nigeria. This was more evident in the last two governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states which were overshadowed by widespread practices of vote buying and clientelism that distorted the level playing field and seriously affected the voters’ choice.
Although the new Electoral Act has edged further by guaranteeing the financial autonomy of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the legal provisions for campaign finance generally do not guarantee transparency and accountability. The inadequate legal framework and poor oversight, including the lack of sanctioning mechanisms, allowed for the proliferation of vote-buying practices.
Recent political discussions have begun to re-examine the discourse of liberal democracy. This is partly because the emergence of liberal democracy in several countries has actually created new paradoxes. In the last two decades, several pathological phenomena such as local strongmen, godfathers and dynasty politics have emerged in Nigeria’s democracy. These phenomena can be easily found in many countries.
The existence of electoral democracy did not automatically present democratically social and political orders. The change of power through the electoral mechanism still presents oligarchic elite who hijack and ultimately dominate the democratic system. Such realities give rise to a pseudo-democracy, a political system and governance dependent on electoral democracy but citizens did not have enough freedom and could not access candidates who won the election. The chosen candidate, in other words, tried to seek their own interest in spite of being responsible to the citizens they represent.
From the candidate point of view, vote-buying practices emerged because there is a big economic potential from the contested position. From the voters’ point of view, there are various explanations. The most prominent is that vote-buying appears because of poverty. It happens because low income creates economic pressure to accept money.
In addition, lower education is also viewed as the cause of vote-buying practices. The lower the education of a person, the more vulnerable and tolerant they will be towards vote buying. Poor and uneducated people will lack adequate access to information on the political process. Under such conditions people will easily accept money or goods from the candidate or their agents to vote for them.
The impact of vote-buying can be viewed from two sides. One of the problems is the emergence of social tensions between people with different choices. Voters tend to find it difficult to reject the practice of vote buying, because refusal to receive money from a certain candidate will be interpreted as having political choices as opposed to the money-giving candidate. The situation becomes more difficult when a person who rejects the money will be then labelled as an opponent by the candidate’s constituents. Vote-buying, in particular context, does not merely produce social tension, but also triggers violence.
The biggest problem with vote buying practice is the accountability of the elected politicians. A vote-buying politician will tend to be corrupt and ignore welfare redistribution policies. A study showed that states which have a lot of vote-buying cases tend to produce governments that invest less in the basic service sector.
Also, political parties lose their dignity as a channel for political aspirations and aggregation of citizens when they are no longer able to convince citizens but rather induce them with money during elections. The end of all of this is people no longer believe in political parties. If this kind of phenomenon continues, people’s trust in the entire political system will undoubtedly be damaged.
It also damages bureaucratic institutions because every time an election is held, parties such as police and other security agencies, politicians and gangsters are in the same boat in carrying out the vote buying.
Consequently, it is of primary importance to first and foremost call on all stakeholders in the Nigerian project for attitudinal changes so as to have a positive perception of politics. This is because a system of free and fair election is not guaranteed by officially sanctioned legal instruments alone.
For example, while stiffer punishment for rigging may be a panacea, such can have meaning only if the enabling legal system is such that justice is assured at all times. This requires the cooperation and alertness of all the stakeholders- the government, the electoral commission, the political parties, the candidates, the electorate, the civil society and the press each of which must cultivate the right attitudes to make democracy work by ensuring that the game of politics is played according to the rules.
There is the need for some ethical codes to be enacted for all elected officials to prohibit them from exhibiting stupendous wealth which gives a negative signal to the people that election to public office gives one the rare opportunity to amass wealth. This type of signal will of course, unnecessarily raise the stake, push the candidates in elections to see the contest as akin to fight to finish the affair, and consequently heat up the polity.
On the side of the people, they should shun those politicians displaying ill-gotten wealth knowing fully well that the money belongs to them, but being frequently siphoned by the opportune politicians. They should show self-respect for themselves and hold high their dignity by ignoring and showing disrespect to incompetent but wealthy office holders.
The mass media has a role to play in sensitizing voters to know their primary responsibilities in electing credible candidates. For example, where the media is celebrating money-bags, who are using their wealth to subvert the democratic process and good governance, the phenomenon of money politics and vote-buying will continue to thrive in the Nigerian political scene.
More importantly, the Nigerian economy must be improved upon to empower the people economically. This is because where poverty is reduced to the barest minimum; the electorates can then make independent electoral decisions in voting for credible politicians rather than incompetent but money spending politicians. We cannot build a strong democracy with the weaponisation of poverty.
Okeke is a programme officer with the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Nigeria.
