Social critic Oluwaseyifunmi Oyetunbi has made his concerns known about the state of Nigeria’s political landscape. He emphasized that those who refuse to engage in corrupt practices may struggle to attain positions of power.
Oyetunbi made this known on Sunday night via his Facebook post following the Ondo State Gubernatorial election that was marred by widespread vote buying and ballot box snatching.
He further asserted that the institutionalization of vote buying has enabled a system in which only those willing to partake in theft can afford the staggering costs of running for governorship.
“People who can’t steal may never be able to get to power. Vote buying has been institutionized. Who can spend #50billion to contest for govship without stealing on camping thieves? Nigeria is in a complex mess”, he wrote.
Election monitoring group Yiaga Africa yesterday condemned the incidences of vote buying that characterized the governorship election in Ondo State this past Saturday.
Addressing newsmen in Akure, the group described vote trading as a major threat to the credibility of the electoral process. Yiaga’s chairman and Director of Programmes, Ezenwa Nwagwu, and Cynthia Mbamalu, lamented that vote buying promotes electoral corruption.
They added that the process “erodes equality in electoral competition and undermines the legitimacy of electoral victory.”
Nwagwu and Mbamalu said: “Yiaga Africa calls on political parties to refrain from the culture of commercialization of elections in Nigeria and instead invest in practices that enhance trust in the electoral process.”
The election monitoring group also charged INEC to take “deliberate steps to protect the secrecy of the ballot and enforce its electoral guidelines, especially those related to the secrecy of the ballot.”
Additionally, Yiaga Africa recommended that the commission “ensure that the BVAS is consistently updated and upgraded to ensure optimal functionality.”
Yiaga Africa also stated that election offenders arrested during the Ondo election “should be handed over to the police for due prosecution.”
The group said: “Security agencies should be more proactive in arresting and prosecuting perpetrators of voter inducement and vote buying. Political parties and candidates should refrain from this persistent and unacceptable culture of impunity and the ugly trend of buying votes and undermining the integrity of the electoral process.”
It further added that political parties and candidates should encourage issue-based participation in elections, invest in building political parties that uphold democratic principles, and promote electoral integrity.
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