By Ali Baba Inuwa
Stakeholders in the Southwest have expressed concern on the increasing money politics in Nigeria, describing it as retrogressive.
A cross section of those who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) across the zone stated this on Monday.
Mr Semiu Salaudeen, Chairman of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) in Saki West Local Government Area of Oyo State, said that the trend at which politicians spend money to actualise their political ambitions had become worrisome.
Salaudeen said spending money to get the votes from delegates or electorate would not only affect the growth of democracy negatively, but also make highest bidders get party tickets or win elections.
He explained that aspirants with genuine interest to serve the country would find it difficult to secure the tickets of their respective political parties, not to talk of winning elections.
He charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enforce the provisions of the lectoral act that stipulated a two-year jail term and a N500,000 fine, against individuals involved in vote buying and/or selling.
Mrs Josephine Badmus, the coordinator of Vanguard for Grassroot Governance (VGG), an Ibadan-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), said that the issues of money politics in Nigeria would deny grassroots dwellers the opportunity of enjoying the dividends of democracy.
Badmus said that any politician who bought his way to office would definitely first serve himself and his immediate family before thinking of the masses.
She called on the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and other relevant bodies to do more in sensitising the general public on the need to refrain from collecting money in exchange for their votes during elections.
Dr Stephen Lafenwa, a political scientist at the University of Ibadan, said though money was important in politics, its negative use could be dangerous to democratic governance and to the development of any society.
Lafenwa said that the negative use of money would affect the election of credible and qualified candidates for elective positions as well as undermine political processes and good governance.
“Money and politics are related, but the most important thing is that money must be used to promote healthy competition among contestants.
“But when contestants or stakeholders start to use money to bribe another person in order to do their bidding, then money is being used negatively.
“The negative use of money in politics has a lot of implications; democracy is supposed to promote popular participation, but when money is negatively used, it will shrink democratic space, such that those who do not have money would be excluded.
“Even those who have money, but who do not want to use it negatively, would be discouraged. This has been affecting our voter turnout since 1999,” he said.
Lafenwa advocated for fairness and justice as well as transparency and a level playing ground in politics, so that the best of candidates could emerge from the political processes.
He called for disincentives, in terms of remuneration and political offices, such that only those who want to serve the nation get to occupy posts.
These people, he said, should have a second address and not depending on politics as their only means of livelihood.
Mr Peter Kwis, a businessman, said it was wrong to influence political processes with money.
“There is no way you will use money and you will not want to recoup your money. This is the reason there has not been development as it should be in Nigeria.
“People doing this believe it is an investment, and what they would be after is for them to first get returns on their investments, before they can think of any developmental projects for the citizens,” Kwis said.
Mr Rotimi Omoniyi, an architect, said Nigeria would never be able to get the best of leaders from the use of money in politics, because it would not be based on merit, but on money.
In Osogbo, Mr Waheed Lawal, the Chairman of the state Civil Societies Coalition (OCSC), described money politics in Nigeria as a bad omen that could on the long run destroy democracy, if not curtailed.
Lawal said money politics was bad for the nation’s democratic system, as it would usually put wrong people in political offices.
“We have monitised our system to the extent that we may not likely have good candidates that have good electoral values, because of the monitisation of our politics.
“We have credible hands, serious people in Nigeria, but if you don’t have money, you go nowhere in politics.
“The situation, where moneybags take it all, is not good for our democratic system, because we have some brilliant, intelligent and very disciplined people, but because they are not sharing money, they can’t win elective offices.
“This is too dangerous for our democracy.
“We have quality and qualified people around us, but because every process of our electoral system has been monitised, it discourages the good people who can contribute meaningfully to our democratic system,” he said.
Lawal, however, said that politics should be made unattractive to business politicians, adding that at the moment, the system of government in Nigeria is too expensive.
He said that some people believe that going into politics or winning elective positions would make them overnight billionaires.
This is why, he said, politicians had turned politics to a do-or-die affair, suggesting that part-time legislation should be adopted.
Mr Charles Adeyemo, the President of Nigeria Development Front (NDF), an NGO, condemned money politics, adding that such could destroy a growing democracy like that of Nigeria.
Adeyemi said that money politics would always put the worst of politicians ahead of the best and should therefore be totally discouraged.
He said that if politicians were allowed to spend dollars on delegates in political party conventions such could also affect the way and manner true and genuine candidates would emerge.
According to him , there is need for major non-state actors like the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Supreme Council of Islam and other political pressure groups to rise up to the challenge.
“The non-state actors and pressure groups should not be quiet on this matter, but rather speak loud, except if they are culpable and are major contributors to the menace,” he said.
The NDF boss called for more sensitisation and awareness on the implications of money politics before, during and after elections.
Dr Samuel Afolabi, an Associate Professor, who doubles as the Head of Department, Political Science, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, said that poverty alleviation is the only way to stop money politics in Nigeria.
Afolabi said that government needed to reduce the level of poverty across board by providing jobs, infrastructure, improved healthcare among other dividends of democracy.
According to him, if the citizenry get what they need and live comfortably there will not have any reason to sell their votes to highest bidders.
“Most of those who receive money are poor; lack democratic values and intellectual capacity to reject money offered to them,” he said.
Nigeria politics, according to him, is still having problems, because the nation is still regarded as an imaginary democracy.
“No wonder, if we look at several democratic indicators, we discover that Nigeria is still not in full fledge democracy, because we still have some elements of authoritarianism,” he said.
In Abeokuta, Mr Shina Adefolahan, the Executive Director of the Community Education, Advancement of Peace and Development Initiative (CEAPDI), affirmed that money politics had taken the centre stage of Nigeria’s political activities.
Adefolahan said that political parties and their candidates had shown, through their conduct at political campaigns, that good party manifestoes and integrity of candidates were no longer sufficient to guarantee electoral success.
” Politicians, now believe that votes have become commodities that can be bought off the electorate,” he said.
According to him, money politics is driven by the high level of poverty in the country.
“Poverty makes the electorate susceptible and thus, exposes them to political manipulation.
“Once paid for, however, the electorate are are robbed of the power to demand accountability,” he said.
Dr Olawoyin Farinto, a Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun, said that money politics started in Nigeria immediately after the nation’s independence, but became glaring during the 1992 campaign.
Farinto identified poor level of discipline in political parties, undefined party goals and ideology, poverty and godfatherism as major causes of money politics in Nigeria.
He said that the situation had far-reaching consequences, such as high cost of governance, perverted justice, lack of competence in governance and creation of loopholes for looters.
Meanwhile, Mr Adekunle Ayoola, the Co-ordinator, Youth Initiative Network, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) said that money politics had continued to have devastating effects on Nigeria’s democracy.
Ayoola said that the situation had made mockery of the Not-Too-Young-To-Rule Act and also compounded the woes of bad leadership the nation had been contending with.
“Money politics simply means politicians relying on heavy cash inducement to make people support their political aspiration.
” The selection, as well as the eventual election of such politicians, is not a function of what they have to offer, but because they have gotten some huge cash to share around and ultimately, their output in governance is abysmally poor,” he said.
Mr John Akpabio, a political analyst called on the electorate to always shun politicians who seek to buy their votes and, thereby, mortgage their future.
“The electorate should realise that the act of vote selling often bounces back to the society, in terms of bad leadership and underdevelopment,” he said.
Akpabio also called for strict enforcement of electoral laws, which placed limits on the amount to be spent on political campaigns.
In Ado-Ekiti, respondents cutting across different social status, said things were no longer the same again since money became prominent in the nation’s politics.
This is just as some of them concluded that there was no way money would not continue to play dominant roles in the nation’s political processes.
According to an activist, Kunle Olasanmi, the current public outrage, caused by the high cost of nomination forms imposed on aspirants by their political parties, including hard currencies, allegedly taken to venues of primaries by many contestants, are bad examples in this regard.
He described the sales of form at N100 million for the ruling party’s presidential aspirants, and that of the PDP at N40 million, as the height of monetisation of the electoral process.
He regretted that as a direct consequence of money politics leaders would be rendered helpless when they get to office, as every money spent by politicians would have to be recouped, thereby, resulting in non-performance.
Also, the Chairman of CSOs in Ekiti, Christopher Oluwadare, said one of the root causes of the current political woes, stemmed from the very high cost of accessing political power in the country.
According to him, unless there is a change of attitude, the country will continue to have inept, ineffective and clueless leaders in various offices of responsibilities.
A polytechnic student, who is also a voter, Safe Folorunsho, lamented how some political players had turned the game of politics into a thriving business venture.
She decried a situation whereby some politicians go as far as having to sell movable and immovable property borrow money from banks or engage in secret ritual murders, all out of the desperation to win elections or get one political office or the other.
” Some of them are also involved in buying of votes or voter cards. All of these are not too good for the sustainability of the real tenets of democracy,” she said.
A community leader, Pa Kayode Ilesanmi, said the way forward was for INEC to live up to its mandate and responsibilities, by intensifying actions on prosecution of anyone found wanting.
He blamed INEC for looking the other way most times especially whenever politicians and their followers run foul of finance regulations.
Ilesanmi said that the absence of deterrence was largely responsible for the rising cost of elections in the country.
” The time has come to discourage money politics, by all means and at all cost.
“In its place, I expect that Nigerians should change their strategy, by rooting for promises that will proffer solutions to all our myriads of problems,” he said.
However, a politician, Mr Oladejo Kayode, said even in the early post-independent years, money was involved in prosecuting elections and campaigns, such as feeding followers, paying for their transportation and buying them souvenirs among others.
Nevertheless, he said things could still be done right, with politicians playing the game with less involvement of money which ultimately breeds corruption in public offices.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity of the Accord Party in Ekiti, Mr Olajide Omojomoju, said money politics had become the bane of development in Nigeria, lamenting that political leaders in the country had turned it into an art.
According to him, it is unfortunate that Nigerians have not learnt the lesson that this has become an albatross that is hindering our political, economic and social development.
“In some parts of the country, the parlance, ‘di’bo k’oo se’be’ (vote and cook stew); where candidates buy votes with as low as N2,000, has become the order of the day and that is why in Ekiti State, for example, where the next election is taking place, everybody is asking candidates for money to vote for them,” he said.
Also, Mr Tunde Ogunrinde, the Senior Special Adviser to Gov. Kayode Fayemi on Disabilities’ Matters, said money politics in Nigeria started immediately after independence, but became more pronounced during the 1992 campaign exercise.
He identified poverty and lack of self-discipline as some of the main causes of the menace.
A resident, Mr Taiwo Adeniyi, urged Nigerians to stop collecting money as bribe to vote for political office seekers and candidates.
He condemned the vote buying syndrome, which he claimed had eaten deep into the fabrics of the nation’s politics.
This negative trend, he said, had further caused setbacks to the development of the country in all ramifications.
In Ilorin, a social commentator, Comrade AbdulRahoof Bello, said he would lay the blame, not on politicians, but on the new Electoral Act that encouraged money politics in the country.
“Section 84, sub-section 2 of the Act was contentious between the Presidency and the National Assembly to the extent that the president had to vote and the national assembly also counter-veto before they succumbed to the section,” he said.
Bello said that the section that could have made the primaries of political parties direct would have been the best.
“Direct primaries would have been the best, but in the wisdom of Mr President and the Presidency, amending the electoral act, the delegates have become delicate in the political process.
“Delegates have become adversaries of the peoples’ mandate.
“If it were to be direct primaries, it would have been difficult for money bags to purchase the conscience of the electorate at the grassroots. It could have been impossible to do that.
“A situation where you agree on mini consensus or indirect primary, then the delegates are purchased,” he said.
According to him, political parties in the country are lying on a bed of thorns, and setting landmines in the democratic process of the country.
“We have to take caution, because the trend is frightening. It is like we are producing the same set of people that are oppressing us; this set of people cannot reset the country through this process,” he said.
The CEO of Bimkash Foundation, Mrs Olabimpe Ayeni, however, called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to help curb the menace of money politics going on in the country.
Ayeni said that the commission should go after those involved in such acts aggressively, just as they do to internet fraudsters.
She said their arrest and eventual prosecution would serve as deterrent to others, sending a strong message to all Nigerians ahead of the 2023 elections.
Ayeni said it was unfortunate that the act, which had always been preached against during general elections, had taken over party primary elections.
This practice, she said, would return the country to square one, as contestants, who had spent a lot to win votes, would strive to recoup the same when elected at the end of the day.
”Subsequently, they will end up doing nothing that will be of benefit to the people who elected them,” Ayeni said.
Meanwhile a group in Akure, YIAGA Africa, has called for the establishment of Electoral Offences Commission to tackle electoral offenders, especially vote traders.
The Media Officer of the group, Mr Moshood Isah said that poverty and lack of belief in government were parts of the major reasons vote buying became rampant.
He noted that INEC would be too busy with how to organise elections and with various court cases, they were always involved in after elections, to be chasing electoral offenders.
“Vote trading is usually caused by poverty and the fact that people don’t feel the impact of governance.
“Politicians already know that gaps exist in the electoral law against vote buying and they try to exploit that.
“I think we need to expand the scope of the electoral law to capture issues around voter inducement, totally, before and during election, and to expand the scope of the job of security agencies to be able to arrest and prosecute electoral offenders.
“Also, there is opportunity to establish an electoral offences commission so that we can have more electoral offenders, including vote traders, prosecuted, because most times, if it is left in the hands of INEC alone, it becomes very difficult to prosecute a lot of cases, while also having election.
“So, if we have the commission, it can go a long way to expanding the scope of the Electoral Act to capture voter inducement before election,” he said.
Also, Mr Sunday Bamidele, a sociologist, described money politics as a terrible idea in the political setting.
“It is so terrible that people are now placing more importance on it than the proper election itself.
“We could see some aspirants after the PDP convention going back to their delegates to collect the money they paid to them.
“You need to see the amount of money retrieved from these delegates, which showed that the aspirants were using the system of highest bidder to win the votes of the delegates.
“It is not funny. It really shook me to my foundation that despite the level of poverty at this period, some people still have so much money to spend on gaining political power.
“It is bad and not helping our politics. It is now evident that our political system is completely monetised, which has ensured that the rich will be able to operate while the poor cannot achieve anything. The impact on the society is terrible,” he said.
Dr Dipo Akomolafe, former Chairman, Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology (OAUSTECH’), Okitupupa Chapter, described the just concluded primary elections of the major political parties as a collective insult and embarrassment to democratic norms and values.
He alleged that money was openly used to purchase delegates’ conscience, votes and consequently, the corporate existence of Nigeria.
“The parties introduced what can simply be described as money-for-hand delegate system and this strange addition to the evolvement of party flag-bearers is not only embarrassing to our image as a country, but also very scandalous.
“The delegate system was thoroughly abused by the way and manner the political parties practiced it and can make anybody to think that It is an improper way of electing political flag-bearers.
“The political parties had squarely failed us. The looters will continue to have their ways while the masses are being kept in perpetual servitude and poverty,” he said. (NAN)
