By Isaac Asabor
If there is any form of electoral fraud that need to be strategized against as the 2023 general and presidential elections are fast approaching, it is unarguably “Vote buying”. For the sake of clarity, the electoral glitch simply means when a voter exchanges his or her vote for some form of compensation in an election. Without any iota of exaggeration, the fraud has been plaguing virtually all the electoral contests so far conducted in Nigeria since 1999 when Nigeria embraced a democratic system of government
The irregularity has been a cause for concern so much that in the bid to tackle it as the 2023 general elections draw closer, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) penultimate week moved to control the amount of cash in circulation by introducing new cash withdrawal limits for banks and other financial institutions. The new policy followed CBN’s recent currency redesign project in which it had expressed concerns over the high volume of cash outside the banking system.
In a similar vein, the leadership of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) during the weekend urged President Muhammadu Buhari to “urgently direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr. Abubakar Malami, and appropriate anti-corruption agencies to identify and arrest politicians who are allegedly buying Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) from poor Nigerians, and promptly bring them to justice”.
SERAP also urged him to “ensure that the politicians and their sponsors who are suspected to be involved in these grave electoral and human rights crimes are named and shamed, regardless of their political affiliations.
Be that as it may, with the 2023 general and presidential elections on the horizon, the issue of “vote buying” has returned to the political arena, and several Nigerians have been encouraging the electorate to refrain from engaging in the practice.
Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to say that the call for Nigerians to eschew vote buying is not in any way ill-conceived as it breaks the link between candidate performance and winning elected office. It leads to reductions in the quality of services provided by the government. In other words, vote-buying is a problem because the most suitable candidates may not win office, and the candidates that win will not be the best candidates to represent the interests of their voters.
In fact, vote-buying also creates a criminal opportunity for politicians to engage in corruption. For instance, politicians may give kickbacks to big businesses that funded their campaigns.
At this juncture, it is expedient to ask, “How can vote buying be stopped to make next year’s election free, fair, and credible?
Given the degree of hunger in the land, it appears unscrupulous politicians are latching on the vulnerability of the people to engage in vote-buying as some of them lure prospective voters at the polls with amount of money that is as low as N1,000. Surprisingly most of them gleefully collect the bribe, and smile to their various homes with a collective sense of achievement. It is for the foregoing that it would be difficult to urge voters to refrain from the electoral behavior of selling their votes as a way of disrupting the vote-buying marketplace.
Without resorting to sounding overbearingly optimistic in this context, it is enough to say that if we, as Nigerians, are willfully determined to nip the phenomenon of vote-buying in the bud that it is possible, particularly if extant laws on it are literarily given sharp teeth to bite offenders.
You may have asked if there are extant laws promulgated to address the electoral dereliction. The answer to the foregoing question cannot be farfetched as the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Akwa-Ibom State, Mr. Mike Igini, a few months ago at a media parley said there are laws that can be applied to overcome vote buying, improve the conduct of elections and reduce the intervention of the courts in the electoral process.
As gathered, there are several legal provisions where rules that guide elections in Nigeria can be found. They include the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended; the Electoral Act 2022 and the Guidelines, Handbooks, Manuals, as well as Codes issued by the Electoral Management Bodies, that is the Independent National Electoral Commission (in accordance with section 148 of the E.A. 2022) and the 36 State Independent Electoral Commissions. There are also international covenants, protocols, and conventions such as those of ECOWAS, African Union and United Nations. Each political parties also have their constitutions and electoral guidelines.
In the same vein, there are a number of sunshine provisions in the country’s electoral laws. By that, I mean anti-corruption provisions. These provisions are to be found in the Nigerian Constitution, Electoral Act, and Electoral Guidelines. Take for instance section 225 (1) of the 1999 CFRN, as amended; It says political parties shall submit to the INEC and publish a statement of its assets and liabilities. S. 225 (2) says, “Every political party shall submit to INEC a detailed annual statement and analysis of its sources of funds and other assets together with a similar statement of its expenditure in such form as the Commission may require.”
While making the point that the court has a role to play in delivering judgment on cases of electoral fraud such as vote-buying, Iginni cited an example, saying “In 2013, in Kenya, we were there for the 5th of March election. On that day, we were monitoring. The campaign manager of a senatorial candidate was caught with different envelopes containing monies he was using to induce voters. He was arrested that same day, he was charged in court that same day. On the second day, he was convicted to three years imprisonment. That election was for a period of five days, we were in Kenya. Why is it that people who have been arrested overtime on this matter, we do nothing? The only way to make an impact is to quickly arraign them. In the US, over 400 cases before the 2020 elections were all determined before the 2020 elections. Why are we different here?” He asked.
However, to my view vote-buying should be strategize against by unleashing extant laws on it against unscrupulous politicians that may have been banking on massive vote-buying by virtue of their deep pockets ahead of the 2023 general and presidential election.
