Dogara: FG’s Cash Disbursement is Vote-buying, Inducement

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Monday condemned the distribution of cash to the public close to general election by public officials, saying no matter how noble the intent may be, such endeavour amounts to vote buying and inducement, which he said is a clear case of corruption.

Delivering remarks at a public hearing organised by the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC and Political Parties Matters on Vote-buying and Improving the Electoral Processes in Nigeria, Dogara said the act of inducing the public with cash in exchange for their votes is a fraud that is covered within section 124 (1)(a);(b);(c); Section(124)(2)(4)(5) and Section 130 of the Electoral Act.

He also noted that financial inducement for votes contravenes the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy enshrined in Nigerian Constitution, even as there is also a lack of political will to implement the laws to deter violators, and even where arrests are made, prosecutions are unheard of despite the damaging effect of the practice.

Dogara explained: “Vote buying and other sundry criminal manipulations of the electoral process in Nigeria have left our citizens in a state of unmitigated disaster. As a result, we have been married off to a mob. A mob that rules us neither by the example of his power nor by the dictates of the law. A mob that rules by fear as an inalienable tool rather than by courage. A mob that accepts the status quo rather than challenge it. Mobs don’t grow others, they only destroy others in order to grow themselves. We follow the mob not that receive any sense of significance for our own lives from  them. Our democracy has stagnated and will sadly remain so until we eliminate all sham elections which have the effect of throwing up the worst of us to lead the best of us.

“It is instructive to note that the Electoral Act anticipated and captured most forms of electoral fraud including inducement and vote buying. I hope we will have the courage at this event to address the distribution of cash to the public close to general election by public officials. I am afraid that such endeavour, no matter how noble the intentions behind them, may fall within the all-encompassing provisions of  S. 124 (1)(a);(b);(c); and S.(124)(2)(4)(5) and S. 130 of the Electoral Act. Although penalties are not stringent, there is also lack of political will to implement the laws as it is, even if it were to offer feeble deterrence to violators. Arrests are hardly made, and even where arrests are made, prosecutions are unheard of.

“Indeed, the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in our constitution envisages that Nigeria shall be a state based on the principles of democracy, and that sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria, through which government derives its authority, powers and legitimacy.  Therefore, any form of contrivance by any person or authority to unduly influence the choice of the voters is condemnable as it is patently an assault on this constitutional guarantee.”

The Speaker further said: “Undue influence of voters has always existed in different forms all over the world; however, the recent phenomenon of direct pricing and buying of votes as if in a market square is very disturbing. It is one of the highest forms of corruption.”

Reiterating the need for free, fair, credible and transparent elections, he stressed that that is the very basis for translating the consent of the governed into governmental authority, especially as elections are now so attractive that even pretentious democracies lay claim to holding elections just in order to confer some aura of legitimacy on their rule.

The speaker, therefore, called on Nigerians and members of the global community to rise up for free, fair and credible elections, and fight against the phenomenon of electoral fraud that could destroy the country’s democracy and install leaders that would operate as if they are above the law.