G iven the leading role of its citizens in commerce and the abundance of billionaires in the state, the fact that last Saturday’s governorship election was turned into a commercial activity is raising concern among democracy stakeholders in the country.

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

It was a contest in which one of the most erudite contestants honestly admitted he fell to the superior money power of his rivals.

From top L-R: Chidoka- UPP; Obiano – APGA; Obaze – PDP; Edochie – DPC; Nwoye – APC & Ezeemo – PPA

Announcing his decision not to contest the result of last weekend’s Anambra State governorship election, Osita Chidoka said “They traded their votes because they doubted we would truly represent their interest. While our message resonated with the people they doubted that the political class cared about them. They voted for the highest bidder.”

The use of money in last weekend’s election was pervasive and for many stakeholders totally repulsive. The pattern of vote buying witnessed in Anambra State is, however, not new and follows recent outings in Edo and Ondo States where voters, the electoral officials and the security agencies were completely compromised. Anambra State, however, took the oddity to obscene levels.

A former president of the Civil Liberty Organisation, CLO Mr. Clement Nwankwo who was on ground for the election said: “The election is very disappointing; this is one of the worst elections that have been conducted in Nigeria since 1999,” he said.

“We are very disappointed with the political parties and the candidates who have spent this much money on elections that should really be a show of citizens’ reference of who governs them next.

“Individuals were being paid from N500 to N5,000.”

How did it happen. As they approached the voting stations the voters were usually accosted by the polling agents during which a deal was struck. All the voter needed to do was to after thump printing the ballot paper to raise it up for the polling agent to see who would then nod in affirmative. The affirmative nod was an indication to the party man with the bag of money to pay the voter that he voted correctly.

There were even cases of voters being paid as much as N10,000 per vote for the election.

Speaking last Wednesday at a press conference in Abuja, president of the Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi warned that the increasing spate which her organisation said characterised the Anambra election could derail the country’s democracy.

The process of vote buying was consciously or unconsciously promoted by the absence of secrecy at the polling station as one of the civil society bodies that monitored the election lamented.

Speaking at a press conference following the poll, the executive director of the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG) said: “We observed that in most places visited by our field observers we noticed that the voting cubicles were placed in the midst of the people thereby compromising the secrecy of the ballot.

He further lamented that the security agencies and even polling officials who ordinarily should have ensured decency turned a blind eye to the issue.

The Nigerian Bar Association Election Working Group, NBA-EWG while decrying the trend of vote buying in its report on the election said: “Money played a significant role in the choice of voters during the election. Some of the political actors distributed money to the voters at the precinct of the polling units.

“NBA-EWG observed the inducement of voters at the precincts of the polling units and the brazen manner some political entrepreneurs carried out the exercise.”

The report thus advised the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue an advisory to the Nigerian Police, “directing them to arrest anybody that induces voters at the precincts of the polling units without waiting for directives from the Presiding Officers.”

For Awal Ibrahim Rafsanjani, the executive director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centr, CISLAC, the development in Anambra State is bound to compromise the country’s democracy. Speaking to Vanguard on his observations of the poll, he said the consequence of vote buying is that it would bring down

“It is another way of destroying our democracy and stopping the participation of those that will make sense in leadership. By the time that we begin to commercialise the right to vote or be voted for you would have destroyed the spirit of accountability. Part of the consequences of this is that there will be decreased accountability in leadership because those who come to power will tell you that they bought their way to power and so, nobody should come and ask them to account for anything.

“The second consequence is that it will erode the whole idea of participatory democracy because democracy is not about buying and selling, democracy is about the right choices and about accountability and accountable leadership.

“Vote buying is undermines our democracy and it makes it impossible for those with integrity those with experience to provide leadership in Nigeria because if you don’t have money you would have the capacity to buy votes for you to come to leadership.”

Chidoka, the UPP candidate who gave himself out as a victim of the vote buying malaise held his head high acquitting himself that he did not run foul of superior arguments in the election but to the firepower of superior moneybags.

Giving his account of how it played out, he said: “When by Thursday a large percentage of our supporters insisted that they will not vote unless we paid, I insisted we will not pay for votes. The decision not to pay ended our good run. We accept the voters’ decision. We also heard our people, by their turnout and transactional approach, as they took sides with our Party’s considered view that the issue of justice, equity and fairness should be canvassed within Nigeria.

“In all, we hold our heads high; high because we did not lose the poll due to paucity of ideas or lack of “structure”. We lost to superior financial firepower. As Democrats, we concede to the voters’ choices. The true hallmark of democracy is the respect for the voice of the ballot as that of the majority.

“But the inner truth is that we won! We won at the most important place; in the hearts of people; our people who saw us toil and push in the arena against all odds; who saw the sincerity of our mission and gave all in support of our quest for collective good. We salute you for your support and personal sacrifices to the campaign.”