The problem with Elections and Democracy in Nigeria
By Adewale Adeoye
No election is perfect. In my polling booth during the presidential election, for the first time since 1999, I saw only immigration official, no police and no armed security operatives unlike in 2015.. It also took me 4 hours to drive from Lagos unlike 2015 that it took me 10 hours due to armed soldiers on the highways. But I think lapses remain.
There are many rooms for improvement given the reports of armed violence in some areas.
The major problem that persists is vote buying, the highest form of corruption in electoral politics.
It’s not only due to poverty, it’s also systemic problem that is becoming institutionalised.It is a crime perpetrated by the state. It makes it difficult to curb. it’s a crime designed to remove the moral obligations of the voters to question the legitimacy or misconducts of elected governments since the voters themselves have become accomplice in crime.
Voters are bought with goodies and huge cash..A country where there is no social security should expect this.
It’s not a justification but it’s one of the reasons why corruption is so rampant. People are not sure of the next day.
It’s one reason why corruption thrives. The state has handed over its responsibilities to individual politicians so we are made to be at their mercy..
The ordinary people ain’t sure of anything from basic health to education, water, security, housing and electricity.
Politicians are also motivated to steal public funds because of the system we run.
You have to provide everything for yourself including the essentials of life like water and you have to pay INSTANTLY. There is no room for mortgage so you have to steal blind to meet all life needs and you must pay IMMEDIATELY. People fear for the future because they know the state cannot even guarantee the present.
To beat the bad roads, you buy a jeep; to beat the long, turtous journeys you buy a jet..To deal with electricity wahala you buy MIKANO
Now by the standard of Nigerian politics, elected officials are now the custodians of social security services through
CONSTITUENCY PROJECTS and bribery of voters.
Politicians are being made to take over the role of the state.
Instead of Nigerians looking up to institutions, we are made to look up to individuals.
There is no other defination for PRIVATE MONOPOLY of human liberty.
Worst still, in order to destroy any public expectation of good governance, they pay for your votes taking over the franchise of social services, our liberty and the right to dissent.
When votes are bought, democracy becomes the comodity that has been sold.
When you sell a commodity, you lose the right of ownership and the license to question how the buyer uses the item. The right to reclaim ownership is restricted and totally lost. Most voters are not even sure of why they take decisions on their thumbprint. This is our dilemma.
But one thin line is that many Nigerians detest the rot which partly accounted for the low turnout in recent elections.
Democracy should not become Governemnt of the political parties for members of the political parties.
But Nigeria is notorious for nefarious inventions
Money for votes is a terrible crime because the masses who collect this cash are in the majority..There are also organised elites, traditional rulers etc who collect their money in bulk..
It’s a blank cheque for impunity and human enslavement by the few.
What the government owes us is to put a stop to commercialisation of human liberty. It is never too late.
