“The masses are all up for grabs by the highest bidder.” —Ebuka Onyekwelu
One of the most remarkable takeaways from Saturday’s by-elections in Anambra State is that Nigerians have disempowered themselves in their democracy. Nigerian voters who participated in the Anambra South and the Onitsha North 1 State constituency by-elections mostly proved, by their action, that they do not believe in the promise of a better nation. Although lost and won, the implications of Saturday’s outing are still being distilled to ascertain what could have inspired such blatant and open buying and selling of votes.
The first clear lesson from Saturday’s experience is that the masses are incapable of changing the course of history, or to put this differently, independently shaping their course of action. What happened on Saturday in Anambra South and Onitsha North was pure transactional democracy. Votes were sold for five thousand Naira or ten thousand Naira, or as bargained between buyer and seller. It was a proper marketplace where voters expressed their right to bargain. On Saturday, even agents of various political parties voted for other political parties based on higher offers. If an agent is made an offer he or she considers to be reasonable, he or she would ignore his or her political party and vote for the party that paid him or her more. Party agents in APGA, APC, YPP, and ADC did the same thing. Some agents were won by opposition political parties with just ten thousand Naira, while others were won with an extra one or two thousand Naira on top of the base amount. This signals a convoluted scenario that speaks to the reality that Nigeria’s democracy has been commodified. There is no proposition, no opposition, no performance, and indeed, no other consideration except the amount a party representative is willing to part with for a vote. This is a very dangerous trend. Voters accepted cash and bank transfers!
In various polling units in Anambra South, many youths who turned up to vote were more meticulous in their bargain. They asked for an extra one or two thousand Naira from the regular benchmarked cost, for a vote. Others were willing to swing into action and begin mobilizing voters for a political party that had parted with an amount that satisfied them at the polling unit. Money was the ultimate player. Even various opposition political party agents turned themselves into canvassers for other parties that paid for their vote. If other parties offered five thousand, with seven thousand, even members of that party and their agents would vote for the more “serious” political party that offered higher inducement. It was chaotic, yet smooth. Quietly, democracy was murdered by greed, or hunger, or ignorance, or confusion, or all of them. No one was bothered. People traded in peace, except in a few locations where there were issues.
From all observed polling units in Anambra South, only a handful of voters simply performed their civic duties without financial inducement. The age of voters didn’t matter. Young, middle-aged, and old, all wanted to be paid for their vote, and they were paid. The level of one’s education didn’t matter as traders, university dons, and professionals wanted the ten thousand to fuel their car or offset one little expense or another, and the justification for this went on and on. The social or economic status didn’t matter. Everyone just wanted to be paid for their vote, and they were paid. Money is the king. Programme or plans for the constituency or the ability to perform didn’t count. Some insist that the money was the only thing they were certain to gain from the official once elected.
Anambra’s Deputy governor, Dr. Onyekachuwu Ibezim, who is from Mbaukwu in Awka South LGA, was in Osumeneyi in Nnewi South LGA with his full convoy and got into a confrontation with the APC Governorship candidate, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu. It is hard to make sense out of why the Deputy Governor could be so reckless as to storm the home base of a political opponent from Awka South LGA, and even be threatening the APC candidate with an arrest. Ukachukwu returned the favour by saying that he would burn his vehicles and nothing would happen. This visit is coming while APGA has demonstrated its ability to out-buy the entire vote from all willing sellers in every part of Anambra South. Why then was going to Osumenyi necessary when you have already bought the bulk of the votes for your party? But again, the action of the Deputy Governor only brings to the fore a particular attitude of African leaders who, in their attempt to impress themselves, leave a trail of avoidable violence, blood, and death. But even worse, it was a raw show of force that dramatized the market scenario of Saturday’s by-election in Anambra State.
From here, it is obvious that the masses have no business engendering social change with their vote to produce a leader who will fix their state or country. The masses are all up for grabs by the highest bidder. This leaves the future of Nigeria and its sub-nationals in the hands of the elites. It is the elites who must agree about what to do with the country at all levels.
♦ Ebuka Onyekwelu, journalist and trained political scientist, is a writer and columnist with the West African Pilot News
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