As the 2019 General Elections draw near, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara on Monday lamented the role of security agencies in promoting vote buying during elections.
The two Presiding Officers spoke in Abuja at a one-day public hearing on ‘Vote Buying and Improving the Electoral Process in Nigeria’.
While Saraki said that security agents are beginning to emerge as major clogs in the election process, Dogara, on the other hand, said that the nation must not surrender to votes buying.
Dogara pointed out that a more worrisome dimension to vote buying is the alleged use of security agents and INEC officials to induce, or intimidate and coerce voters to vote for particular candidates.
Condemning the use of Incident Form to bypass the lawful process of accreditation, Saraki said, “it is all too clear that security agents are beginning to emerge as major clogs in the election process. Reports of collusion with political actors to disenfranchise voters is very worrying indeed.
“We cannot under any circumstances militarise elections, because that defeats the purpose of free, fair and credible polls. In an election, access to the polling units for the purpose of casting one’s vote is the bare minimum. Once a voter is denied the opportunity to vote through bullying, intimidation and other forms of harassment, then vote rigging and electoral malpractice have free reign.
“Let me, at this point, mention that our major concern should be entrenching global best practices in our electoral process, and ensuring that these are backed by legislations to make them sustainable and permanent. For example, the use of Incident Form to bypass the lawful process of accreditation and voting is not good for the country. We must do away with it.”
The President of the Senate, however, said that Nigeria cannot at this time fail especially as the world is looking forward to what happens in the forthcoming elections.
On his part, Dogara said: “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.
“The high prevalence of vote-buying in the electoral system of the country is, without any doubt, of great concern to all Nigerians and members of the global community who truly love democracy. It is disheartening that this absurd phenomenon has assumed alarming proportions in recent times. As citizens, we must not surrender to this criminality as we cannot do so and still expect honour. When political office holders defy the law and corruptly assume office, they will always operate as if they are above the law.
“Vote buying and other sundry criminal manipulation 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 by the example of their power nor by the dictates of 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 because we must, not because we are receiving 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. I hope we can now see why today’s event is compellingly urgent.
“A more worrisome dimension to vote buying is the alleged use of the officials of the electoral umpire, INEC, and officers of security agencies to induce, or intimidate and coerce voters to vote for particular candidates. The essence of this Public Hearing, therefore, is to enable all of us interrogate these issues and proffer the way out.”
In his presentation, INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, explained that the Commission is not involved in the buying and selling of votes.
The INEC boss who condemned votes buying, warned that it should not be allowed to define the nation’s electoral process.
Noting that such development denies the citizens quality representation and gives the nation a bad name before the international community, the INEC Chairman said that rather than public hearing, it would have been better if confessional hearing is conducted by the lawmakers.
He called on lawmakers to pass the Electoral Offences Tribunal Bill into law as recommended by Uwais, Lemu and Ken Nnamani Electoral Reform Committees.
He said: “Votes buying is not acceptable, it must never be allowed to define our elections. It is illegal and morally wrong. It denies citizens quality representation and give us bad name internationally. It does not give us a good representation.
“We talk too much as a nation. We should stop talking and move on as a nation.
We need a confessional hearing rather than this. We should call the people and asked them how they do it. INEC does not buy or sell votes.
“The problem has been with us for a long while and it has become an international phenomenon. It is not just a Nigerian problem.
“In others to address this, we need to break the chain of voters inducement. We have so many instances where aspirants induced electorates and candidate induced voters.”
