ABEOKUTA– The 14th Emir of Kano and Kalifa of Tijjaniyya Order, His Highness Muhammad Sanusi II has stressed that the act of vote buying by political parties is outright disrespect for the law of the country.
Sanusi stated this while speaking at the 4th anniversary lecture of Penpushing Media with the theme, “Social Media Regulation: Insecurity and Elections Accountability in Nigeria, held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital.
Sanusi who stressed the importance of the theme in the country and condemned the exchange of vote by citizens for money, saying that for the country to achieve it’s full potential politically, citizens must ensure the sanctity and secrecy of their ballots.
He also called out Nigerians to be vigilant and for institutions to respect their mandate while remaining neutral so as to ensure justice and fair play in the forthcoming general elections.
“The theme is most apt as we approach the 2023 general elections. We have just had the election in Osun state and there is clearly an improvement in the electoral process compared to what we had in the past.
“One of the important development in Nigeria over the last twenty years has been the effort by successful government to improve their electoral act and by politicians themselves to close off the avenue that they have used for rigging elections and subverting the will of the people.
“There is alot left to be done, most important is the fact that alot of the rigging and subversion happens by the institutions that are supposed to be officially neutral, the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), the Nigeria police, the judiciary and the security services have all too often proven themselves to be rigging tools in the hands of politicians to undermine the will of the people.
“So as Nigerians commend the politicians for improvement to the law we need to call all Nigerians to be vigilant and for institutions to respect their mandate while remaining neutral and to ensure justice and fair play.
“One of the major ways in which elections are been subverted in the new acts is the policy of vote buying and this is a lack of respect for the law on scared ballot.
“We have seen in one of the state recently where we had off season elections where people would actually thumbprint and show their ballot paper to politicians who would pay them money in the presence of INEC officials in the presence of the police. The Nigerian people and citizens must get together to ensure the sanctity of their ballot and secrecy of their elections. We need to ensure that those we elect into the office are those who were announced”, he added
Meanwhile, the keynote speaker and Ford Foundation Regional Director for West Africa, Dr. Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye, heaped the blame at the doorstep of the government, adding that information is required to make a society function and without peace democracy can not be achieved.
“Information is actually required to make a society function so if the government is pro-active with information I think that would help with the electoral accountability.
“INEC needs to be out there everyday telling people what’s happening and I think they have been doing some good job. I mean the fact that they are telling us now how people are registering already tells you that it would be a little bit difficult to manipulate and people would know if at the end of the day they say this number of vote comes from a certain area you can match it with what they have been telling you.
“I also think the security apparatus have to do their best because democracy strives in peaceful environment if we don’t have peace it would be difficult to have democracy so been able to have the security apparatus ensuring that there is peace especially during election is something extremely important that the government can do as well.
Prince Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji, the Founder, Penpushing Media in a separate interview with newsmen revealed that the governments are displaying a non-challant attitude hence the reason for this years theme to help checkmate the excesses.
He however advised all journalist to do proper investigation in the line of their duty and avoid false stories.
“The insecurity, deregulation and social media is what is affecting the society at large so, I would continue to advice every journalist especially the young ones, if you want to excel you must avoid fake news because all it does is destroy and even the person that spread such ends up getting himself into problem.
