Should the monetization of the electoral process as witnessed in some of the recently conducted elections go unchecked, the 2019 general elections and the entire democratic governance in the country may be permanently doomed.
This alarm was raised in Ibadan by the Oyo State gubernatorial candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2019 polls, Sen. Solagbade Olufemi Lanlehin (SOLAN) while delivering a public lecture at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Annual Press Week of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council.
Speaking on the lecture topic titled ‘Monetization of Electoral Process and the Imperatives of Free and Fair Elections in 2019’, the immediate past Senator of the Oyo South Senatorial District posited that the monetisation of the electoral process portends grave dangers for the 2019 eletions.
Held at the Chapel’s Secretariat, Mokola, Ibadan with the Otun-Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Sen. Lekan Balogun in attendance as the Chairman of the occasion alongside two Senior Special Assistants to the Governor of Oyo State, Messers Akin Oyedele and Wale Shadow, representing Governor Ajimobi, the week-long programme was declared open Mr. Oyedele on behalf of the governor.
The gubernatorial hopeful, who said the fact that heavy monetisation of the country’s electoral process portends grave dangers for the nation’s politics and indeed, the credibility of the 2019 elections could not be controverted posited that “the task of getting our elections right in 2019 is a joint one, and it begins by downplaying heavy financing, and advertising credibility, intelligence and precedence”.
Lanlehin equally stressed the important roles of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) security agencies, civil society and indeed, journalists, who are the fourth estate of the realm in the monitoring of electoral expenses and the exposure of sums deemed outrageous, for the sanity of the country’s political system and the credibility of the polls.
The ADC gubernatorial candidate, who was a former member of the House of Representatives lamented that the fact that the country’s electoral system has been heavily monetised is no longer news, but regretted that “what is baffling actually, is the scale, which keeps expanding every election cycle”.
Recalling a newspaper report credited to one Itaobong Etim with the title ‘Monetization of the electoral process’ in which a report released by Compliance and Competence Monitoring Limited was cited, the ADC standard-bearer in the state quoted that
“towards the 2015 elections, both the PDP and APC spent a whopping N3.3 billion on election campaign advertisements alone. This figure excluded other unreported election expenditures”.
He said the quoted report was further
corroborated by the INEC report which concluded that about N1trillion was spent on that election by all active participants, adding, “spending such humongous amount of money in 2015 with an annual national budget of a little over N4.5 trillion is truly appalling”.
The scion of the late High Chief Samuel Owoola Lanlehin, former parliamentarian and later National Treasurer of the Action Group (AG) was of the view that with the current realities in the nation’s political space, whatever humongous amount spent in 2015 would be child’s play.
According to him, “the fangs of monetisation reared its head early enough this election cycle, with the huge amounts set by political parties, especially the APC and the PDP as nomination and expression of interest fees.
For the presidency, while the APC charged N45million (Expression of Interest N5million and Nomination N40 million), PDP charged N12 million (Expression of Interest N2 million and Nomination N10 million).
“For governorship, APC collected N22.5 million (N2.5 million Expression of Interest and N20 million Nomination), while the PDP charged N6 million. Our party, the ADC, similarly charged N6 million for governorship nomination forms.
“These figures, as mind boggling as they are, exclude other ancillary expenses spent during consultations in the period leading to party primaries, and no doubt intentionally excludes the poor and the middle class, making it practically impossible for them to participate as candidates in the coming elections.
“With an almost disappearing middle class, and a polarisation into the rich and poor social stratum, monetisation of politics leads to an undue manipulation of the poor, making them mere observers of a process they should ordinarily drive”, he lamented.
He recalled the current singsong in the nation’s political space, described as shameful in the recent Ekiti and Ondo governorship elections, derogatorily termed “dibo ko s’ebe” (sell your vote, get paid and prepare soup) and “dibo ko r’ale” (sell your vote, get paid and buy land), saying, “nothing can be worse off”.
Sen. Lanlehin noted that the derision of the electorate as quoted above “is due to poverty in the land”, which he said politicians have now taken undue advantage of and now displayed in the distribution of money and other edibles like a few cups of rice at campaign grounds, rallies and events.
In his short remark, the Chairman of the occasion, Oba Balogun equally expressed worries about the ugly trend of vote buying, asking it to be seriously checked, because, according to him, “there’s no future for the country’s democracy in such a situation whereby the electoral process is monetarily and materially compromised”.
