As Nigerians as a people are ostensibly
determined to nurture their nascent democratic terrain, it’s expected of them
to keenly and extensively look inwards toward discovering the encumbrances
surrounding the said process with a candid view to holistically addressing
them.
It’s
not anymore news that every electioneering era across the global community,
particularly on the African continent, invariably begets a set of peculiar
stories that ordinarily aren’t meant to be harboured in the nature’s womb let
alone seeing the light of the day.
If your thought is as good as mine,
then you would agree with me that as regards financing, the Nigeria’s political
system is presently characterized by nauseous happenings, thereby causing the
innocent polity and its teeming watchers ceaseless nightmares.
This unabated and seeming acceptable activity
is cut across all elective posts, hence isn’t peculiar to when one is vying for
a particular position. For example, someone who’s aspiring for the post of the
executive chairman of a certain local government council may end up spending
millions of naira in the process and might not even secure the anticipated
position afterwards.
One may ask: what exactly are these
aspirants really financing? Officially, they are expected to finance the
purchase of their nomination and expression of interest forms. The forms as
being sold by various political parties to their respective members are reportedly
exorbitant that the prospective office holders or aspirants, in most cases,
have to borrow to foot the bills.
Aside purchase of forms and other
allied matters, the campaign process that usually succeeds the primary
elections – thus preceding the main elections – is another avenue where the
aspirants resort to indulging in money politics.
If you are well informed, then you
wouldn’t hesitate to concur with the survey that indicates that in the
contemporary Nigerian society, for instance, the citizenry have been compelled
to boldly and proudly sell their birthright for a mere pot of porridge yam.
This show of shame cannot be unconnected with ignorance and/or poverty.
It’s noteworthy that whatever uncalled
practice being showcased by the electorate is arguably attributable to the
liberty granted to the teeming politicians to ‘mess around’ while canvassing
for a given political office. It can’t be argued that every practising
politician in Nigeria that’s seeking for any position of authority has the ‘right’
to spend any sum of money in the process.
It’s worth noting that, in this case,
not just the electorate are at the receiving side. The so-called political
gladiators are equally lavished with bags of money by the aspirants in order to
buy their consent. This very act often precedes the primary election of a given
party.
All these are the cogent reason an
aspirant who’s not financially buoyant would be left with no choice than to
accept the lending hand of a godfather, which in the long run, might bastardize
his/her political career. Sometimes, it’s even the aspirants that go about
seeking for who would sponsor their ambitions.
Since politics has regrettably been
considered as an investment or business venture, rather than an avenue to
render selfless service, what else would you expect from an average politician
who eventually clinched victory at the polls? Such a person, if assumed duty,
wouldn’t fail to please the desires of the political mafia.
In
view of the above, most of the funds budgeted for various
infrastructural/developmental projects in the concerned locality might be
siphoned into the private purse of a godfather, thereby relegating governance
to the background. This singular act has overtime crippled our god-sent nascent
democracy. In a situation where the demands of the bigwig aren’t met, the
society may be plunged into shambles.
Apart
from the financial implications of godfatherism, a certain godfather might at
anytime decide to unseat his beneficiary. This kind of case was recently
sighted in Lagos State in the melodrama that ensued between the sitting
governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode and the erstwhile governor, Chief Bola Tinubu.
It has been, and is still, occurring ubiquitously.
What’s the way out of this quagmire?
First, we must completely silence the ongoing high rate of nomination form
introduced by the various parties. This can be made possible by specifying in
the Electoral Act the maximum price any party should charge for each of the
forms to be purchased by their members aspiring for different offices.
More so, any aspirant ought to be mandated by
law to declare his/her assets. Hence, after the elections, the electoral umpire
would be required to crosscheck the affected assets towards ascertaining how
much the aspirant actually ‘invested’ in the campaign activity. The aspirants
must be mandated not to exceed a certain threshold in regard to expenditure in
accordance with the position he’s biding for.
If
he’s found culpable after the thorough investigations, he would be charged to court
for onward prosecution. If found guilty, such a politician should not just pay
fine but be jailed. This would strongly help to eradicate godfatherism.
The electorate must, on their part, be
reasonable. It’s unequivocally only insane person that could freely mortgage
his/her future merely for peanut’s sake. Thus, everything centres on amending
our existing individual and collective policies. Think about it!
Comrade Nwaozor, a policy analyst
& rights activist
and the National Coordinator, of
Right Thinkers Movement,
sent this piece via frednwaozor@gmail.com
Twitter: @mediambassador
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