Media scholar, Farooq Kperogi, on Tuesday said ‘vote-buying abilities would sadly determine who would win the 2023 presidential election’.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that vote-buying was the order of the day in all the Local Government Areas (LGAs) and polling units in Ekiti State as reported by observers in the recently-conducted gubernatorial poll. The election was won by Biodun Oyebanji of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
And with less than nine months to the general elections in Nigeria, public commentators like Kperogi fears the same scenario might play out in the presidential election which has heavyweights like Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu, Peter Obi, among others.
“If what happened in the Ekiti State governorship election is any guide, the party that will win the 2023 presidential election would be the party that bribes voters the most,” Kperogi said in a statement.
“Even people who sang passionate anti-APC songs on election day, according to news reports, buckled under at the sight of wads of naira and voted for APC!
“I no longer trust social media and environmental signals as reliable predictors of parties’ performance at the polls in 2023.
“Vote-buying abilities, not mass support or rigging, would determine who would win in 2023. Sad but true.
“Omoyele Sowore is right to redefine PVCs as “Poverty Verification Cards.” With Nigeria being the Poverty Capital of the World, millions of people will verify their cards for the highest bribe givers.
“Instant monetary gratification is more important to a poor person writhing in unspeakable existential torment than the illusory promise of deferred gratification.
“And that’s precisely why people in power have a crucial self-interest in keeping the populace poor, powerless, and amenable to manipulation through bribery on election days.”
