Media scholar, Farooq Kperogi, on Friday said poor voters who collect money from Nigerian politicians during elections should not be shamed because “election time is the only opportunity they have to get anything from people in power”.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Kperogi argued that Nigerian politicians are all the same.
He cited example of President Muhammadu Buhari, who crowdfunded pre-2015, and “hasn’t accounted for the money up to now”.
“I’ve never understood the logic behind the moral shaming of poor voters who accept money from politicians during elections,” Kperogi said via a social media post.
“Politicians who bribe voters, those who don’t, and those who ask for donations from voters (such as Buhari) are indistinguishable. They all oppress and alienate the poor when they get to power.
“In fact, Buhari, who collected hundreds of millions in donations from poor people (which included the N1m life savings of a Kosai/akara-selling Kebbi woman who died in penury a few years later) that he didn’t use for campaigns and that he hasn’t accounted for up to now has turned out to be worse than the politicians who bribed voters.
“That’s why Dele Momodu’s crowdfunding initiative to finance his presidential run is receiving such a massive backlash online. People haven’t recovered from Buhari’s crowdfunding fraud.
“For many voters writhing in unspeakable existential turmoil, election time is the only opportunity they have to get anything from people in power.”
