VOTE SELLING: WHY BLAME THE POOR?

Vote commercialization is the result of a strategic programme by politicians to inject poverty in the electorate at every point in time leaving them with no other option than to sell their votes to the highest bidder on the day of election. Why do you think that most government programmes don’t always alleviate, but always elevate the problems of the poor? When politicians openly say “Dibo ko sebe”, you should capture the pun in the fun. Don’t let us deceive ourselves by thinking that any censure of the hawkers can achieve any constructive dissuasion– at least, not for now. Vote buying and vote hawking have formed a synergic partnership in our political culture because the buyers know that there will always be sellers on election day since the sellers are creations of their “penurious programmes”. On the other hand, the sellers know that there will always be buyers on election day because that is the only day and avenue they can profiteer the desperation of the vote buyers. It is good to sermonize to both the buyer and the seller on the destructive tendency of such heinous practice on our political system but will they change? When a voter sells his/her vote for as low as N3000, does that not show irredeemable poverty?  After engaging a vote seller in a two-hour homily on the implication of his action to the future of his children, and, at the end of the preachment, you couldn’t console him with just N2000 for “wasting” his time, when he gets to the polling booth and finds a vote buyer who is ready to solve his immediate need with N3000, he will not only sell the vote, he will even complement the sale with elaborate display of gratitude to the buyer. Let’s be realistic, as much as we desire idealism, it will be elusive for as long as we all indulge in sophism that discountenances realism. As elite, our self-righteousness is responsible for our incessant pontifications and the unjustified contempt we have for the poor. Yes, we can laugh at a man selling his vote. Yes, we can condemn him for even selling it for as low as N3000. We can mock his poverty. We can deride his condition. But who are the people responsible for his sorry state?  The rulers. Who are these rulers? The politicians. Who are the politicians? The elite. Who are the elite? You and I. When you mock a man who sells his vote so that he can “sebe”(cook), you should know that we, the so-called elite, have failed the crowd thronging in the paradise of hell. Why are we lambasting the weak for selling their votes when most of us are friends to those buying the votes? Who should we talk to? Let us even concede without admitting, that we should talk to both. Where should we start from? Is it not pharisaical to start from the poor with intemperate desires and exploitable vulnerability? We meet and see our friends regularly. They are the ones tempting the poor. They are the ones buying the votes. So, why can’t we start from there? Simple: we do not want to offend our friends or put our relationship with them in jeopardy because there is every possibility that we are going to be beneficiaries of the “purchased electoral victory”. We will gallivant the streets as “friends to the governor”. We will submit CVs for political appointments. We will lobby for contracts. This is the truth. But what do we want from the poor? Nothing. The poor have nothing to offer us. Therefore, we can lambast them. We can chastise them.

Dapo Thomas, Lagos