2023: Stakeholders Move against Vote Buying

*CSO urges women to get their PVCs to perform civic responsibility

* SERAP urges Buhari to arrest politicians allegedly buying PVCs from voters

Chuks Okocha, Udora Orizu, Emameh Gabriel in Abuja and Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

With the 2023 general election just 67 days away, some stakeholders have reacted with increasing alarm to news of possible vote buying by politicians, warning that there would be consequences.

The fresh reactions came as a civil society group focussed on development, Connected Development, called on women to get their permanent voter cards (PVCs) ready to enable them exercise their civic responsibility in the election and beyond.

Former presidential candidate of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Chief Albert Owuru, advocated stringent punishment for vote buying. Owuru spoke on Saturday in Abuja at the launch of his books titled, “A New Africa,” and, “The 18 Laws of Ballot Revolution.”

Describing vote buying as inhumane, Owuru said stringent penalty would serve as a deterrent to persons who might be tempted to engage in the act. He added that people needed more sensitisation to understand the sanctity of the ballot.
Owuru stated, “That INEC material appears to be a mere paper but on the election day, that is the ballot that qualifies you as a citizen to speak, that is your voice and what you have to use in determining who rules over you.

“So, you don’t give out that power you have, you don’t sell it and the law must be made to provide stiff penalty, such as life imprisonment. If you buy or sell your vote, you have erased yourself as a citizen.”
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) urged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, and appropriate anti-corruption agencies to identify and arrest politicians allegedly buying PVCs from poor Nigerians and bring them to justice.

SERAP also urged the president to ensure that politicians involved in what it called the electoral and human rights crimes of PVC purchase and their sponsors were named and shamed, regardless of their political affiliations.
In a letter dated December 17, 2022, and signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said buying of PVCs from poor Nigerians was a threat to fair and representative elections. The group said it amounted to undue and improper electoral influence.

SERAP stated in the letter to Buhari, “We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within seven days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest.”

Similarly, a non-governmental organisation, Youth and Media Network Organisation (YOMEN), launched a campaign against vote buying and vote selling, saying the problem with Nigerian election is more with “vote selling than vote buying”. Chairman, Board of Trustees of YOMEN, Emenike Eme, said this on Friday in Abuja while speaking with journalists. Eme, who spoke through another arm of the organisation, Ready-To-Vote, aimed at addressing voter apathy and disabuse the minds of the youth and the electorate, generally, said it target audience was the youth.

Eme explained that the problem with the country’s electoral process was not vote buying but the willingness of the electorate to sell their votes to intending buyers.
The YOMEN chairman stated, “A number of things work against our elections in this country. One is voters’ apathy. The other one is what is commonly called vote buying.

“In YOMEN, we don’t see vote buying as a problem. Let me shock you a bit. Why do we say it’s not a problem? Vote buying is not the problem, the problem is vote selling, because if you go to the market now to buy a product and you don’t find that product, I know you won’t buy sand.”
Meanwhile, Connected Development, while calling on women to ensure they collect their PVCs to enable them discharge their civic responsibility, said possession of PVC was the only weapon they had to effect genuine change and install good governance in the country.

Ambassador Hamza Lawal, an international election monitor, made the call at the weekend in Okene, Kogi State, at a programme for the empowerment of over 400 women, as part of sensitisation advocacy to the grassroots on the need to sustain the existing peace and collection of PVCs.
Addressing the beneficiaries, Lawal said the empowerment was a token to appreciate women for their support in ensuring that the community remained peaceful at all times.

“Now that the PVCs are ready, we should mobilise women door to door to sensitise them on the need for them to collect their cards from INEC office in their respective local government areas,” Lawal said.