BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has said that it may be difficult for the vex issue of vote buying to be dispensed with, unless the media put enough pressure on politicians. The governor who was speaking on the second day of the 2018 Nigerian Guild of Editors’ Conference identified two major factors aiding vote buying in the country.
The factors are the desperation of members of the political class to win elections at all cost and the poverty of the electorate.
The governor said, “When people are poor, it will be difficult to guide against vote buying.” Okowa also said the nature of party politics in Nigeria promotes distrust thus encouraging the electorate to take tokens in exchange for their votes. He was contributing to discussions on the theme of the conference, Credible Elections, Sustainable Democracy And The Nigerian Media.
However, he believes that the a major way to checkmate sharp practices at election is to ensure that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC is allowed to be truly independent. Here he has the support of Ali M. Ali, special adviser on media to the Bauchi state governor who said that getting a credible election is dependent on the unbiased nature of the umpire.
But explaining further, the governor said the electoral umpire should be financially independent.
This he said was necessary to guide against manipulation by politicians who could use the release of funds as a bait to compromise INEC. He said, “The average politician wants to be greedy, the average politician wants to win at all cost, but the truth is you (editors) must put us under pressure , so as to get a free and fair election next year.”
