A civil society organisation, Yiaga Africa, has urged the Federal Government to criminalise electoral fraud in order to sanitise the country’s electoral process.
The Executive Director of the CSO, Mr Samson Itodo, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.
Itodo stated that practices such as vote buying, violence, thuggery, and result manipulation had constituted a serious hindrance to electing credible political representatives in Nigeria.
“What we are now seeing is people with purchasing power buying their way through during elections and the replacement of competence with mediocrity.
“Politicians now know the language of the people because they have weaponised poverty,” he said.
According to him, what the country now needs are stringent laws that will criminalise vote buying, thuggery, and other forms of electoral fraud.
Itodo said that the provisions in the Electoral Act currently address bribery and conspiracy, which are insufficient to tackle the menace.
“I think we need to clearly outline and define vote buying, and also prosecute the sponsors and their agents who are buying and selling votes.
“We also need to constantly reorientate people and explain to them why the politicians are buying votes,” he said.
The Executive Director said that if these measures were implemented and people used their votes wisely, it would ensure credibility in the country’s electoral process.
According to him, until the state begins to prosecute and jail those instigating and perpetrating violence, nothing will change.
“The majority of the political class want power at all costs and are willing to kill just to secure it.
“One of the ‘sins’ they said Yiaga Africa committed was exposing these frauds. For me, if that is a sin, I shall commit it many times over.
“That way, people can hold them to account. But if we continue to allow our electoral process to be captured by political actors, we will get to a point where only one per cent of people will turn out to vote,” he added.
Itodo, while stressing the need for Nigerians to vote en masse during elections, said that the current level of voter turnout cannot bring about change.
“If Nigerians show up in large numbers, I bet you, they will determine the outcome of such elections. It is easier to rig an election when people don’t show up.
“If people show up and insist that the right thing be done, then it will be difficult for those people to manipulate the process,” he said.
