Nigeria’s democracy is being threatened by money politics, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Insecurity, fake news, and money politics are among the challenges facing INEC ahead of the 2023 general election, according to Mahmood Yakubu, who spoke at an event organized by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in Abuja on Wednesday May 25.
He stated,
“My third point of concern is the growing influence of money in politics, which poses the possibility of our country becoming a plutocracy for the wealthy rather than a democracy for the people.”
“The manner in which money is exchanged is a matter of concern; yes, we collaborate with the ICPC and the EFCC, and we recently reaffirmed our partnership with the EFCC, stating that we will work together on something.”
“However, there are two dimensions to it; when you have willing connectors, containing the situation gets a little more difficult.”
“On the one hand, you have beautiful examples; we all witnessed this on social media in Anambra when there was an attempt to buy votes, and the women refused the money and voted according to their conscience.”
Apart from announcing that the commission has been meeting with security agencies to address the issue of insecurity, Mahmood also stated that the panel would endeavor to be as transparent as possible during the elections to avoid allowing fake news to spread.
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