The obscene monetisation of Nigeria’s politics

 

Introduction

Politics everywhere is a money guzzler. It is a very capital intensive project for those who dare to venture into it. Actually, unless you dare to contest election, you can be in politics as mere hanger-on and bench-warmer, only attending meetings and volunteering as vote canvassers to contestants during elections. But once you declare your aspiration to contest for any political office both within the party structure or in a general election, the dynamics change. Constituents, acquaintances, friends and family will turn your house and office to a “Mecca” where they can get freebies. The moment you become aspirant, everybody believes you have tonnes of cash to give out and they will be readily available to cash out on you.

The preparation for the seventh general election in this Fourth Republic which started on May 29, 1999 has commenced in earnest with the Independent National Electoral Commission announcing February 25 and March 11, 2023 as the new dates for the polls. Being a rule based exercise, INEC reeled out the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for 2023 General Election on Saturday, February 26, 2022. Some of the key activities and their dates of implementation are as follows:  Publication of Notice of Election – Monday 28th February 2022; Conduct of party primaries, including the resolution of disputes arising from them – Monday, 4th April 2022 to Thursday, 9th June 2022; Submission of nomination forms to INEC via the online portal for Presidential and National Assembly election – 9.00am on Friday, 10th June 2022 to 6.00pm on Friday, 17th June 2022; Submission of nomination forms to INEC via the online nomination portal for Governorship and State Assembly elections – 9.00am on Friday, 1st July 2022 to 6.00pm on Friday, 15th July 2022; Commencement of Campaigns by political parties for Presidential and National Assembly election – Wednesday, 28th September 2022.

Other activities include: Commencement of Campaigns by political parties for Governorship and State Assembly elections – Wednesday, 12th October 2022; Last day of campaign by political parties for Presidential and National Assembly elections — midnight on Thursday, 23rd February 2023; Last day of campaign by political parties for Governorship and State Assembly elections — midnight on Thursday, 9th March 2023; Presidential and National Assembly elections – Saturday, February 25, 2023; and Governorship and State House of Assembly elections – Saturday, March 11, 2023.

2022 Party Primaries in focus

Party primaries are the processes by which political parties nominate their standard bearers or candidates. It starts from announcements of dates for the purchase of Expression of Interests and Nomination Forms, screening of aspirants, and conduct of primaries for the cleared aspirants.   For the 2022 exercise, it held from April 4 – June 9. Even though there is a 2 months’ window to conduct the primaries most of the political parties conducted the intra-party elections in the last two weeks. Before a political party can conduct its primary, it has to give INEC 21 days’ notice according to section 82(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, submit soft and hard copy of its membership register to INEC at least 30 days to the party primary according to section 77 (3) of the Act and also submit list of its elected delegates to INEC at least seven days to the party primary.

Section 84(2) says “The procedure for the nomination of candidates by political parties for the various elective positions shall be by direct, indirect primaries or consensus.” For the benefits of readers, for Direct Primary all members of the party are involved in the election of the party’s standard bearer. This election takes place at Ward Level according to section 84(4) of the Act. Thereafter, special Conventions or Congresses shall be held to ratify the candidate with the highest number of votes at designated centres at the National, State, Senatorial, Federal and State Constituencies, as the case may be.

For the Indirect Primary, it is an electoral college system where elected and or statutory delegates vote to pick the party’s candidate. According to section 84(8) of the Act “A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidate shall clearly outline in its constitution and rule the procedure for the democratic election of delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting.”  As per the third mode of party primary known as Consensus, the Act in section 84(9) says “A political party that adopts a consensus candidate shall secure the written consent of all cleared aspirants for the position, indicating their voluntary withdrawal from the race and their endorsement of the consensus candidate”.

Abuse of Indirect Primary

In the just concluded party primaries, most political parties chose Indirect Primary as their mode of candidate nomination. The rationale behind this being that many of the political parties do not have credible membership register. Most of them also do not even have the members. According to INEC sources, there is a political party with just 1,500 members nationwide. Indirect primary is also less cumbersome and cheaper for the political parties to conduct. This is because unlike direct primaries which takes place at Ward Level (there are 8,809 Wards in Nigeria), Indirect Primary takes place at one chosen location. While many of them may have preferred a consensus mode, the fact that other aspirants have to withdraw in writing and also endorse the consensus candidate makes it dicey especially if there are many aspirants.

On the flip side, as good as Indirect Primary is, it is prone to corruption, inducement and gross abuse. What transpired in the last couple of weeks in the dominant political parties viz. All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) attest to this. Using the presidential primaries of these two political parties as a case study, it clearly showed that the winners of their presidential tickets were the highest bidders. Corruption started with the election of delegates. In many instances, there were no elections. Power brokers simply write names of their loyalists and pass it on to their party headquarters who themselves sent it to INEC. In fact, there was a purported court order asking that Akwa Ibom delegates should not be accredited to vote at the just concluded APC presidential primary in Abuja.

There were myriads of media reports of heavy inducements of delegates of the PDP and APC during their May 28 – 29 and June 6 – 8, 2022 presidential primaries respectively. On May 28, 2022 a presidential aspirant under the umbrella of PDP, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen stepped down from the race, describing the primary election contest as “obscenely monetised”. The PUNCH newspaper on June 2, 2022 reported that a People’s Democratic Party national delegate from Kaduna State, Tanko Sabo, donated over N12 million he got from the party’s presidential primary to the less-privileged in the Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna. According to him, he made a promise to his constituents to give back whatever monetary benefits he got at the PDP primary if elected as a delegate.

The Peoples Gazette newspaper in its June 7, 2022 edition reported that delegates from Adamawa and Ogun disclosed to it that they received cash gifts from Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the newly elected APC presidential standard bearer. At least five delegates from both states told The Gazette in separate interviews that they were offered American banknotes to support Tinubu and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The delegate provided information under anonymity to avoid being accused of anti-party conduct that could carry severe disciplinary measures. Whereas Tinubu gave Ogun delegates $25,000 each to induce his acceptance as the party’s presidential flag-bearer, Adamawa delegates said they received $10,000 each from Tinubu’s surrogates. Despite its widespread manifestation, law enforcement authorities have had little success with cash-for-vote schemes during primary and general polls because they are difficult to establish. A politician may deploy hundreds of agents via proxies to give money to delegates or voters but disavow involvement in case of arrest or public humiliation.

In case anyone thinks this inducement of delegates is limited to the supposed big political parties, there was a tweet from Dr. Ope Banwo on June 9, 2022 which reads “Most delegates who voted for Dumebi Kachikwu an unknown ADC candidate who has not shared any vision, no manifesto, no campaign, no visibility at all over @MoghaluKingsley by collecting $100 each were YOUTHS. Makes you wonder if youths were really different from the old school.”

What does the law say about bribery and inducement in electoral process?

Section 121 of the Electoral Act 2022 criminalises the offence of bribery and conspiracy and says anyone who commits the offence is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of ₦500,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both. Section 127 of the Act talks about “Undue Influence” and says “A person who — (a) corruptly by his or herself or by any other person at any time after the date of an election has been announced, directly or indirectly gives or provides or pays money to or for any person for the purpose of corruptly influencing that person or any other person to vote or refrain from voting at such election, or on account of such person or any other person having voted or refrained from voting at such election; or  (b) being a voter, corruptly accepts or takes money or any other inducement during any of the period stated in paragraph (a), commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of ₦100,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both.” Section 88(2) – (7) also pegs campaign finance ceilings. For instance, presidential candidates are not to spend more than N5bn on their campaigns.

Impact of obscene monetisation of Nigeria’s politics

There’s no gainsaying that turning Nigeria’s politics to a bazaar will promote corruption and impacts negatively on good governance. These aspirants and candidates shelling out huge amounts to ‘buy’ their way into elective political offices are not ‘Father Christmas’. They see politics as investment from which they hope to reap bountifully. When they finally succeed in buying their way into office their main pre-occupation will be to recoup their political investment. Thus, campaign promises nay dividends of democracy are kept in abeyance. This high monetiation of politics also means that people of noble ideas and ideals but little financial means will find it difficult to get elected into office.

Way forward

There are a number of steps to take if we are to sanitise the electoral process. Despite the obscene amounts allegedly spent by the standard bearers of APC and PDP to emerge victorious, the argument can be made that they were not yet candidates as they are aspirants until nominated and the ceiling on campaign expenses affects only candidates. There’s therefore need to factor what they spend as aspirants and even pre and post-election litigations as part of their campaign finance. This will need further amendment of the Act. It has been suggested that political parties should henceforth bear the responsibility of logistics for delegates ranging from their transportation, accommodation and feeding rather than leaving such to party moneybags who trades with them. It is also here suggested that Political Parties should be the one to pay for the services of Polling Agents rather than passing the bill to candidates. There are 176,846 Polling Units now, if an agent is to be paid N10,000 each for their services on election day, the amount payable to them is gargantuan.

There is also the need to criminalise third party spending on behalf of aspirants and candidates.  Many clever politicians are contesting elections using phantom groups and surrogates to spend on their behalf so that such expenses are not traceable to them. We saw this recently when many of the aspirants claimed their friends or associates bought their nomination forms. Instead of anti-corruption agents going to the venue of party congresses and conventions to arrest those who will be inducing delegates or voters, they should carry out sting operations at hotels and governors’ lodges where the sharing of the money to delegates take place. Above all, there is need for government to double down on poverty and unemployment. Otherwise, in the next round of elections, contest to be delegates will be fiercer than those of party standard bearers.

Jide is a development consultant, author and Public Affairs Analyst.