A CIVIL society group, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) has warned the electorate ahead of today’s Osun governorship election on the need to resist vote buyers during the exercise.
The group argued that many of the vote-buyers have alternatives of another country if Nigeria collapses, noting that vote sellers don’t have anywhere to flee to.
Speaking during a briefing with newsmen In Osogbo, the Executive Director of the WARDC, Dr. Abiola Akiode-Afolabi, explained that, “ The implication of vote-buying is far-reaching – it makes it difficult to call leaders to account since they paid their ways to the position occupied and beyond that, it affects the economy and living conditions as leaders would have no moral obligation to make life better for the citizens.
“Making public office holders accountable becomes negatively affected where the processes informing their emergence were largely compromised by vote-buying. Under such circumstances, the grip of corruption becomes quick to sight, and preventing such becomes a difficult necessity.”
Similarly, the Chairman of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, Olanrewaju Suraju tasked the electorate in the Osun States to echo the campaign against vote-buying and other forms of electoral malpractices.
“Vote trading is not a criminal act but also the root of bad governance, insecurity, and corruption, a situation which has pushed Nigeria to the brink of collapse.
Many of the vote-buyers have alternatives and may not be bothered much if the country collapses, however, as a common people, knowing that we have nowhere else to call our own, the need for a massive campaign against vote-buying cannot be overemphasized