The truth is that vote-buying will continue to be used as a weapon in the hands of unscrupulous politicians unless the state makes a deliberate effort to stop it. Vote-buying thrives when people are very poor and thus vulnerable to monetary inducements. It is a tool used to weaponize poverty by corrupt politicians who loot the peoples commonwealth with reckless abandon. It is a paradoxical situation where people loot public funds and turn round to use such proceeds to induce them so that these looters can continue in their thievery. It thrives where corruption overwhelms the state that it is used to dictate the shape of statecraft. A system which allows corrupt politicians to seize the commanding heights of leadership can only be sustained through vote-buying. Vote-buyers operate like mafia and cabals and fiercely fight any policy designed against vote-buying as we are currently witnessing in Nigeria. The CBN and the Commercial banks collude to undermine the efforts of the president against vote-buying.

The new Naira notes are scarce to get by bonafide customers of banks, yet they are surplus in the homes of our unscrupulous and desperate politicians together with equally unscrupulous elements who spray them at social events and parties. What has played out has shown that politicians can throw shame to the dogs in their desperate desires to achieve power and political ends. They can lie to no end while putting on boldface as if all was well. These politicians spin false narratives of patriotism when in actual fact they are opportunists and prebendal zealots. Those who constantly remind us that we are NORTHERNERS, SOUTHERNERS, EASTERNERS AND WESTERNERS rather than NIGERIANS are bigots who must not be allowed into NATIONAL LEADERSHIP. All patriotic Nigerians owe it as a duty to stop these bigots by NOT VOTING FOR THEM AND THEIR ENABLERS.

The following techniques can be used to frustrate vote-buying on the d-day:

1) No voter should be allowed to approach the polling booths and any voting area with TELEPHONE, CAMERA, ANY COMMUNICATION GADGET AND ANY ELECTRONIC DEVICE.

2) Security Agents should arrest any person trying to or offering any monetary or material inducement to voters whether they are standing on the lines or outside the lines.

3) Security Agents should burst the house or space where the inducement monies and materials are kept and seize the monies while arresting the culprits.

4) Security Agents should cordon off polling areas from people who are not officially supposed to be there no matter how highly placed.

5) Security Agents should sniff out vote buyers in any polling jurisdiction because they won’t be hard to find.

6) Security Agents are deemed to be successful and effective in their election duties ONLY IF THEY STOP VOTE BUYERS by arresting those found to be engaging in the exercise.

7) Vote-Buyers are NOT INVISIBLE SPIRITS BUT HUMAN BEINGS who can be caught and arrested.

8) No person no matter how highly placed should be allowed to move from polling station to polling station under the guise of monitoring situations unless on official ELECTION DUTIES.

9) Any unauthorized person moving from polling station to polling station is a VOTE BUYER OR ACCOMPLICE because this is how they operate. Security Agents should arrest such a person to serve as deterrent.

10) Security Agents should arrest those who bribe their ways in order to undermine RULES SET INEC. They should see this as a national call for posterity yet unborn.

Our political leaders such as presidents, governors , cabinet members, parliamentarians, etc. should see themselves as Nigerians, not as Northerners, Southerners, Easterners ,Westerners or based on their geographical locations. Anybody no matter how highly placed who defines himself based on his natural geographical location is an ENEMY OF NIGERIA no matter his current station in life. It is time we fished out and shamed these bigoted pretenders who are in fact the real enemies of our NATIONALITY. The president is the leader of Nigeria and deserves the respect and support of all Nigerians irrespective of political party affiliation, it therefore becomes surprising if attempts to disrespect and humiliate him is coming from his own party. It is not out of place if the president promises the nation a free and fair election because due to the very weak institutions that we have in Nigeria, the reach of the president is very wide. The current APC administration came on board because the former president GEJ kept faith with the free and fair elections which he promised the country in 2015. People should remember this cliché made popular by ; ‘MY AMBITION IS NOT WORTH THE BLOOD OF ANY NIGERIAN’. It behoves the current president to use the standard set by his predecessor as a benchmark and improve on it for an enduring democracy. While it can be blamed on ignorance when an ordinary Nigerian views fellow Nigerians on the bases of the geographical locations of their places of birth, it is outrightly condemnable when a president or governor echoes such sentiments just to achieve immediate political goal not minding the harm it does to the fabric of our nation. Furthermore, I have seen that some brilliant TECHNOCRATS ARE TERRIBLE POLITICIANS. PASSING SIX IS NOT PASSING SENSE is a refrain I regularly heard from my late GRAND MOTHER. I now know the meaning.

Those who are fond of dividing this country just to gain immediate political advantage against their political opponents should be called out and condemned. It is time we shamed ethnic bigots who aspire to national leadership. Fifty years is enough time to achieve full healings and it is time to make conscious efforts to stop bigots from attaining commanding heights of leadership in this country playing on the sentiments of the events of the late 1960s. People who constantly remind us of the events that led to the Nigerian Civil War as a perpetual grudge should be SHAMED because they are the real enemies of Nigeria.

We need a PAN-NIGERIAN and UNIFIER as a leader to achieve peace, harmony and even development. We need equity and justice . Those who eulogize the ROTATION PRINCIPLE MUST DO IT ACCORDING GEOPOLITICAL ZONES. As a corollary, at this time, rotation to the SOUTH MEANS THE SOUTHEAST GEOPOLITICAL ZONE because it is the only geopolitical zone in the south that is yet to produce the president since 1999.. A rotation to the NORTH SHOULD MEAN NORTHEAST GEOPOLITICAL ZONE OR NORTHCENTRAL GEOPOLITICAL ZONE because they are the only two geopolitical zones in the north that is yet to produce the president. Anything outside these is DOMINATION AND CONQUEST. The protagonists of this unfair principle are not PATRIOTS BUT DISHONEST OPPORTUNISTS.

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Godson O. Moneke, a quantity surveyor, economist, sociologist, administrator and sociopolitical advocate wrote from Abuja.