INEC: Money Politics A Threat To Democracy In Nigeria

INEC: Money Politics A Threat To Democracy In Nigeria
Professor Mahmood Yakubu

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that Nigeria’s democracy is being threatened by the predominance of money politics.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, stated this on Wednesday at a one-day colloquium on emerging issues that will shape the 2023 general election.

The event was organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in Abuja.

Yakubu pointed out that there are three critical challenges ahead of the 2023 election, listing them as insecurity, fake news and money politics.

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“My third area of concern is the influence of money on politics and is becoming more present and the risk is that ours may soon become a plutocracy for the rich rather than a democracy for the people,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“The way money is exchanging hands is a source of concern, yes, we have collaboration with ICPC and the EFCC and only recently we renewed our collaboration with the EFCC, saying that we are going to do something together.

“However, there are two dimensions to it, when you have willing connectors it becomes a bit more difficult to contain the situation.

“On the one hand, you have brilliant examples, we all saw this on the social media in Anambra when there was an attempt to bribe voters and the women refused to accept the money and voted their conscience.”