By Yinka Aderibigbe
Again, the voters market is here and politicians are at their wits end to circumvent President Muhamadu Buhari who seemed bent on checkmating his colleagues who are specialists in this market which make or mar the prospects on the nation’s march to prosperity.
The question on the lips of many as the nation in the next three days would go back to the polls. Will it be indeed be money free as envisaged by President Muhammadu Buhari?
Addressing Nigerians on February 16, the President had insisted the new implementation of the currency change is to help fight those who had stored a war chest of cash ready to buy out voters especially during the Presidential election.
Though he did not mention any name, a cross section of Nigerians are not in doubt about who he meant and are even at daggers drawn, with some accusing President Buhari of being an ingrate, for trying to destroy the same ladder with which he climbed into prominence and the nation’s number citizen.
One of the 18 presidential candidates flying the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at a point during his campaign circuit frontally accused the Federal Government of targeting him. He said some elements in the presidency were against his ambition and are doing everything to stop him on the race which he is sure to win.
Though the Presidency denied the accusation, there was no doubt the intention of the policy was meant at some politicians who are ready to make this the most expensive election cycle in the annals of Nigeria. A governor was said to be miffed that the N22 billion he has statched away to use for this election.
From the outset, the 2023 election had appeared the most expensive. Only few of the political parties refused to cash in on the Naira rain and took a slice from the deep pockets of politicians who have seen many cycles of elections and are well heeled for this.
The prominent and major political parties did not make that mistake, afterall they were the parties to beat. While the major opposition party pegged its forms at N50 million, the ruling APC sold its aspirants form for the exalted office of President at N100 million. Even at that, no fewer than 25 members came forward to purchase the non-refundable fee form.
Though the total input that went into the campaign train are still being compiled, those in the know would readily admit that this had been the most expensive campaign circuit ever in the history of campaign shows in Nigeria. The logistics that went into mobilising people at each of the campaigns would be in the region of trillion Naira. Most especially a campaign run all through a season of scarcity of fuel and skyrocking increases of transportation and refreshments.
But of utmost concern to Mr president is even the threat posed by vote buyers.
President Muhammadu Buhari had thought the best way to curb this or at least reduce it to the barest was to force down on Nigerians throat, a regime of new currency notes.
The project, which started the last quarter of 2022, was first mooted to see the old currency’s lifespan come to an end on January 31, 2023. The CBN rolled out new high denomination notes of N200, N500 and N1000.
But it would seem, the ingenuity of the Nigerian politician as a con artist has found a way round the conundrum set to curb its prolific antics.
On his Twitter handle this morning, the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, one of the governors who had dragged the Federal Government to the Supreme Court on the proprietary of the forced directive on the currency change had tweeted that politicians do not need money to bribe voters. How true? For him, knowing that the Federal Government had blocked that route, they could get the people through food.
In both Kaduna and Kogi food bags were freely on parade, being distributed by canvassers to any prospective voter. Inside a bag which Sunrise viewed on a video which went viral recently, a man showed the content of one of such bags, which had rice, beans, garri, indomie, spaghetti, oil, groundnut oil, maggi, salt, sugar and milk, all in sachets. The bags have a mixed support of items.
In Lagos, the government gleefully announced the commencement of distribution of food palliatives which began last week and would run until after the presidential election on Saturday. If that is not vote buying in a more choreographed manner, one wonders what is.
The Lagos State Government said the move is to assist the poorest of the poor in the society to overcome the present challenges. It also announced a 50 percent reduction on all its public transportation systems – all BRT buses, all FMLM buses, and all ferries are affected by the new fare cut which is held until after the election.
Senator Shehu Sanni in his tweet has also indicated that politicians who ought to be ashamed that their antics are being exposed by their leader and President have even gone digital. Many, he said, bent on vote buying, now collect the bank details of prospective voters and credit them with the sum assured in exchange of their votes.
At least the majors in this election seemed to have sworn to square it up Naira for Naira and dollar for dollar. One of the presidential candidates is said to have a huge war chest of N500 billion starched in his house just for the presidential election alone.
The candidate who has publicly declared that the election has been a lifelong ambition is said to be leaving nothing to chance in the bid for the nation’s number one job. Until the President’s broadcast, he was at the frontline, trenchantly demanding that the CBN direct that all old currencies are to remain legal tender until the new ones circulate across the country.
Many politicians have continued to demonstrate their war chest especially during campaign circuits. Those who can afford it ditched the Naira completely and opted to be raining dollars on voters. In many cities in the Southwest, it was dollar rain on many of those campaign trains.
A distinguished Senator who is switching from Lagos to another state as a senatorial candidate was said to have been raining dollars to silence his opponent at the polls. An eye witness and a member of his campaign train told Sunrise News: “It is the poor that are suffering this cash crunch. These politicians do not feel it, it is dollar rain anytime we go on campaign here. At least anyone who comes to our campaign knows he will go home with at least one dollar. We are ready to fight money with dollars and it does not look like it will dry up.”
It is clear the politicians are a step ahead of President Buhari and are not disposed to sanitizing the polity and ridding it of the jaundice of moneyed politics. For them, Nigeria even in its prostate state is still very vibrant and a cash cow to be milked and nothing will stop them from their enterprise.
They remain the greatest enemy to the polity and the greatest threat to the emergence of the best materials to help rework the nation and stop the bleeding by restoring its sanity and hope. Will the rebuilding start with this new cycle as envisaged by Buhari? Time and the outcome of Saturday’s election will tell.
· Aderibigbe, a media analyst and social critic lives in Osogbo, Osun State, Southwest Nigeria.