The article below was written when PDP held sway. But, has anything changed since then?
Influence of Big Money In Nigerian Politics, By Bámidélé Adémólá-Olátéjú
Politics is speech, money is also speech, but whose money speaks in politics? In politics, money is not just speech, money is power! It was revealed that Mr. Jonathan spent N2trillion on his failed campaign to secure his return to office. We have no idea how much the All Progressives Congress (APC) spent on the campaign trail for General Buhari to win for comparison. However, we witnessed the open bribery of monarchs, Church leaders, community leaders, militants and anyone they could find.
The issue of campaign finance is a difficult one in politics. It is more difficult in a country with a high index of intergenerational poverty like Nigeria. The high cost of political campaign for office seekers and the present ways of meeting the costs ties the hands of elected officials because they must recoup their investments by pandering to the whims of moneybags, godfathers and special interests who funded their campaigns. A politician cannot represent the interests of his or her community/constituency when he has solicited and taken contributions from special interests to finance a costly election. Such politician can only be governed by a sense of obligation to his/her benefactors. From the 2015 campaigns at all levels, we have seen that the infusion of cash has great ability to influence electoral outcomes.
That is the reason why cash and kind inducements in our democracy poses a significant challenge to the idea of equality expressed in the “one man, one vote” principle upon which strong democratic ideals are built. In Lagos State, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) opened the cash spigot for Jimi Agbaje and it almost won the state for them. It is also on record that Governor Rahman Mimiko of Ondo State paid voters at the polling booths N1,000 each, and every voter who took the cash inducement presented evidence that he/she thumb printed for the umbrella, the PDP logo. When moneybags, special interests, businessmen and money stolen directly from the treasury have greater power to influence elections than the average voter, it means the outcome of elections can be determined by the amount of money spent on political campaigns. For this singular reason, the influence of money violates the principle of equality that is fundamental to any democratic government.
Read full article here.
Conclusion
With recent happenings on the political turf of the nation, it could be safely said that APC is now beating PDP to the game! So nothing has really changed as far as money politics is concerned. It is like PDP like APC.
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