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A social democrat and stalwart of All Progressives Congress (APC) based in Port Harcourt, Kingsley Wenenda Wali, alleges that vote buying which poses a serious danger to Nigeria’s nascent democracy, has been codified and giving legal backing in the name of appointment/employment by the River State government few months to the 2023 elections.
Wali, the Convener of Unity House Foundation (UHF), made the assertion in an online leadership for growth and development TV show where he was featured as a guest.
According to the APC stalwart, “You cannot have true democracy in a state where people are fundamentally poor because it is poverty level that determines how people vote. A guy who is not sure of how he is gonna feed tomorrow will definitely collect whatever he is given to buy his vote. He would say at least let me hold this one. The vote buying which INEC is opposed to, is being codified in Rivers State. They are giving legal backing to vote buying. For example, the government in power says they are going to employ about 100, 000 people and they will pay them from the state coffers. And what does that tell you coming at this time? It is assumed they have one hundred thousand votes already long before the election starts. If they say each and every one of them should make sure by December he has one more person that is going to vote, that is 200 thousand votes. And it is backed by law.”
Continuing, he added: “Is it not poverty that will make a man accept maybe 5000 naira a month as salary just to do what is against his conscience? Don’t forget that they had 8 years to do this so-called employment, but they didn’t employ people until a few weeks to the election, you are now buying them with perhaps 5000 naira as monthly salary. You just ask people to bring their PVCs, no interview was done in any way. What other right name do you call that if not vote-buying? For 8 years you didn’t employ 100000 youths. A few weeks to the election you are going to give them probably 5000 naira every month as employees or appointees of government to buy their votes.”
The UHF Convener, however, said APC will not be intimidated by whatever tactics being applied by the Rivers State government to muscle the opposition in the state as the election draws closer.
He said: “What I will tell them is this, we are going to turn that their money to our advantage. It will happen. That is why they don’t want competition. They don’t stand a chance. I dare the ruling party (PDP) in Rivers to open up the space and allow people to freely campaign. If you have performed so well and you are so strong, and APC does not exist in Rivers State like they would always say, then, allow us to campaign!
“The APC in Rivers State is one family. We have taken the challenge and we are blessed with a candidate that is believable, totally reliable and completely acceptable to the people. We are not like parties where the candidates are hiding behind another person’s fingers and scared of coming out to say I want to be governor. Why would anybody be scared of coming out to say I want to be governor? If you want to be governor and you have a ticket to be governor, what would you do? You will be campaigning and not hiding behind somebody’s fingers. It is obvious that they are scared of competition. The APC is willing and ready to do everything that is legitimate to win the election. And we will definitely be in a position to make Rivers people proud.”
