Op-Ed

[PERSPECTIVE] Vote Buying: A Frankenstein Monster

ByGuest Writer

PublishedJuly 3, 2026

By Smolette Adetoyese Shittu-Alamu

Google tells us that “an election is a decision-making process in which a portion or all of a given population vote to choose an individual or multiple individuals to represent them.”

There are different types of elections. We may talk of general elections, in which the entire country goes to elect people who will represent them at various levels, be it presidential, governorship, or legislative. There may also be primary election in which a political party allows its registered members who want to contest at any level for a given position, to sort things out among themselves within the party.

Whoever comes out of such a duel, becomes the Candidate of such a party. In such election, contestants move from being aspirants to become the party’s nominee or candidate.

Thus elections are an important component of an entire process called democracy. Without regular elections, true democracy is no more what a population or a nation practices as its type of government. It is something else.

One extraneous factor that has reared its head in the electoral process in Nigeria, is vote buying and selling. Voting as we have found out, constitutes the cornerstone of democratic governance. It serves as a major mechanism of the selecting process.

Even though Vote buying and selling is one of the many plans politicians craft to win elections it is not restricted to Nigeria nor to the African continent alone, the level politicians have carried this practice to in the last 30 years or so, is very unbecoming. It has dominated almost every election Nigeria has conducted since the birth of the 4th Republic.

In the last three years, there has been no election in Nigeria in which vote buying and selling has not intruded negatively.

“Dibo koo sebe” is a Yoruba expression that simply encourages the Nigerian voter to vote so that he could make money to eat. Its counterpart exists in every Nigerian language. In all the languages, the expression encourages people to buy or sell votes so as to be able to keep body and soul together. It does not matter to them where the consequences of immediate personal gains would lead the nation to in the end.

The selfish nature of man takes over in vote buying and selling. What becomes of the nation’s plight after the election has been won or lost, does not appear to concern vote buyers and sellers. Their personal comfort for the now, is all they hanker after.

In the just concluded Ekiti State Governorship election that held on Saturday 20th of June, the Frankenstein Monster called “Vote buying and selling” was said to have come up as forcefully as it has been over the last three decades or so.

When election observers troop out on every election day to perform their duties, they do come out in the end to issue reports.

Those reports are not meant for the now, but for the future. The reports they issue after an election are only meant to help protect future elections. Some how in Nigeria, both the leaders and the led have always failed to make do with such cases the observers make. Reports that the public had after the Ekiti Governorship election were loaded with opposition parties’ and even citizens complaints about election malpractices.

They ranged from pre-election day intimidations and a show of intolerance from the ruling party even up to the day of election. There were also complaints of the Electoral Umpire (INEC) being in league with the police in the discharge of their duties.

Equally, there were complaints about BVAS malfunctioning in some polling centres. Election observers last Saturday put the functionality of BVAS at above 86%. Ordinarily, that may look good but is it really? If one juxtaposes the 86% success said to have been recorded with the disappointment and frustrations voters who cast their votes within the 14% catchment areas where the BVAS malfunctioned or failed completely, one would or could be emotive on behalf of those electorate.

But if we must ask, is vote buying and selling only or always poverty induced? We do not believe so. Yes, poverty in the land contributes to it. But was vote buying and selling not with us 25 to 30 years ago when the level of poverty in the country was not this high?

We think that what has led to, and continues to add some fillipe to the cancerous malady are two: The first is the trust deficit which our leaders suffer from their followers. These days many Nigerians don’t believe nor trust their leaders. This explains why the act of buying and selling of votes has become the new norm. Secondly the act, is a behavioural attitude.

The human being is pathologically a selfish individual. He loves to profit from every intervention he is involved in.

The third reason is our country’s rather wapped reward system. Over the time, authorities have not only looked the other side when anti-election conducts and infractions are committed or performed. With the exception of a few, elections held in recent years, (the last Ekiti Election inclusive), media houses have almost always reported cases and instances in which election malpractices had been reported and the culprits arrested.

But how many of them have been tried, found guilty and punished for their misdeeds? Not many. May be only a few. This is the root cause or the reason the menace has not died away.

Until and unless this country prevents people in authority from standing against the gradual but sure grinding of the law, we may never get-off the hook with which vote buying and selling has held our nation’s jugular by.

Even though the result of the Ekiti Election in which the APC candidate and sitting Governor, Abiodun Oyebanji scored over 319,000 votes showed to all that he and his party (the APC) were the party to beat in the concluded election, it must be and remain a lesson to the opposition and a reminder for them to learn to close ranks in future. While the APC Candidate recorded over 319,000 votes the totality of all votes which the 14 other candidates garnered was not up to 25% of what the winner, Governor Abiodun Oyebanji had.

We are a little bit worried that in performance ratings the Anambra Election of November 2025 was higher than that of Ekiti on the overall. Those who know better tell us that Ekiti as the land of the fountain of knowledge is very much noted for voter apathy and that the 39% voters who came out to vote did not reflect s voter apathy situation given the history of the state.

To this end, stakeholders must ensure that the Osun off-cycle Governorship election that comes up on 15th of August 2026, must record a higher performance rating than what Ekiti presented last week.

The reason is that Ekiti election was less competitive in terms of the popularity of the candidates for the governorship election. But the stakes in Osun Election in August are high, very high. Because of this the tendency is that it would be a very tensed exercise. If Osun 2026 will be high in tension the General Elections in January 2027 will be much more competitive.

Therefore, stakeholders and in particular the Electoral Umpire INEC, must get their acts right. The Frankenstein Monster which vote buying and selling has become in our voting or electoral process must be tamed before it rides on to become a tragic figure or our country’s national electoral tragedy.

Just us the larger society of the world rejected the fictional creation of the arrogant scientist, Victor Frankenstein’s postulation which the whole world has come to call the Frankenstein Monster, we are of the view that the Nigerian Society must strive hard to reject vote buying and selling, before that growing monster gets even more driven by vengeance and swallows us all in a no distant future.

Smolette Adetoyese Shittu-Alamu, a veteran journalist writes from Osogbo

The opinions expressed in this publication are solely those of the author. It does not represent the editorial position or opinion of OSUN DEFENDER.