THE BANE OF AMALA POLITICS IN AFRICA
One of the most abhorrent aspects of democracy as practiced in Africa lately is the way votes are commodified for electorates by politicians seeking office. I call it Amala Politics, the term originally credited to the strongman of Oyo politics at the early return to civil rule in Nigeria, Baba Lamidi Adedibu, whose palatial abode, aside serving as party secretariat of sort, was also a place you could be assured of a plate of hot amala and gbegiri soup after the business of the day’s politicking. Since Baba’s demise years ago, his brand of amala politics has reincarnated in national politics every election cycle, where politicians with brazen confidence make provision (call it voting “allowance”) for whoever will cast his or her vote for them — what we derisively call in Western Nigeria “Dibo ko sebe”, translated as Vote and Cook Soup.
This unfortunate situation which is against electoral law of the land became more pronounced as each election cycle came and went, with each political party seeing electoral victory as a DO OR DIE affair — a golden opportunity to be the sharer of national treasury with its attendant finger-licking opportunities. Seeing how lucrative political offices are, politicians from our clime gladly invest humongous amount of money to secure their elective post, including money for motivating voters to vote for them. Hence during elections, covert means are deployed to influence voters to vote and be paid for doing so, thereby discrediting what ought to be the sanctity of the mandate earned by virtue. In these instances, amounts of money as paltry as N5000 has allegedly been paid to voters to buy their conscience and rob them of a tenure of good and virtuous leadership. The matter of vote buying so agitated ex-President Muhammad Buhari that at the last election, he ordered for redesign and temporary scarcity of Naira weeks to the General Election, believing naively that paucity of funds could discourage politicians from offering “pocket infrastructure” to delude and defraud voters. The results of the election showed how successful the ex-President was in his lofty aspiration.
The unvarnished truth remains that for our democracy in Africa to develop and be truly progressive, national governments must ensure that sanctity of the VOTE is protected against violation by power hungry politicians. Electoral laws must be observed in obedience and not in breach. The situation where voters are suborned with money to cast their vote not only rob the mandate of popular legitimacy, it also allows for unqualified candidates to represent the commonwealth. It is my fervent hope that the current government across Africa will firm up the regulations around elections and make elections to public offices credible for the people. This is because experience has shown candidates validly elected by the people usually feel accountable to them and have the drive to deliver dividends of democracy to their constituents. The reverse is true for election stealers and vote buyers whose sole intention usually is to loot the commonwealth and defraud the state treasury.
To close, I believe we all have the duty to educate the grassroot peoples of Africa on the value of their vote. The magic of democracy is tied to the VOTE and our people must be educated to value this civic asset and apply it judiciously during election time. Influencers, leaders of thoughts, statesmen and other important personages of the commonwealth should also add their voice to the call for FREE AND FAIR ELECTION and teach the grassroots people to eschew the practice of expecting voting payment from politicians and reject offers of money to buy their voting conscience. Overall, efforts should be made to arrest, arraign and jail whoever is caught offering money to buy votes in further elections to come so that the progress of our democratic journey can liken to others walking same destiny as us.
Cheers!
WSO
References:
(1) Naira redesign has minimised money influence in politics, says Buhari | TheCable
(2)Stopping vote-buying is Nigeria’s lost battle, by Tonnie Iredia — Vanguard News