Anambra 2025: That Vote-Buying Ruse Of The Opposition

By Angela Chimelu

The opposition parties in the November 8 Anambra State gubernatorial elections have accused Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo of vote-buying because he announced a cash reward for every ward won by his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Nothing can be more absurd than seeing the motivation of party members as buying their votes!

Governor Soludo has defended himself by revealing that he is more interested in curbing voter apathy in Anambra State than buying anyone’s vote. It’s quite remarkable that only 200,000 people voted in the 2021 election when the total number of registered voters stands at a staggering 2.8 million.

The nagging issue is that the opposition parties are not making the forthcoming election competitive because they are not campaigning at all. They are more interested in raising spurious charges like the vote-buying ruse, instead of going out in the field to woo the voters.

The backlash from the opposition parties and some civil society organizations has been countered by the astute ombudsman and deputy managing director of Thisday Newspapers in Lagos, Comrade Kayode Komolafe who stressed on Arise TV Network Press Review that the mobilization of voters does not in any way amount to vote-buying. For Komolafe, all advanced democracies in the world practice voters’ motivation and mobilization which in no way violates the Electoral Act.   

The 16 political parties and their candidates contesting for the  the Anambra governorship seat do not need to hide behind the finger of vote-buying when the election is yet to happen. It is incumbent on the newly appointed Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, to put in place all measures to ensure that the Anambra election which is his first outing is free, fair and credible.

The facts on the ground is that it is even the members of the opposition parties who are not campaigning seriously anywhere in the state that have been boasting that they had already written the results of the election! Governor Soludo had countered them with the statement that a rat cannot steal from a man who is awake.

Interestingly, those plotting to subvert the electoral process appear not to take into consideration the pivotal role of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), aka “Ogbuefi BVAS”, which was introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2021 to enhance the security and integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process. BVAS has proven to be successful at verifying Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticating voters using biometric data such as fingerprints and facial recognition thus rightly earned it the moniker: “Ogbuefi BVAS”! 

As things stand, INEC plans to deploy over 22,000 ad hoc staff of various categories to man the polling units across Anambra State for this highly significant election. There should be no room for any group to sabotage the process. All eyes ought to be on the ball, especially the  540 accredited journalists accredited to participate in the exercise.  Anambra State has a total of 5,720 polling units, and each unit, in line with INEC’s standard procedure, will be manned by four officials – one Presiding Officer and three Assistant Presiding Officers (APO I, II, and III), thus bringing the total number of ad hoc personnel to approximately 22,800. Supervisory Presiding Officers will be assigned to oversee activities at the various ward centres across the state. This way, electoral integrity ought to be assured in Anambra State.

With all these in place, any political party that does not sufficiently motivate its supporters cannot hope to win. Governor Soludo’s party, APGA, is an ever present in all parts of Anambra State. The opposition parties only exist in news releases and on the internet. Elections are not won by crying wolf about vote-buying through the activities of data boys leading the charge as internet tigers and social media warriors.

The truth of the matter is that the opposition parties in Anambra State are unserious and are actually non-existent. It is only Soludo that the people know, and the communities are competing with each other over the one that will give him the highest number of votes.

Soludo’s promised vote reward to each high-delivering ward will serve to stop voter apathy. Anambra people are very knowledgeable and sophisticated. They have been adequately sensitized on how and when to vote. Soludo is the only visible candidate. The others are neither here nor there.

Soludo remains assured of victory, as he is the only one being followed by the people. He is unapologetic in defending the monetary incentives as the booster to encourage more people to come out to vote. It is a sure strategy to boost voter turnout rather than an act of vote-buying.

Governor Soludo has sparked competition among his own supporters through these innovative rewards. Anambra that has witnessed massive voter apathy over the years will witness a new lease of life . This is a worthwhile solution coming from Mr Solution.

Dr Chimelu is a public policy analyst based in Awka, Anambra State