“Vote buying will continue if electorates are impoverished” Says Dr Oyebade Oyedepo, JP
The issue of vote buying which has characterized election system in Nigeria will continue unabated as people are impoverished.
This submission was made by Dr Prince Oyebade Oyedepo, FCA, JP when he featured on a current affairs program titled, Crest Breakfast Show held this morning anchored by Ace Broadcasters, Damilola Amoo and Samuel Fatokun.
Dr Oyebade Oyedepo took a swipe at the performance of INEC in the last election conducted at FCT, Abuja claiming nothing has changed positively from what we had in the past.
According to the finance expert and policy analyst, we still experienced technical glitches, voters’ apathy, votes buying, militarization of the system etc during the last election at FCT in the same way we had it previously so nothing has changed.
In order to redress the situation, the political parties, INEC, Government and the people should rise up to do the needful.
The political parties should carry out intensive and consistent voters’ education for several months before election to arouse the interest of the people towards voting. INEC should restore the confidence of people in the electoral process. The Government should fix infrastructures to guide against technical glitches, they should provide good governance to encourage people to come out to vote. In the same vein, government should be intentional in fixing the economy in such a way that people will no longer be dependent on peanut from politicians to buy their conscience during elections. He appealed to the consciences of those in government to do the right thing for the sake of posterity.
Dr Oyebade Oyedepo opined that people also have critical roles to play in making the electoral process to work by coming out to vote during elections irrespective of what they are experiencing as discomfort.
Dr Oyebade Oyedepo counselled the Federal Government against making opposition ineffective. According to him, there should be virile opposition to put the government in power in checks.
He also advised the government across board to ensure that the three arms of government are independent of one another.
The members of public should also recognize distinction between the three arms. They should not request the legislators to execute projects just as the executive arm.
There should be seamless allocation of resources to the three arms to guarantee checks and balances.
This will make them to be completely independent of one another for real development to happen.
