Political Issues
Ekiti Governorship Polls: A brazen ‘cash-for-votes’ exercise, ANRP states
ABUJA, 15 July 2018 — Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) accepts the results of the Ekiti gubernatorial elections conducted yesterday, congratulates the INEC-declared winner Dr John Kayode Fayemi, and wishes him the best in his 4-year term in service of the good people of Ekiti state.
The Party is appreciative of the efforts of the election umpire, INEC which tried hard to a conduct peaceful and transparent elections, and also notes the seamless handling of logistics around the election which led to a quick turnaround with early collation and announcement of the final results.
ANRP however expresses displeasure at the high level of thuggery and intimidation (with clear evidence) that occasioned the said election.
The Party also expresses deep concern on the practice of vote buying which has become a culture and the norm, most especially by political parties with access to public funds, whether at the state or federal levels. The Party fears for the grave danger this practice portends for our society.
Earlier in the year the Party wrote 2 letters to INEC entitled: ‘Letter of Complaint and Request for INEC to Closely Monitor Election Financing of Political Parties’, and ‘Request for Clarification on the Consequences of Early Campaigning, Spending Above Campaign Approved Limits, and Vote Buying by Parties and Candidates’, both dated 18 May 2018, submitted and duly acknowledged on the same day. Unfortunately INEC, the election monitoring body neither replied to our communication nor took the messages in the correspondence seriously, leading to the show of shame that was on display yesterday.
What the world witnessed was a brazen ‘cash-for-votes’ exercise, which openly took place before INEC officials, the 30,000 police; 19,997 Civil Defence Corps, and other security operatives. Elections for sale whereby the highest bidder carries the day is akin to a death knell on our democracy. What we have presently is a democracy for sale; a democracy that perpetuates ignorance, poverty, violence and underdevelopment.
This ugly trend is entrenching the practice of corrupting the system to earn illicit money in order to buy votes from an impoverished and psychologically damaged populace, offering bad governance, gaining illicit wealth in the process and repeating the cycle. This practice cannot be sustained.
ANRP applauds the sacrifice and patriotism of the men and women, members of our great Party who pounded the streets of Ekiti, knocked on doors, ran our Call Centre making thousands of telephone calls, sending text and other messages; and all those who invested their time and emotions, as well as sacrificed their hard-earned money in order to make ANRP win in this race to provide good governance in Ekiti. The Party particularly thanks Mr Tunde Afe and Mr Kazeem Sanusi, governorship and deputy governorship candidates respectively for their patriotism and sacrifice. Their outing was spectacularly brilliant. The Party, all her members and supporters are proud of them. None of these sacrifices shall be in vain.
The Party is already conducting a postmortem of her performance at the polls. She shall return to the drawing board in order to restrategise, apply the lessons learned, and come out stronger.
ANRP boldly restates her commitment to building a genuine grassroots political movement that thrives on openness and transparency, sound ideas and open debate; values, principles and patriotism, as well as inclusion of all. She is a party for the present and the future. The Party understands that salvaging Nigeria is NOT a sprint but a marathon. She is in this patriotic endeavour for the long haul, and therefore remains unfazed at any seeming setbacks. The Party remains committed to staying true to her cause.
The Party wishes our dear country healing, reconciliation, and progress, especially Ekiti state. ANRP restates her commitment to working the new administration in Ekiti in offering ideas and other input as may be requested.
Join us. Learn more about us at: www.anrp.org.ng and Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and SoundCloud: @AbundantNigeria
Sesugh Akume
National Spokesman
Office Telephone: 09064796674 (9 am – 5 pm)
Email: nationalspokesman@anrp.org.ng
