The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has warned that money politics is endangering Nigeria’s democracy ahead of the general elections in 2023.
Money politics is becoming more prevalent, according to Yakubu, who believes that Nigeria’s democracy is on the verge of becoming a plutocracy for the wealthy rather than a democracy for the people.
On Wednesday, he appeared at an event in Abuja organized by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
The INEC boss said that some of the challenges the commission is facing ahead of the 2023 general election are insecurity, fake news and money politics.
Yakubu said, “My third area of concern is the influence of money on politics and is becoming more present and the risk is that ours may soon become a plutocracy for the rich rather than a democracy for the people.
“The way money is exchanging hands is a source of concern, yes, we’ve collaborated with ICPC and the EFCC and only recently, we renewed our collaboration with the EFCC, saying that we’re going to do something together.
“However, there are two dimensions to it, when you’ve willing connectors it becomes a bit more difficult to contain the situation.
“On the one hand, you’ve brilliant examples, we all saw this on the social media in Anambra when there was an attempt to bribe voters and the women refused to accept the money and voted their conscience.”
