By Festus Okoye
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Some politicians who find themselves at the rough end of mopped-up public funds used to finance what is now popularly called vote-buying have encouraged, and continue to encourage, voters to collect the funds, which they say are public funds, and to vote their conscience.
Those who encourage voters to collect illicit funds and vote their conscience assume that voters know the credible candidates in the election and that those who seek to sway them with money offer nothing in policy, programmes, or development.
Based on this understanding, the popular candidates and their supporters, who presumably are not in public office or have limited funds, encourage voters to collect whatever the presumably unpopular candidate offers in the form of money, materials, and equipment, and to vote for the popular candidates who will represent them well.
Ethically, morally, and legally, is collecting illicit funds and voting one’s conscience the right course of action in a developing society like ours? In other words, the collector knows that the money, wrappers, rice, or motorbikes being shared are products of the illicit movement of government funds and does not regard them as abnormal, appalling, morally or ethically reprehensible, or criminal.
A few things are evident in the conversation about vote-buying. Givers exploit the poverty and vulnerability of some voters to sway them into voting in ways they ordinarily would not. Some voters approached at home in the name of empowerment may not know that the funds being distributed are illicit.
They may see the giver as a generous person fighting hard in government to improve people’s conditions. Some people view the so-called empowerment materials as their share of the national cake or of looted funds. Some believe these materials may be their only gain from the four-year electoral cycle and are not at all apologetic about it.
Others do not see them as a share of the looted funds. They see them as their only gain from democracy. Some voters go out of their way to seek out vote buyers and offer to sell not only their own votes but also those of their family members and even their communities.
The challenge with modern-day vote-buying is that the empowerment materials are for show, not for actual vote-buying. The intermediaries, consultants, and contractors who handle procurement and distribution know that some will collect the materials and not show up at polling units, or collect them and vote for a different candidate on election day.
The reality is that the face, complexion, strategy, and tactics of collecting and voting your conscience have changed. The contractors, consultants, and middlemen saddled with the responsibility of delivering the votes of those who collect are failing to deliver them. Some contractors, consultants, and middlemen divert the funds and materials meant for voters, and what reaches voters is a caricature of the original intent.
Some of the voters know and decide to teach their oppressors a lesson. They collect the materials and vote according to their conscience. Or, put more succinctly, they collect bribes and refuse to fulfil their end of the bargain.
As election dynamics shift and technology becomes more widespread, candidates who corrupt the system have adopted new strategies and tactics. The concept is to see, buy, and pay. In other words, you vote for their candidate, show a thug or agent how you voted, and the thug or agent at the polling unit will make the payment.
But the vote buyers have become more sophisticated and brazen. They target the setup of the polling unit and ensure it is arranged so their agents can see how someone thumbprinted and voted. Afterwards, they give the person a tally and instruct them to collect the money at a particular dispensing point.
The agents use multiple dispensing points so that if one is busted, the rest can keep the business going. Some of the agents are not very kind or friendly. If you want the money, you complete the accreditation, and they go into the cubicle to vote for you. Afterwards, you get a tally, go to the dispensing point, and collect your money.
Election riggers and vote buyers target vulnerable polling units and communities for their criminal activities. They exploit people’s poverty, vulnerability, and willingness to trade. They rarely target communities, wards, and polling units where people are mobilised and prepared to do the right thing.
What is vote-buying, or collecting their money and voting with your conscience? What does the Electoral Act of 2026 say about vote-buying? Vote-buying is a crime dressed up in less offensive, more moral terms. It is a crime dressed up as a civil, consensual transaction.
Vote-buying is a coinage by dubious politicians bent on supplanting the sovereign right and will of the Nigerian people. No section of the Electoral Act mentions or uses the term “vote-buying.”
Section 125 of the Electoral Act, 2026 is clear and provides that any person who, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his or her behalf, corruptly makes any gift, loan, offer, promise, procurement, or agreement to or for any person to induce that person to procure or endeavour to procure the return of any person as a member of a legislative house or to an elective office has committed an offence.
It also provides that any person who, in consequence of any gift, loan, offer, promise, procurement, or agreement, corruptly procures, engages, promises, or endeavours to procure the return of any person as a member of a legislative house or to an elective office, or the vote of any voter at any election, is an offender.
Furthermore, any person who advances, pays, or causes to be paid any money to or for the use of any other person, with the intent that such money or any part of it be used to bribe at any election, or who knowingly pays or causes to be paid any money to any person in discharge or repayment of any money, wholly or in part, that was used to bribe at any election, has committed an offence.
It does not end on election day; the law still provides that any person who, after any election, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his or her behalf, receives any money or valuable consideration on account of any person having voted or refrained from voting, or having induced any other person to vote or refrain from voting, or having induced any candidate to refrain from canvassing for votes for himself at any such election, commits an offence.
Whoever is convicted of any offence listed in Section 125 of the Act is liable, upon conviction, to a maximum fine of N2,000,000, imprisonment for 12 months, or both; this applies to bribe givers and their accomplices who are disguised as vote buyers.
Section 125 of the Act makes a different provision for those who collect and allegedly vote their conscience, or do not vote their conscience.
It provides that a voter commits an offence of bribery if, before or during an election, directly or indirectly, by himself or herself or by any other person on his or her behalf, receives, agrees to receive, or contracts for any money, gift, loan, or valuable consideration, office, place, or employment, for himself or herself or for any other person, for voting or agreeing to vote, or for refraining or agreeing to refrain from voting at any such election.
It also provides that any person who conspires with, aids, or abets another person in committing any of the offences under Section 125 commits the same offence and is liable to the same punishment.
Any person who commits bribery is liable, upon conviction, to a maximum fine of N500,000, imprisonment for 12 months, or both. No matter the temptation, voters should vote according to the dictates of their conscience rather than trade away their sovereign right for short-term gains.
Voters must recognise that the current setup cannot last forever and that their ethical conduct, resilience in the face of provocation, and vigilance in safeguarding the mandate are the strongest assurances of election credibility.
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