Vote-buying Enterprise and Voting Behaviour among Electorate: Evidence from Southern Nigeria

Abstract

This paper specifically reviews activities of political parties in terms of voters’ inducement during elections period in Nigeria. The paper deconstructs voters’ inducement as political economy created to attract electorates purposely to swing votes to benefit political party. The paper relied on secondary data retrieved through content analysis. It was evidently established that political parties in Nigeria especially the case in Edo, Ondo and Ekiti State, discretely engaged in voters’ inducement which come in the form of financial and material gifts. Financial gift was often distributed during voting period such that eligible voters were whisked and wooed by parties’ agents to swing votes. Some willing voters negotiated depending on the highest bidders. Yet some voters grabbed the opportunity to create economy for themselves such that they invested the fund in small scale business and ventures to survive. Besides, mega political parties with robust financial elbow were fingered as major perpetrators of voters’ inducement. Some voters apparently were overshadowed by the inducement due to tight economic condition and poverty. This paper recommends voters’ education to enlighten electorates and expose the consequence. The role of the media, church, mosque and schools is indispensable in this situation.