Former Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi, has charged Nigerians
to stop selling their votes as the 2023 general elections draw closer, asking
them to ensure sanctity and secrecy of the ballots.
Sanusi expressed worry that some Nigerian voters are in the
habit of displaying their thumb-printed ballot papers as an evidence to trade
their votes to politicians.
Sanusi spoke virtually during the 4th anniversary lecture of
Penpushing Media held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL),
Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Speaking on the annual lecture themed, ‘Social Media
Regulation: Insecurity and Elections Accountability in Nigeria,’ Sanusi said
the recent governorship elections held in Osun and some States came with some
improvements, saying, however, that vote buying had been on the increase.
The leader of the Tijjaniyya Islamic Movement in Nigeria
said Nigerians need to join hands in ensuring the sanctity and secrecy of their
votes in 2023.
According to him, there was a lot to be done to stop rigging
and subversion of people’s wishes through the institutions that were supposed
to be officially neutral like the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), the police, the judiciary and the security services.
These institutions, he alleged, “have all too often proven
themselves to be rigging tools in the hands of politicians to undermine the
will of the people.”
While calling on Nigerians to be vigilant, he asked the
institutions to respect their mandate by remaining neutral to ensure justice
and fair play.
“One of the major ways in which elections are being
subverted in the new acts is the policy of vote buying and this is a lack of
respect for the law on secret ballot,” he said.
The Founder, Penpushing Media, Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji advised
journalists to always engage in thorough investigation so as to to avoid the
spread of fake news, warning Nigerians against abuse of the social media.
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