Stakeholders, on Wednesday, expressed fears over the manner politicians have monetised the nation’s electoral process, describing it as a dangerous trend.

The stakeholders, including the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, and his predecessor, Prof. Attahiru Jega, raised the concerns during a one-day colloquium with the theme, “Emerging issues that will shape the 2023 general elections in Nigeria”, organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development and Open Society Initiative for West Africa.

At the event, Jega warned INEC against altering the timetable for the 2023 elections, including shifting the deadline for primaries.

Yakubu said politicians using money to sway delegates to their sides during their primaries, the increasing insecurity across the country, and the menace of fake news had become matters of concern to INEC.

He, however, assured stakeholders that INEC would work with anti-graft agencies to reverse the trend.

Yakubu said, “Nigeria is moving towards Plutocracy. But there are two dimensions to it. It becomes much more difficult to control the situation when you have willing collectors. We have seen cases where voters reject money and vote for their choice, like what happened in Anambra. Also, there are situations where voters go after the vote buyers on election day.

“However, it is now going beyond simply the question of buying votes at polling units. What political parties do is critical to what INEC does. INEC conducts secondary elections, but it is the candidates who participate in the secondary elections.

“The way money exchanges hands is a source of concern. However, we have renewed our partnership with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission on this aspect”.

He said that the commission has finalised the regulations and guidelines for the 2023 general elections, adding that “about 430 million ballot papers would be printed for the 2023 elections.”

Jega said although there have been increasingly positive changes in INEC over the years, the political class has made many efforts to undermine the integrity of elections.

While commending INEC for refusing to yield to the pressure of political parties to change the timetable for elections, Jega said the timetable was set under a process of careful contemplation and in the context of the new electoral law.

He said shifting the timetable is a recipe for electoral disaster “because it affects virtually all the others once you shift one timeframe.”

He berated the National Assembly for increasing the threshold of campaign finance by political parties.

Also speaking at the event, Senior Fellow, CDD, Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim, decried what he termed the “extensive growth of banditry within the political class.”

He said elections in the country would always become a complicated issue when a significant percentage of the political class are crooks and criminals.

Ibrahim maintained that the open partisanship of Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, was sufficient enough to mar the credibility of the 2023 elections.

However, the National Chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council, Yabagi Sani, defended the cost of nomination fees collected by parties, adding that parties need funds to print posters, pay staff members and organise campaigns.