As the 2023 General Elections in Nigeria draws closer, the need for different key actors, such as Media, Journalists to be at the forefront in ensuring that the whole process is Transparent, Accountable, as well free from all Electoral misconducts by political Parties, Candidates, among others is pivotal.
This was observed by the coordinator, Anti-Corruption engagement of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre( CISLAC), Samuel Asimi, during a workshop in Abuja for Journalists on political integrity and political party Accountability Reporting organized by CISLAC under the “Strengthening Accountability Networks Among Civil Society (SANCUS)” project.
He said Journalists as a critical player in the process are to ensure they report issues on the political integrity, accountability, conduct investigation, and push for political Parties, Candidates, Aspirants to comply with the Electoral Act in other to end the era of ‘Dirty Money’ in Nigeria’s politics.
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Asimi stressed that, by so doing, the use of money Politics would be reduced, Instead, a Politics of ideology and ideas.
According to him, “As we are getting close to 20230, it is imperative for us to engage the media around the issues of Political Accountability, Political Integrity, political party campaign financing, this is because, we need to ensure the abundance of ‘Dirty money’ which we currently see in Nigeria’s politics as evidence in Anambra election, where vote-buying was very high as reported by credible organizations among other observers is reduced to the nearest minimum or stopped totally.
Once we have dirty money in politics, you will discover that candidate who has what it takes, who have good road map, Strategic plan can not come and participate because a good amount of them don’t have big pocket, and lots of these funds are not legitimately earned by this individual who owned it, they can’t justifiably defend it, so, what you realized is that people who have what it takes are sifted out of the competition because they don’t have money”.
In his welcome remarks, the Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, noted that the role of journalists and the media could not be overstated. As defenders of our democracy and our anti-corruption interventions, we believe it is essential to work with the media.
He explained that The SANCUS project, implemented by Transparency International Secretariat through its chapters in twenty-one countries and supported by the European Commission, aims to improve the democratic accountability of public institutions globally by empowering CSOs to demand systemic change address accountability and anti-corruption deficits.
“CISLAC/TI Nigeria is currently implementing this project with the focus on solving the core problem of dirty money in Nigeria’s politics, which perpetuates a culture of lack of accountability and corruption for power preservation and self-enrichment.
A significant threat the SANCUS projects seeks to address is the ever-increasing and soaring problem of dirty money in Nigerian politics, which suggests a high level of impunity among politically exposed individuals who seek to gain power and accrue wealth through illegal means”.
Continuing, “We have seen from the recent Anambra elections how vote-buying was rampant as observed by credible.
The UNODC, in its 2019 bribery reports, stated that one out of every four Nigerians was approached to sell their votes in the last election cycle. This creates room for citizens not to trust the system, thereby ushering in voter apathy”.
He further observed that the workshop aims to train reporters on how to report on issues of vote-buying, political integrity effectively, and political party financing and accountability, especially as the electioneering season approaches, saying it will help achieve the outcome of the SANCUS project.
A Veteran journalist, Jaye Gaskiya, who took the participants through some provisions in the 2010 Electoral Act, said the laxity and lack of capacity of INEC to track all the processes and identify breaches and issues of Non-compliance with the relevant provisions of the Act, among others are the challenges of accountability in Nigeria’s Electoral processes.
Therefore, he recommended that there is a need for deploying a robust mechanism by Media for tracking and monitoring election expenses of political parties and candidates and election contributions.
