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One of the greatest challenges battling the African part of the world is the challenge of overseeing credible elections or as popularly called ‘free and fair elections’. Electoral malpractices has become a mainstay in electoral processes and it’s become a normal scheme among desperate politicians seeking to beat one another to the mantle of political leadership. Election periods in this part of the world are greeted with fear of loss of lives and chaos by the masses and it’s near impossible to hold elections without any record of malpractices and conflicts.
There are various methods and tactics employed by filthy politicians in wrongly turning the electoral tide in their favour but it is worth noting that ‘Poverty’ has undoubtedly and unquestionably aided the quest of such politicians in achieving their aim and as they use it to their own advantage.
According to the popular saying ‘a hungry man is an angry man’ but this time, a hungry man is not only angry but also desperate to quench his hunger and due to his desperation, he would go to any length to solve his problems even if it means doing it the wrong way. It is here that the role of poverty comes to play as the hungry and desperate man is offered food by the filthy politician in exchange for his (politician) selfish desires which as a result leads to electoral malpractices.
It is of no secret that conquering poverty is the greatest challenge facing Africa as a whole. The larger populace is engulfed in poverty as it’s become a daunting task for the masses to feed themselves due to varying agents of poverty and the high cost of living just to mention few of the factors contributing to the cause of poverty.
Truly, the aggregate of the solutions to be proffered in solving the problem of poverty are to be done by Government which is unfortunately made of politicians of different sorts, which means the greatest challenge is not even poverty itself but the challenge of electing or choosing the good set of individuals or preferably ‘politicians’ to occupy the important offices that makes up the Administration as ‘a good set of politicians makes up good government which in turn leads to good governance’. The populace obviously knows this but poverty has pushed them to the limit that they no longer care whoever wins or secure there support as long as they are well paid or even given a token depending on what is required of them. As a result, they engage in acts such as;
Buying and Selling Of Votes
As noted earlier, politicians make full use of the level of poverty amongst the masses and offer large or ridiculous amount of money to buy off the votes of electorates. This has become so popular during elections up to the extent that opposing parties engage in the act as one of their filthy election tactics and they accuse one another of buying votes to turn election results in their favour. The helpless electorate who needs to put food on his table sees it as an opportunity “after all, it’s just one vote” is the ignorant words of consolation he mutters to himself.
Hooliganism or Political Thugs
This is mostly common among youths. A young educated man who tried very hard and passed through the rigorous and complicated stages of schooling before getting his degree or certificate and is unemployed becomes desperate to secure a good style of living or at least secure an income to feed himself. And as a result of the accustomed problem of unemployment is thrown some cash by the desperate politician in exchange for the utilisation of his ability, brain and even his life in wrecking havoc and conflicts to overturn election results and he in turn grabs it with both hands without thinking back and forth on the implications and damage it might cost him “after all, I need to survive” are the words of courage he mutters to himself.
These and other related acts are what people engage in as a result of poverty and the need to survive. Little do they know that the aftermath consequences outweigh their selfish interests.
When votes are sold to the wrong individual for money, the individual in turn places his own interest above those of the masses as he works towards recuperating the money spent and getting more than double of his spending thereby tossing the promises he made to the people in the water and as a result, the entire populace is left to suffer the consequences.
The thoughtless youth giving away his life and energy for a selfish course is made to suffer the consequences by either losing his life or forfeiting any part of his body and most alarmingly, his future and that of his generation all in the name of curing his hunger.
We need to sit down and ask ourselves “is the selfish interest of the politicians worth jeopardising the lives of our various generations?”. Why seek a temporary solution by giving away our rights and value all in the name of hunger when we can withstand our predicament for the greater cause of vanishing our problems forever?
To solve the issue of election malpractices and secure a better leadership which will in turn lead to the alleviation of poverty and yield an improved style of living, the entire African electorates needs to understand that the power to choose the Leadership solely fall on their shoulders and it is their responsibility and as a result, they need to be careful and sure of their choices and not give their mandate or support in any form for money but for the benefit of their ‘Fatherland’.
