Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recalled how his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, lost an Ogun State local government election in 1998 as a result of his rejection of plans to bribe the police and INEC staff. He claimed he was uncomfortable using the term “Nigerian factor” when discussing democracy and other issues that affected development.
Speaking on Monday at a high-level consultation he organised on “Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy in Africa,” the former president said that party leaders had advised him to set aside funds for the police and INEC. He rejected the idea, citing his conviction that police officers and INEC officials are government employees who receive monthly salaries.
The Balogun of Owu claims that he first heard of the term “Nigerian factor” during the country’s first local government election, which his party lost due to politicians’ claims that they had neglected to consider the Nigerian factor when organising the campaign.
Obasanjo stated that a hungry person would sell his vote for simply N1000 and that it is time to be realistic.
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“When things go wrong, you said the Nigerian factor. The first thing I learnt in politics was this thing called the Nigerian factor.
“In 1998, we had the first local government election. We had parties, and here in Abeokuta, we met in my office and they came up and said, ‘look, this is money for INEC, money for police.’ At a stage I said, ‘what nonsense! Is the police not being paid, and INEC too?’
“They said ‘that’s how we do it. I said ‘you cannot do that.’ So, they didn’t do that. And of course, we lost all the local governments. We lost all. And then they came to me and said, ‘Baba, you see? If you had allowed us to do it the way we used to do it, we would have won’. And I felt guilty.”
“During the next election, which was the State Assembly, I just stayed in my house. I said ‘well, do whatever you want to do, I will not be part of it’. So, I didn’t even go. But, the result was the same. One of the people who got money didn’t even distribute it to where he was supposed to distribute it.”
