Democracy rests on a very simple truth: citizens should be able to choose their leaders freely, without pressure, fear, intimidation, or anyone inducing them by dangling money in front of them. Across the world, elections are used to determine how strong a country’s democracy is and has become. But here in Nigeria, it is different, and it seems something troubling is quietly taking root.
What used to be an open secret has now grown into a defining feature of our elections. Vote-buying is no longer an occasional problem; in fact, it is becoming a norm and the pathway for election victory. And nowhere was this more obvious than in the just concluded 2025 Anambra governorship election.
What happened in the Anambra election wasn’t new, and that is precisely the problem with the recent reality of Nigeria’s democracy. Like most elections in Nigeria, the Anambra governorship election wasn’t different; it started with early inducements of potential voters through customised gifts, food items, vouchers, and money.
By the time people started queuing up to vote, security agencies had reportedly arrested several individuals for sharing cash with voters. Reports indicated that sums ranging from ₦15,000 to ₦30,000 exchanged hands in different local government areas. With voters reportedly being offered between ₦15,000 and ₦30,000 in different local governments, people are swayed, and their choices begin to change. Some agents didn’t even bother to hide; they walked around openly with envelopes and bundles of notes, trying to buy the loyalty they could never earn through genuine service. The report of this unfolding felt like witnessing a slow disaster, one that threatens to swallow whatever is left of our democratic values.
Elections are gradually shifting from an expression of choice to a simple exchange of money.
Vote-buying is not just a crime under the law; it is an insult to the dignity of citizens. It weaponizes poverty in a way that leaves voters choosing between their conscience and their need to survive. With the rising cost of living squeezing families from every angle, it’s easy to understand why some people take the money. But what is gained in the moment is nothing compared to what is lost. Collecting ₦15,000 today means losing the moral right to demand accountability tomorrow.
Once votes are exchanged for cash, leaders no longer answer to the electorate; they answer only to their own ambitions and the people who funded them.
And this is not a uniquely Anambra problem. Nigeria’s electoral story has long been stained by ballot snatching, rigging, and intimidation. But the rise of monetized elections is a more sophisticated danger. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t break windows. It doesn’t make the headlines the way violence does. Yet it quietly eats away at the very core of democracy.
The “see-and-buy” method witnessed in Ekiti in 2018 and Ondo in 2020 has now become a nationwide strategy embraced by desperate politicians. Instead of stuffing ballot boxes, they simply stuff pockets, and the damage is even harder to reverse. They do not hijack ballots anymore; they hijack the freedom of choice.
The consequences are heavy. When money overshadows ideas, competence, and character, elections stop being a contest of ideas, vision, and a mission to deliver good governance, transparency, and accountability to the people. They become markets. In such a market, only the rich or the heavily sponsored stand a chance, no matter how incompetent they may be.
Leaders who spend millions to win elections inevitably seek to recover their investment, which fuels corruption and weakens governance. And ordinary citizens, seeing elections as opportunities for small financial gains, lose faith in the entire system.
The Anambra election is a wake-up call. It exposes a painful truth: vote-buying now poses a greater threat to freedom of choice than many of the traditional electoral problems we fear. It deepens poverty, distorts political competition, and erodes the sacrifices of those who fought for democracy in this country.
But the situation is not hopeless.
Institutions like INEC, the EFCC, and civil society groups must step up, not only by making arrests but by addressing the deeper roots of the problem. Nigerians need sustained voter education that goes beyond slogans. People must understand that selling their vote means selling their future.
At the same time, the government must confront the harsh economic realities that make voters vulnerable in the first place. Until poverty is reduced, money will continue to speak louder than manifestos.
Democracy should offer every citizen a moment when their voice carries the same weight as that of the wealthy and powerful. The ballot used to symbolize that equality. Today, that symbol is fading. If Nigeria continues to normalize vote-buying, we will lose more than elections; we will lose our freedom, our future, and the soul of our democracy.
It is time, once again, to reclaim the freedom to choose.
.Ogundeyi is executive director, Institute for Free Market and Entrepreneurship West Africa,
Ibadan Nigeria [email protected]
+2349035930050
