Vote trading, leadership and governance deficit in Africa: insights from Nigeria

Abstract

Elections, if adequately administered and if they are free, fair, and credible, are expected to usher into power competent and qualified leaders committed to good governance. However, the reality in most African countries, including Nigeria, is that elections are heavily marred by vote trading, where votes are bought and sold between politicians and electorates. Despite measures such as card readers, the redesign of currency, and the Bimodal Voting Accreditation System (BVAS), vote trading still persists in Nigeria. This has severe implications for leadership and governance deficits in that leaders who ascend power through vote buying will be busier recouping money spent to win the election than governing. Nigeria has been described as a failed or failing state due to a lack of committed leaders to transform the country from the large scale of poverty, unemployment, insurgency, disunity, inequalities, insecurity, citizens hopelessness, corruption, failing healthcare and education services, hunger, injustice, and disrespect to the law or court rulings, among others. While factors such as greed, corruption, incompetency, poor leadership skills, commitment, or ethnic considerations have been more popular as causes of the leadership and governance crisis in Nigeria, little attention has been paid to vote trading as the root cause of bad leadership and governance. Drawing on structural functionalism and qualitative methods, this article examines the effect of vote trading on leadership and governance deficits in Nigeria. It was found that good governance has been replaced with politicians’ inordinate desire to accumulate wealth and make profit from the money spent on winning the election in Nigeria. The article concludes by advancing knowledge on how to curb vote trading in Nigeria.