{"id":101538,"date":"2023-11-21T09:57:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T08:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo"},"modified":"2023-11-21T13:37:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T12:37:54","slug":"how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo","title":{"rendered":"How we lost election for not bribing INEC, police \u2013 Obasanjo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recalled how a political party, the Peoples Democratic Party he belonged to in 1998 lost a local government election in Ogun State because he rejected plans to bribe the police and personnel of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).<\/p>\n

Obasanjo said party leaders had told him that there should be money allocated for the police and INEC, saying he rejected the proposal on the belief that INEC officials and policemen are government workers earning salaries monthly.<\/p>\n

The former President spoke in Abeokuta on Monday at a high-level consultation he organised on \u2018Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy in Africa\u2019.<\/p>\n

The African leader had told politicians and professors at the debate that he is not always comfortable with the phrase, \u2018Nigerian factor\u2019, when discussing democracy and other issues affecting development.<\/p>\n

According to him, he came across the \u2018Nigerian factor\u2019 slang when the nation held the first local government election and his party lost because politicians said be refused to take cognisance of the Nigerian factor while planning for the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen things go wrong, you said the Nigerian factor. The first thing I learnt in politics was this thing called the Nigerian factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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, \u2018look, this is money for INEC, money for police.\u2019 At a stage I said, \u2018what nonsense! Is the police not being paid, and INEC too?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said \u2018that\u2019s how we do it. I said \u2018you cannot do that.\u2019 So, they didn\u2019t do that. And of course, we lost all the local governments. We lost all. And then they came to me and said, \u2018Baba, you see? If you had allowed us to do it the way we used to do it, we would have won\u2019. And I felt guilty.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the next election, which was the State Assembly, I just stayed in my house. I said \u2018well, do whatever you want to do, I will not be part of it\u2019. So, I didn\u2019t even go. But, the result was the same. One of the people who got money didn\u2019t even distribute it to where he was supposed to distribute it,\u201d Obasanjo recounted.<\/p>\n

The octogenarian emphasised that the Western liberal democracy being practised in Africa has not really taken human nature and the African situation into full account.<\/p>\n

While saying it is time to be realistic, the Balogun of Owu said a hungry person will sell his vote for just N1000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are hungry, whatever anybody tells you cannot go in. Poverty is a great enemy of democracy. Ignorance or lack of education is a great enemy of democracy. And we seem to be deliberately fomenting poverty and lack of education,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recalled how a political party, the Peoples Democratic Party he belonged to in 1998 lost a local government election in Ogun State because he rejected plans to bribe the police and personnel of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Obasanjo said party leaders had told him that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":101537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[1570,2140,251,254,479],"class_list":["post-101538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-inec","tag-nigeria","tag-obasanjo"],"yoast_head":"\nHow we lost election for not bribing INEC, police \u2013 Obasanjo - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recalled how a political party, the Peoples Democratic Party he belonged to in 19 ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How we lost election for not bribing INEC, police \u2013 Obasanjo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recalled how a political party, the Peoples Democratic Party he belonged to in 19 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-21T08:57:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-21T12:37:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2023\/11\/sm_1700553913.004447.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"How we lost election for not bribing INEC, police \u2013 Obasanjo\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-21T08:57:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-21T12:37:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo\"},\"wordCount\":489,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2023\/11\/sm_1700553913.004447.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"INEC\",\"Nigeria\",\"Obasanjo\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-lost-election-for-not-bribing-inec-police-obasanjo\",\"name\":\"How we lost election for not bribing INEC, police \u2013 Obasanjo - 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