Vote me, I feed you

Nigerians in Edo sold their votes for loaves of bread

Sep 23, 2024

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- Margaret

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Share your responses with us and if we think it’s fun enough, we’ll feature it in the newsletter :) So be on the lookout.

Let’s get into the news you missed during the weekend:

Nigerians in Edo sold their ~~birthright~~ civil right for loaves of bread
Ghana is no longer Nigeria’s mate – it now has a Gender Equality Act!
FG is finally ready to pay your new minimum wage

The Big Deal

Nigerians in Edo sold their birthright civil right for loaves of bread

Here’s a little trigger warning if you’ve still not gotten over all the mess that happened during the presidential election in 2023. ICYMI, the Edo governorship election took place during the weekend and for an off-cycle state election, it was just as messy as the presidential election.

You’ve probably seen tweets from popular Afrobeats musician Davido and other Nigerians calling out the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for inputting wrong voting figures. But it would be a miracle if that didn’t happen. We can’t think of a time that these allegations have not surfaced in all the 26 years of INEC’s existence.

INEC wasn’t the only troublemaker influencing the results of the Edo elections though. The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR) also noticed that voters were being offered bribes at polling units. And no, the bribes are not the regular bags of rice that go around during elections like this.

Edo residents pulled a classic Esau move and sold their votes for loaves of bread and as little as ₦5,000 to ₦10,000. Even though the group added that two vote traders were arrested in one of the polling units, we’re not handing anybody cookies for that because it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

While NCSSR was being a bit too careful with its report, another civil society group, Yiaga, said “I’ll use my @” and added that the vote traders were party agents of the leading All Progressive Congress (APC), and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Why is this a big deal?

“Free and fair election” in Nigeria is slowly becoming buzzwords that hold no water. In 2023, Nigerians, especially youths who made up 75.39% of total voters, were determined to switch things up by holding INEC accountable and electing the people’s choice but we speak very carefully when we say that it ended in violence, frustration, and tears. Since then, there’s been increased voter apathy and close to zero motivation for the 2027 elections. For people who still had some faith in the system, we imagine that these allegations of vote buying in the Edo elections must be discouraging.

Vote buying has been around in Nigeria for a long time, but there are levels to these things; the recent elections in Edo seem to show the worst of it yet. Typically, people would sell their votes for bags of rice, garri, and vegetable oil but the value of everything else seems to be going up except the price of Nigerian’s civil rights.

It might be safe to say that politicians are now taking advantage of the fact that Nigerians are hungrier now than ever for their gains. We’d love to be proven wrong because it would be pathetic and inhumane if our analogy turns out to be right. And if we’re right, that means 2027 is going to be a very interesting year.

Ghana is no longer Nigeria’s mate – it now has a Gender Equality Act!

The next time you want to argue that Nigerian Jollof is better than Ghanian Jollof, remind yourself that Ghana now has a Gender Equality Act and Nigeria is currently calling for the repeal of the only Act that protects women in the country. Know your place.

*When you ask Ghanian women where patriarchy is*

This is such a big W for Ghana because women have been fighting to get this law signed since 1998. With this law, Ghana joins countries like Rwanda and Uganda, aiming for at least 30% of decision-making roles to be held by women— it’s about time!

What’s the law really about?

The Ghana Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) Act 2024 sets a goal for women in leadership to rise from 30% to 50% by 2030, aligning with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, our president’s cabinet is only 18% women even though he promised it would be 35%. And no, it’s not just his administration, no Nigerian president has ever hit the 35% threshold as easily achievable as it seems. The only man that has at least tried is Goodluck Jonathan whose cabinet was 32% women. Again, no cookies for that.

With this Act, trade unions in Ghana will all be required to have equal representation on their boards, and businesses hiring more women will start enjoying tax perks.

But the Act itself hasn’t been effected and Ghanaian women, who have waited for 26 years, are tired of waiting.

What exactly does this law mean for women in governance?

When the law takes effect, more women are expected to participate in governance and policy shaping. The electoral commission will now have to make sure that all political parties parties have enough women running for major governance roles and they’ll have the responsibility of making sure that women are aware of their right to vote. Sounds like Femco, Ghana Division, is up but let’s hope the decision-makers in charge of making this law take immediate effect match their freak.

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FG is finally ready to pay your new minimum wage

The Federal Government and the Labour Union have finally signed a Memorandum of Understanding to seal the long-awaited minimum wage of ₦70,000 approved on July 18

Eno Olotu, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, confirmed that the new wage will take effect immediately as the official date has been fixed for July 29, 2024. But Benson Upah, the Head of Information at the Nigerian Labour Congress, doesn’t think it’s fair to set the date in July since the government originally promised that the minimum wage would take effect on May 1.

But if FG cares, it certainly isn’t acting like it. After signing the agreement, FG called it the shortest and smoothest negotiation it has had with Labour. But we’re not sure we’ll describe a negotiation that lasted for about 5 months as “short”. We’re not sweet on the “smooth” part either, especially knowing that what started as a demand for ₦615,000 ended with a ₦70,000 offer.

But we can return to civilization now and recover from the horror of national haggling till the new minimum wage expires.

The Big Picks

SERAP Tells Tinubu To Probe Ecological Fund Spending By Borno Govt: The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked President Bola Tinubu to tell the Attorney General, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, and relevant anti-corruption agencies to quickly look into how Borno State has spent billions from the Ecological Fund since 2001. This includes the N816 million the state received between January and June 2024.

Trump Rules Out Running Again In 2028: In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Republican Donald Trump stated that he will not run again in the 2028 presidential election if he loses in the upcoming November vote.

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