Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State last week set off a fresh round of controversy by promising a ₦1million cash reward to any ward that delivers victory for his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), in the upcoming 2025 governorship election.
Speaking during APGA’s campaign rally in Umunze, Orumba South Local Government Area, the governor announced the incentive while urging party members to intensify their grassroots mobilisation ahead of the November 8 poll.
“For November 8, any ward that wins again will receive ₦1million, while the first three performing wards will get ₦5million, ₦2million, and ₦1million respectively,” Soludo declared to a cheering crowd.
However, the governor’s statement has created outrage among opposition parties and political observers, who view it as a subtle form of vote-buying.
Though APGA officials have defended the pledge, insisting it is a legitimate way to motivate party loyalists and reward hard work at the grassroots, many have described the promise as “a clear sign that Soludo’s administration has lost public confidence and is resorting to questionable tactics to retain power.”
Many believe that Soludo knows that his promise is nothing but vote-buying.
For a governor who has on many occasions boasted that he did very well in office and has been flaunting his achievements on infrastructure and other areas of governance, such an act of desperation is uncalled for.
This questionable incentive of rewarding voters with financial inducements after the election has the same effects as inducing voters during the election as it will definitely spur members of APGA to desperately deliver their wards in a die-or-die manner.
Only a sitting governor who has run out of public goodwill would so openly resort to cash for votes, in direct violation of Sections 121 and 127 of the Electoral Act, which criminalise voter inducement of any form.
This is a new level of desperation, wrapped in impunity, and it is expected that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and legal experts must take note of this dangerous precedent.
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