Nigerians Urged To Resist Vote Buying To Reap Democratic Dividends

Nigerians have been charged with resisting vote buying and rejecting all manner of incentives during election seasons to reap the dividends of democracy.

The Actionaid Nigeria team lead, Kehinde Arowosegbe, who gave the charge, urged Nigerians to always speak to power to ensure the dividends of democracy are delivered to them.

Arowosegbe stressed that such action would empower them to hold leaders accountable and make meaningful demands for development.

He spoke at an event where a non-governmental organisation, Environmental Development and Family Health Organisation (EDFHO), through ActionAid Nigeria, presented multi-million naira hammers, corn and flour milling machines, and Palm oil processing machines to some communities in the Ekiti West local government area of Ekiti State.

The benefiting communities include Aba Osun, Ajebandele, and Ile Ona, all of which are in Ekiti West Local Government. Some other communities, including Ilupeju Ijan, Ajebandele Ilumoba, Ipere, and Ijaro, were trained on contemporary farming, food processing, and holding the government accountable.

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While speaking to journalists, the Executive Director of EDFHO, Sir Olu Ogunrotimi, said the move was part of measures to boost food production in Ekiti State.

He explained that the initiative followed a needs assessment revealing significant community infrastructural deficits. Residents have to travel up to 5 kilometres to access basic milling services.

EDFHO also inaugurated a 15-man committee under the auspices of ‘Community Action for Development’, which is expected to spearhead advocacy and ensure residents make informed and strategic demands of the government.

He said, “We are here for two purposes: to train community members on how to make their rightful demands from the government for the development of their community and to assist them with some facilities to aid food processing.

“We were able to educate them on the approach to make the advocacy so that they can know how to make requests from the government and demand whatever they think would benefit them.”