Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recounted an incident from 1998 when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to which he belonged, lost a local government election in Ogun State.
Obasanjo revealed that party leaders proposed allocating money for bribing the police and personnel of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but he rejected the idea, believing that both the police and INEC officials were government workers receiving monthly salaries.
Speaking at a consultation on ‘Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy in Africa’ in Abeokuta, Obasanjo expressed discomfort with the term ‘Nigerian factor’ and highlighted the impact of poverty and lack of education on democracy, stating that hungry individuals might sell their votes for as little as N1000.