Vote buying albatross to Nigeria’s electoral process – Archbishop Umoren

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

The Auxiliary Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Most Rev. Anslem Umoren has bemoaned the dangerous trend of vote buying in Nigeria’s electoral process.

He expressed doubts in the future of the country’s democracy if politicians should continue indulging in buying the voting rights of unsuspecting voters, just as he took a swipe on Nigerians who sell their votes for a token and threby mortgaging their future and that of unborn generation.

Addressing the press in Abuja on Sunday during the 2019 feast day celebration of Saint Patrick Edo/Delta Catholic Community hosted by St. Kevin’s Catholic Church, Jikwoyi, Most Rev. Umoren also advised INEC to be better prepared for the conduct of elections to avoid the pitfalls witnessed in the recent exercise.

He said that “I am not INEC. So, I cannot give you a review of the general elections, but maybe, we should prepare a little bit more than what we have done, by trying to change the mentality of Nigerians that we don’t live on short term.

“These should be things on the long term and that should reflect who we elect to represent us. What criteria do we use to elect people because this whole issue we are hearing of people using money to get votes; that is a useless way of living.

And if Nigerians want it that way, they should know that they don’t have any future, they are not building a future.

“We must get beyond that and think of electing people who have the quality and who have shown it. We don’t just elect people by what they say, but by what they have done before; they have precedence and in that regards we know they can do better.

“But, if I have not done nothing before and you elect me, what do you expect?

Whatever I do is what I can do. So, we need to go be beyond this childish way of living and acting and begin to take responsibility for our lives and the lives of our children.”

The Catholic archbishop stressed that people must vote for whoever can provide them good representation rather than for a candidate they would be forced to put up with for another four years no matter how bad he/she might be.

He added that “we don’t have that (supplementary elections) in Abuja, but wherever they have, we call on people to go out and vote for whoever they want to represent them.

“At the end of the day, whatever decision you make is what you will leave with in the next four years. So, people must make sure that whoever they will be comfortable with are the ones they elect.”

On the celebration of the feast of St. Patrick, Archbishop Umoren explained that St. Patrick was an important figure in the church, an epitome of how Christians should love their neighbors, including those who hate them.

He added that “that is the trademark of Christianity. It is not just to love those who love us. And Jesus said that if you do that, there is no difference between you and pagans because even the pagans do as much of that. They care for those who care for them. You give something and I give to you.

“But, for Christians we must go beyond that to love who we sometimes have the perception that they do not love us. Even if it is a reality that they do not love us, we are still called to love them because God loves us even though we still fall in things that we should not. So Saint Patrick is an example in that regards.”