By Bamidele Johnson
Just saw a tweet by Oby Ezekwesili saying “money will fail in 2023”. I presume she meant the zloty or drachma, not the naira or dollar. If not, she’s suggesting that voter attitude has turned 360 or, at least, 180 degrees. That is not obvious from the recently held elections at the sub-national level in which winners and losers were reported to have induced voters.
Liberally.
Money will matter to those involved in the processes that produce candidates. It’s drunken optimism to think some Damascene conversion has taken place. There are times that I think these bright people are at loggerheads with reality. It is what pushes them to say, in every election cycle, that voters won’t vote on party, religious or sectional or ethnic basis. Or that the youth, wrongly assumed to be monolithic bloc, will vote one way or the other. It probably also explains why her 2019 presidential bid became anaemic and died within a shirt time.
As good as rejecting cash offer for vote, it is not in 2023 that it will be premiered. I guess the real politicians would sneer at her. The widespread hardship is a hindrance to rejection rather than help. But if having the head in the cloud makes a day better, why not?
