Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has narrated how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), lost a local government election in Ogun State in 1998 because he rejected plans to bribe officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Obasanjo made this revelation on Monday in Abeokuta, at a high-level consultation he organised titled, ‘Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy in Africa’.
He said that the party leaders had told him that there should be money allocated for the police and INEC, but he rejected the proposal on the belief that INEC officials and policemen are government workers earning salaries monthly.
Obasanjo told politicians and professors at the debate that he is not always comfortable with the phrase, ‘Nigerian factor’, when discussing democracy and other issues affecting development.
He said: “When things go wrong, you said the Nigerian factor. The first thing I learnt in politics was this thing called the Nigerian factor.
“In 1998, we had the first local government election. We had parties, and here in Abeokuta, we met in my office and they came up and said, ‘look, this is money for INEC, money for police.’ At a stage, I said, ‘What nonsense! Is police not being paid, and INEC too?’
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“They said ‘that’s how we do it. I said ‘You cannot do that.’ So, they didn’t do that. And of course, we lost all the local governments.
“We lost all. And then they came to me and said, ‘Baba, you see? If you had allowed us to do it the way we used to do it, we would have won. And I felt guilty.
“During the next election which was State Assembly, I just stayed in my house. I said ‘Well, do whatever you want to do, I will not be part of it’.
“So, I didn’t even go. But, the result was the same. One of the people who got money didn’t even distribute it to where he was supposed to distribute it.
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