By Victor Kanayo
Indications emerged between Thursday night and Friday morning that the September 30 election of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has been submerged in vote-buying.
Heritage Times HT gathered that the various presidential aspirants, especially two top contenders have been busy wooing football delegates with dollars in Benin, Edo State, venue of the election.
The two main rivals – one from the North Ibrahim Gusau and the other from the Southern part of Nigeria Seyi Akinwunmi – have been locked in “a brutal Dollar fight” that has left the camp of other aspirants decimated and in total confusion.
An inside source told our Correspondent on ground that the Northern candidate took most observers by surprise when he started doling out $10,000 per delegate. He also insisted on doing so by personally handing over the raw cash to the voters.
The Southern candidate reportedly got the financial support of his State Government, but not the blessings of the out-going NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, and it is left to be seen just how crucial this will be.
Sworn allegiances and alliances have again been thrown into the dustbin as delegates scrambled for raw cash inside the hotels where they lodged.
Vote-buying which first gained currency at the 2014 NFF election in Warri, Delta state, continued unchecked at the 2018 polls.
The trend seem to have swelled with time and has come to stay, meaning that the NFF Presidency will again be for the highest spender.
The other strategy by the preferred candidate, who has the full blessings of Pinnick.
Delegates will be called out by alphabetical order and that way, the supervisors will know how each and every delegate voted.
In recent times, vote-buying trend has characterised Nigeria administrative system – both in Politics and Sports.
It only remains to be seen when and how the country’s relevant government agencies will step up and curb it.
