Cash-strapped APC and electoral puzzles

THE ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has not denied allegations of been habitually impecunious for as long as anyone can remember. It is reported to be unable to pay its workers, pay electricity bills and was therefore disconnected from public supply. In addition, it owes some suppliers. It is, in short, broke, and embarrassingly so. Top party members expected to pay substantial dues, the reports say, have not been as forthcoming as party leaders hoped. It is in fact suggested that the misunderstanding between party leaders has been responsible for the lack of enthusiasm in the payment of dues.
But while the party is still searching for novel ways of raising funds and refloating the party’s account, and while it is looking for ways of re-energising its support base, it has nonetheless started winning elections, including polls that required a lot of financial input. The news media widely reported the last Ondo poll to have been heavily monetised, using Nigerian parlance. All three leading parties in the poll deployed funds to buy votes, claimed election observers. But according to them, the APC was head and shoulders above the rest in buying votes. So, how did a cash-strapped party find money to buy votes at more than the going rate?
For a party that lays claim to financial and ethical prudishness, the APC must have practised either financial sorcery or elicited a genuine miracle from heaven in order to accomplish electoral dominance. But, really, there was no mystery. If, as nearly everyone said, the victorious APC bought votes at a higher rate, then there was neither a miracle nor sorcery involved for a party that boasted no divine support nor desired it. It simply sourced the money from somewhere, whether from certain government houses or rich individuals. The point is that if it had kept faith with its vaunted ethical claims, the party would probably have lost the governorship election. After all, the only person who really openly campaigned, publicised a veritable manifesto of actions, and made definitive pronouncements on where Ondo must be in the next few years was the Alliance for Democracy’s Olusola Oke. But he was precisely the least financially endowed and the biggest loser.