During the governorship and state house of assembly elections in March, the president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) enjoined Nigerians to go ahead and collect any monies distributed by vote-buying politicians but still vote their conscience. Ideally, it should be shocking that a country’s president—especially one who came to power as an anti-corruption crusader—would shamelessly endorse an electoral infraction. But he has let us down so often that pointing out this error will be a waste of everyone’s precious time.
The more annoying part of that thoughtless statement was that it negated his previous posturing on the naira redesign policy to protect electoral integrity. When he met King Charles in the UK in November, he insisted the policy had come to stay because it would protect Nigerians from those who would use their lush resources to manipulate the election outcome. After reiterating that he would ensure a level playing field for…