A former Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, has criticised the attitude of many Nigerians towards vote-buying and vote-selling during elections.
Writing on his verified X handle on Monday, Sani said that even after being educated on the dangers of the practice, the public still expects financial “appreciation” from the person delivering the sensitisation.
“Whenever you preach against vote-buying and vote-selling, the masses simply stare at you, waiting for you to finish so you can give them ‘something’ for transport and to ‘chop’.
If you fail to do that, they will despise you for wasting their time with grammar,” he wrote.
Responding, an X user identified only as Bendollar said,
“That is the brutal reality of material poverty clashing with moral lectures. When survival is at stake, ethics sound like noise.
“You cannot preach civic virtue to people whose immediate concern is: What will I eat tonight?
“They do not hate the message; they resent the gap between words and their lived reality.
Until basic needs are met, principles feel like grammar exercises delivered by someone who gets to return home in comfort,” he said.