Transparency International Nigeria has said the TraderMoni Scheme, a collateral-free loan initiative of the Federal Government to assist petty traders and artisans as part of the National Social Investment Programme, is a form of vote-buying.
The Chairman of the anti-corruption organisation, Awwal Rafsanjani, who spoke on Lunchtime Politics, a programme on Channels Television, noted that the initiative was an “official use of public funds in the name of TraderMoni to actually induce voters”.
Rafsanjani said, “It was not done three years ago. It only started close to election time.
“That is why the Independent National Electoral Commission itself has seen this danger.
“This is despite the statement by the President that public funds will not be used for his re-election campaign. But this, unfortunately, is contrary to what Nigerians are seeing.”
However, the Federal Government had argued that the scheme was an empowerment initiative designed to help at least two million petty traders across the country.
But Rafsanjani said if the government had TraderMoni as a policy plan, it should have begun its implementation earlier than a few weeks to the elections.
He said if the FG was sincere about the scheme, it would have started it long ago.
“Clearly, this is vote-buying, as far as I am concerned,” he added.
Meanwhile, opposition political parties on Friday agreed with the position of TI on TraderMoni.
The first national spokesman for the Coalition of United Political Parties, Imo Ugochinyere, expressed the group’s disappointment with the development.
Also, the Peoples Democratic Party on Friday said TI’s report on TraderMoni had vindicated its position.
The PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, in an interview with one of our correspondents said, “We have cried out and we have told whoever cared to hear that TraderMoni is an inducement and it is very unfortunate that the Office of the Vice-President has been reduced to nothingness by inducing voters with TraderMoni of N10,000.”
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