To understand the importance of crowd in political campaign rallies and how it can affect actual voting, we need to look at within Nigeria economic, social and political context/environment.

Anybody that can be paid 500 naira or more to attend a rally of a political party to help showcase the party as Formidable can easily be made to vote that party on election day with the same amount of money.

Alot of people who participate as rented Crowd tend to dominate those with PVC. People in this category have already considered thier PVC thier MMM( money making machine).

Many of these people even though they may have a preferred candidate,they are generally not fanatical about thier preferred candidate. Those that are very fanatical are less likely to participate as rented Crowd to boost a candidate they passionately don't like. U need much more money to buy the fanatical ones who don't like you. In a society with so many people, nobody rent expensive crowd when there are cheap ones. One vote is one vote and one head in a crowd is one head.

Below is the crowd (Both rented and voluntary) in Buhari campaign in Uyo. All these people can be bought easily to vote Buhari if they are rented. That is the reality.

Let me conclude with the statement of Bishop kukah on vote buying.

Not only the poor sell thier vote, the rich sell thier votes as well like the poor- Bishop Kukah

Vote-buying is a logical product of our system. Can you point at one single politician who is not the subject of negotiation – one who bought or sold favours – from the least to the top most? We are used to this culture of using one specialised vocabulary for the poor and another for powerful people. For example, we say the rich misappropriate and the poor steal. The poor are engaged in vote-buying/selling and how much are we talking about – N2,000 to N5,000? These heavy contracts that are being negotiated, the tons of dollars that are used at conventions and primaries, why do you not call that vote-buying? What you call vote-buying, as terrible as it is, is the fruit of the tree planted and watered by our politics. Every level of the competition is engaged in vote transaction, at all levels or parties.

https://punchng.com/buharis-overambitious-supporters-a-danger-kukah/

Tell em. Too many Nigerians displaying their stupidity arguing about size of crowds and leaving the important things out of the discourse.

Athena4:
Tell em. Too many Nigerians displaying their stupidity arguing about size of crowds and leaving the important things out of the discourse.

Yeah

life2017:
Anybody that can be paid 500 naira or more to attend a rally of a political party to help showcase the party as Formidable can easily be made to vote that party on election day with the same amount of money.

Alot of people who participate as rented Crowd tend to dominate those with PVC. People in this category have already considered thier PVC thier MMM( money making machine).

Many of these people even though they may have a preferred candidate,they are generally not fanatical about thier preferred candidate. Those that are very fanatical are less likely to participate as rented Crowd to boost a candidate they passionately don't like. U need much more money to buy the fanatical ones who don't like you. In a society with so many people, nobody rent expensive crowd when there are cheap ones. One vote is one vote and one head in a crowd is one head.

Below is the crowd (Both rented and voluntary) in Buhari campaign in Uyo. All these people can be bought easily to vote Buhari if they are rented. That is the reality.

That's just own assumption. I am one of those people that attend rallies when paid but, that does not mean I'll vote against my own well-being when time comes. I've been to several APC rallies but, in no way does that transfer voting for them. Even if they offer billions in pay that's still a no so that's just own assumption. Not everybody that attend rallies are ignorant on the impact of selling their votes.

kotv:


That's just own assumption. I am one of those people that attend rallies when paid but, that does not mean I'll vote against my own well-being when time comes. I've been to several APC rallies but, in no way does that transfer voting for them. Even if they offer billions in pay that's still a no so that's just own assumption. Not everybody that attend rallies are ignorant on the impact of selling their votes.

You attend rallies when paid to promote a party you don't like . Do u know that pulling a crowd during campaign help politicians to easily justify inflated results? Rigging is done by vote buying and results inflation. When a party can pull a large crowd during rallies, it makes it easier for people to believe the inflated results is real.

And again, how many people do u think that can be bought to attend a rally and can't be bought to vote? What is the percentage of such people among those who can collect money to attend a rally? Most rented Crowd are poor woman and poor unemployed youths. By simple economics, majority of people in this class can be bought. Humans by nature are selfish. Self preservation is the number one priority of almost every human being. Even the rich can be bought. Just that buying the rich is expensive.

You are just deceiving your self. if you can be bought to attend a rally u can be bought to vote. The only thing u willl say that will make sense to me is that higher amount is needed to buy your vote compared to the amount to rent u as a crowd.

Even if you are absolutely correct in your position, among rented Crowd, those that are very resolute like you are extreme minority. The truth is that majority of those who can be bought as rented Crowd can be bought to vote. There may be few exceptions, but it doesn't change the fact that absolute majority of those who can be bought as rented Crowd can be bought to vote. QED

life2017:


You attend rallies when paid to promote a party you don't like . Do u know that pulling a crowd during campaign help politicians to easily justify inflated results? Rigging is done by vote buying and results inflation. When a party can pull a large crowd during rallies, it makes it easier for people to believe the inflated results is real.

And again, how many people do u think that can be bought to attend a rally and can't be bought to vote? What is the percentage of such people among those who can collect money to attend a rally? Most rented Crowd are poor woman and poor unemployed youths. By simple economics, majority of people in this class can be bought. Humans by nature are selfish. Self preservation is the number one priority of almost every human being. Even the rich can be bought. Just that buying the rich is expensive.

You are just deceiving your self. if you can be bought to attend a rally u can be bought to vote. The only thing u willl say that will make sense to me is that higher amount is needed to buy your vote compared to the amount to rent u as a crowd.

Even if you are absolutely correct in your position, among rented Crowd, those that are very resolute like you are extreme minority. The truth is that majority of those who can be bought as rented Crowd can be bought to vote. There may be few exceptions, but it doesn't change the fact that absolute majority of those who can be bought as rented Crowd can be bought to vote. QED

Well said.

Its true.i foresee apc out buying pdp in vote buying down south

LoveMachine:


Well said.

Thanks

Assuming you are right, the Uyo stadium is a thirty thousand capacity stadium and you and I know the stadium wasn't filled meaning there were maybe twenty thousand people or less which I am sure are not allgoing to vote for buhari. Going by your logic, it means you would be getting less than twenty thousand votes out of a possible five hundred thousand.

Soneh:
Assuming you are right, the Uyo stadium is a thirty thousand capacity stadium and you and I know the stadium wasn't filled meaning there were maybe twenty thousand people or less which I am sure are not allgoing to vote for buhari. Going by your logic, it means you would be getting less than twenty thousand votes out of a possible five hundred thousand.

Not everyone who can be bought had the opportunity to meet a buyer for the rally.
Crowd buying for rallies focus more on closer people to the location who can be bought.
Actually, majority of voters in the rural areas can be bought.

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