2023 polls: A word for the Nigerian electorate, by Kehinde Aderemi

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With just a month to the 2023 general elections, Nigerians are concerned about the possibility and prospects of the February 25 presidential election.

Voters are aware of their right to vote.It is their inalienable right and civic responsibility.Politicians too
are also moving closer to the people.

They have started their grassroots mobilisation and campaigns.

Politicians are strategising on the best way to win the election for their respective parties.

Election all over the world is always a game of numbers.When you see politicians going from one state to another to campaign and woo the electorate to their party,it is just because they know that every number counts in an election.

Election period is always very unpredictable because situation changes within a short period of time.

During election period, both the electorate and the politicians are all connected with everything that happens to both parties.

That is why it is very important for the Nigerian electorate to change their attitudes as the 2023 election approaches in the next couples of days.

From our antecedents and political history,this year election is, perhaps a very important period in Nigeria’s history.It moves us closer to the realisation of the Nigerian dream.

And for that singular reason,we can not afford to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Apart from the popular June 12 1993 election that was won by the late Aare Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (MKO)that was adjudged to be free and fair by the international communities, other
elections that were held in succession between 1999 and 2019 were flawed and could not be said to be free and fair.

For two decades,elections were held in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015,and 2019 respectively.

During those periods,there were times when issues were raised on the rigging technology initiated by politicians.

There were times in those years in our electoral history when elections were said to be a “do-or-die affair”.

There were times in this country when politicians would send their political thugs and hoodlums to the polling units to disrupt election procedure and even cart away ballot boxes.

We have had enough of the various situations of electoral malpractices that had even affected the results of the elections.

We have had enough of rigging and ballot snatching during elections that had made it impossible for the votes of the electorate to count.

We have had enough of vote buying during elections.We have had enough of card readers’ failure during elections.

We have had enough of elections being considered to be inconclusive in some parts of the country.

We have had enough of the situation where security agents would be the one that would abet politicians in rigging the election and also frustrate the electorate to cause unnecessary mayhem during elections.

We have had enough of election annulment.Remember, memories of the June 12 1993 elections are still fresh in our minds.

We have had enough of politicians writing the results of an election and using same to determine the fate of the electorate.

Nigeria is a peculiar nation.It is only in Nigeria that the wishes of the people would not prevail as the votes of the electorate might not count.

It is frustrating when you cast your vote peacefully only for hoodlums to cart away the ballot boxes.

In the last two decades,Nigerians have witnessed unprecedented records of electoral malpractices.

My major concern and that of other Nigerians now as we approach this year’s election is; “How prepared is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)”?

With all the obvious challenges that had made elections in Nigeria near impossibility,Is the INEC ready to surmount all these challenges, especially, those arising from both human and technical errors of elections rigging?

I hope the new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System,(BVAs) wouldn’t fail us, especially, at this time when Nigerians are ready to speak with their votes.

In the last twenty years or so,we have had different experiences, which, of course,was laced with the good, the bad and the ugly.

Politicians would tell us,as if we don’t know that democracy is still evolving.That the worst democracy is better than a military regime.

Yes,democracy is the best option anywhere in the world,but for Nigeria and Nigerians,I think we need a complete attitudinal change.

It is high time Nigerian electorate changed their attitudes during elections.

Nigerian electorate must be ready to vote and also make sure that their votes count.

We need to know and understand that it is not only the electoral umpire- the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that has the mandate to be neutral and independent during elections.

The police and other security agencies that would also monitor the elections, including the local and international observers,as well as the adhoc staffs of INEC need to be neutral and be independent while doing their job during the elections.

As an electorate,it is our own duty also to be independent while casting our votes to elect the next president of the country that will administer the country for the next four years.

All these are part of the election process.

A successful voting process during election give noticeable fillip to the success of the election.

Beyond this,it is very important for us as Nigerians to know that there is power in the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) during elections.

You need to be told that your PVC is very valuable.That your PVC is not an ordinary card that can be used in exchange with any amount of money thrown at the electorate by politicians during elections.

It is your PVC that allows you to vote during election.No matter how important or powerful you are in the society,if you don’t have the PVC, you are not entitled to vote.

It offers you the best opportunity to choose the candidate of your choice.

Your PVC symbolizes your best wishes as an electorate.So,it is the best opportunity for you to make your vote count.

The Nigerian constitution allows us to vote in every four years.

You may not be here in the next four years.This is the only time you have to determine your fate and that of others.

For instance,the most valuable denomination in Nigerian currency is N1,000 naira note.

However,no amount of naira or dollars or even pound sterling is worth more than your future.

Unfortunately, our politicians have succeeded in enriching themselves and making us more poorer and wretched that we cannot even think of the future and the consequences of our present actions.

So,you begin to wonder when you see people descending so low that they yield to the pressure of poverty and start selling their votes publicly during election for just N5,000 or N10,000 naira only.

Mortgaging your future and that of the younger ones by selling your votes to politicians or their agents during elections is purely suicidal.

Politicians and the moneybags leverage on the poverty in the country to buy us over and over again.

Nigerian politicians are very smart, they understand the thinking of the electorate.

And they believed strongly that the only language Nigerian electorate understands so easily is the one that has to do with money.

It is as bad as that in this part of the world where politicians have monetized our electoral processes.

Despite the obvious challenges and foibles, there’s always a good story to tell about some Nigerians that have remained good ambassadors of this country.

There was an unconfirmed story last year of an old woman in Ekiti state that went viral during the governorship election in Ekiti.

The old woman was asked to collect N5,000 naira to vote for a particular candidate and she rejected the offer.

The old woman said openly in an encounter with a journalist that she rejected the offer to sell her vote and conscience for pecuniary gains because she might not be around in the next four years.

She added also that whatever decision she made while alive could have positive or negative effect on the lives of those she would be leaving behind.

That Ekiti old woman was a true woman of great conscience.

Whether she is still alive or not,she had made a choice not to sell her vote and her conscience was clear that she did not make the wrong decision.

Such a wonderful old woman in Ekiti was a model for others,and she deserves a global award for being that principled.

Sadly,we are all a product of this corrupt society,but if an old woman in Ekiti State,who was in his 80 could be so patriotic and adamant not to sell her votes against all odds,what then is our excuses as young Nigerian youth?

A prominent Yoruba adage says: “Give me I give you” is what toad shouts at the river bank.

If our politicians are very sincere to us by fulfilling the promises made during their campaigns,it would be easy for them to get the votes of the electorate without resorting to vote buying and also making the election a ‘do-or- die affair’.

Finally, as the election draws nearer,
I think it is better for us to learn from the patriotic behaviour of the Ekiti woman that resisted the temptations of Nigerian politicians and opted to vote for good government through her PVC.

*Aderemi is the Special Assistant on Media to Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land.

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