BALLOT OR BULLETS FOR THE FOR THE OPPRESSED?
Kehinde Soetan
It is neither a moonlight tale to many Nigerians nor a fiction that we find it hard to believe the insane tradition that characterizes electoral process in Nigeria. It baffles the mind as Nigerians year in and out, are aggressively bought over or make irrational decisions in elections. One wonders about the perspective of Nigerians on voting. Is it that we vote aggressively against a particular leader or we vote for the eloquence of the leader and well composed arrangements? Perhaps, we are obsessed with the well-arranged and organised jingles made by the political parties. Have we ever come to think of how powerful a vote can be? Or have we forgotten the pains, suffering and unproductive aftermath of the decisions we make at the polling booth? Therefore, the question worth pondering on again is whether we ballot or shoot a bullet in the pretext of uplifting our father’s land.
Firstly, at this stage we have to reminisce on how elections have been conducted in Nigeria for some decades. With hundreds of political party in Nigeria, only two is known to have dominated over these years-PDP and APC. However, members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had occupied the seats of power right from 1999 till 2015 when Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election. The 2019 election is almost getting to its peak and as at last week, every party had conducted their primary election and each flag-bearer has emerged. But it is very glaring that Nigerians view elections, campaigns and so on as a way of getting incentives or compensation for how hard they have been surviving in the country in the past four years. It is at this period that the rights of individuals are highly acknowledged and duly respected by aspirants. In the last two decades, Nigeria has recognised herself to be a democratic state hence franchise has been enacted into the law-the right to vote and be voted for. In the Nigeria constitution, it is known that an eligible voter age must be 18 years and the last nineteen years, many Nigerians have been acting on their right to vote and be voted for as a citizen of the country. But the question is do we really vote for the right leader?
The power supply of the country was a deteriorating one when the country started operating a democratic system of government. As at 1999, the output of electricity generation was 3,500 megawatts, but it decreased to less than 1,000 megawatts. However, for a want for better life, Nigerians voted for the present president hoping for a true actualization of a great nation and administration. But what has been the outcome? Insurgency, poor power supply, insecurity amidst others. If not worse, there was a higher rate of corruption among leaders, the civil servants and even the masses and at the end, the so-called “change” agenda has only failed in sustaining any form of economic growth. Thus far as citizens, we have only shot ourselves at the foot for blindly voting for those we assumed were the right figure to lead us and we would be shooting ourselves more if we do not look carefully again before making our decisions for the upcoming election. In this case, it would be of “a thousand beaten and twice shy”.
At this juncture, Nigerians should realise that it is our vote that will determine our fate in the next four years. We should not be pushed in voting blindly. This is certainly not the time to be enticed with gifts and unrealistic goals but it is the time to shake our votes with rationality and feasibility.
