Voters Wide Wild World

Electoral fraud and the violence associated with it makes it difficult for millions of Nigerians to participate in voting exercises. Many, through election violence, have lost their lives while many others got injured without an iota of the weight of justice leveled against the hoodlums and the politicians who instigated and bankrolled such violence for selfish political gains. The negligence of our weak justice system to tackle, and the participation of the people in government in election fraud processes systematically legalized and proliferated election frauds in divert kinds on our democratic drawing board.

Many of our citizens are of the view that voting is a waste of time as politicians work tirelessly to manipulate voting figures for selfish interest. While many view it as a dangerous exercise and avoid participating for security reasons. Election fraud is a threat to the wellbeing of democracy as it frustrates citizens from participating in leadership choosing process, which in turn, determines citizens’ living conditions, security positions, employment status and the destination of their society. A system that prevents or discourages one from participating in the selection of his choice of leaders is anti-democratic, dictatorial and disgusting.

Apart from the regular illegal interferences with the process of election, such as buying of votes, ballot box snatching, manipulation of figures, the printing of ghost voter’s cards, falsification of election results, corrupt Court verdicts in favour of the defeated, there is a trending method of preventing a group of people whom are perceived to be supporters of opposition party from registering to obtain the voter’s cards. And there is an underground method of not giving Permanent Voter’s Cards to those who have registered while politicians use their cards to vote in favour of whom they want without the knowledge of the true owners of the VOTER’S CARDS.

No eligible voter should be denied access to vote for this is the most basic civil right and the pillar that holds the edifice of true democracy. Free and fair election is one of the prerequisites needed to secure a free and fair society. It is the culture we need to ride triumphantly and in majesty on the track lane of life. It must be guided jealously if we are shooting to make a headway as a nation.

Vote buying obstructs the right of citizens to freely decide who will lead them for their interests. It increases the cost of securing a political office, which propels political leaders to loot public funds in order to compensate for the huge money spent during election and also to prepare for future  elections. Uwamahoro asserts, “If they see that buying of supporters worked during the election, what is to stop them from using that strategy in other areas of governance?” Vote buying could be described as the root of bad leadership in a democratic setting. The self – destructive act of vote selling can be correlated with the game of Esau, who sold his birthright to his younger brother, Jacob, for a morsel of bread. Though, he later regretted his action and was bitter against his brother but never got back his birthright. In the same vein, the selling of your vote reduces your right to hold your leaders accountable.

Corruption in Nigeria has made money the chief tool necessary to win elections, rather than ideas, honesty and experience. The money power in our electoral sea deprives pro-people citizens, who are capable of good leadership, as a result of economic disadvantage, the opportunity to serve for the interest of the public.

It is high time we annoyed ourselves with the truth! The hardship and the insecurity problems in our society are not only created by bad leaders, also, by those who sell their votes or participate in any of the election fraud processes.

Accountability starts with you. Be a tool for positive change!