NASS and forced voting: Let sleeping lie
The National Assembly (NASS) is considering a bill which seeks to make voting mandatory for all eligible citizens. If passed, the bill will impose a penalty of six months imprisonment or an option of N100,000 fine for failing to cast a ballot. No matter their opinion of themselves, NASS members are not the most intelligent […]
National Assembly
The National Assembly (NASS) is considering a bill which seeks to make voting mandatory for all eligible citizens. If passed, the bill will impose a penalty of six months imprisonment or an option of N100,000 fine for failing to cast a ballot. No matter their opinion of themselves, NASS members are not the most intelligent Nigerians. With a population of over 200 million, and universities graduating thousands annually, the less than six hundred NASS members should accept that there are greater numbers of intelligent and patriotic citizens outside the hallowed chambers than inside.
Forcing people to vote when they don’t support any of the candidates will deepen disillusionment with Nigerian democracy not reduce it. The truth is that Nigerians feel that Western liberal democracy has failed the nation. Used to serially poor governance, they react by either fleeing, to better-governed nations or remaining in Nigeria but ignoring government and getting on with making the best of a bad situation!
It is fallacious to believe that Nigerians who don’t vote are either unintelligent or unpatriotic. People will willingly vote if they see the benefit, but the majority of university professors, lawyers, doctors, successful businessmen and intellectual elite seldom vote, because they have lost faith in the system. They firmly believe that elected politicians don’t need real votes instead, they rig themselves into office. Experience has taught them that the political class benefits from INEC’s legendary inefficiency and corruption.
The judiciary’s jailing of INEC staff and routine overturning of election results doesn’t breed confidence amongst intelligent people. Indeed INEC seems not to be ashamed of declaring results even while admitting that votes were not counted correctly! A recent “inexcusably horrid” JAMB server glitch means that affected students will have to resit the examination. However, routine INEC server “glitches”, don’t stop winners from being declared! It is indefensible to expect Nigerians to troop out and waste time voting, knowing full well that their votes count for nothing!
Forced voting is a denial of freedom of choice. In secondary school multiple-choice examination questions, there is an option which states “none of the above”, and it will be the correct answer!
Since independence, Nigeria has regressed as a nation because the political class has failed. Nigerians know that politicians are busy enriching themselves at public expense, padding budgets, and turning politics into a well-rewarded family business by installing their children. The truth is that our politicians are unlikely to ever change because the only reward for political honesty is exclusion from the opportunity to become a billionaire at public expense!
The proposed bill is evidence that Nigerian democracy is no longer hanging precariously over the precipice, it is tumbling down the rocky face of a ravine injuring the public as it falls. For far too long, elected officials have admonished Nigerians, despite their ever-worsening situation, to “tighten their belts” “remain focused”, “make sacrifices for their country”, and exercise (endless) patience”.
It would be a joke if it wasn’t serious. Our elected politicians have long since turned themselves into a corporate entity specialising in self-financing profits through institutionalised corruption. They then expect the public to pretend as if they do not know.
NASS is demanding that everybody remain silent and vote in fraudulent substandard elections which do not inspire public confidence. They decline to provide emergency lifesaving treatment for our ailing democracy by stemming the increasing erosion of human rights and curbing burgeoning insecurity.
For those who believe that Nigerian democracy is already dead, NASS declines to examine the cadaver to identify and determine the causes of death. Perhaps if they did, they would find out that the majority of Nigerians no longer bother to vote because they cannot be expected to support the system which has brought them to this state of dejection. The vast majority of Nigerians are living in hopelessness, fear, hunger, dejection, anger, disappointment, exasperation, bemusement confusion and dumbfounded! Surely it is better that they simply decline to participate in elections and remain law-abiding, rather than vote and pay attention to those who are urging public disorder?
As for the whole concept of forced voting, in the 2024 American Presidential elections, Donald Trump was re-elected even though more Americans chose to stay at home than vote for either candidate. Clearly, elections can be decided as much by who doesn’t vote as by who does, however, this does not make a case for compulsory voting.
NASS should be forewarned that there is a right not to vote, and choosing not to vote is a form of freedom of expression. The bill is yet another ill-considered self-serving piece of legislation which is not in the national interest. There is hunger and apathy everywhere in Nigeria so the prisons will be even more overcrowded than they currently are as magistrates and judges remand millions of Nigerians who decline to vote pending their bail applications!
Furthermore, since less than 30 per cent of Nigerians vote, forcing compulsory voting will mean massive increases in the cost of conducting elections, increased number of security personnel required, and increased violence! Today there are only 20 countries in the world that have mandatory voting, and none of them experience 100 per cent turnout! NASS should concentrate on making voting an attractive, meaningful and less time-wasting proposition rather than further impinging on the rights of Nigerians. They would be well advised to simply let sleeping dogs lie!