Young wigs and the forthcoming elections

It is a barely a month from the much anticipated election and every direction one faces in the country from news media, social media to small neighbourhood talks is filled with election campaign for who the better candidate is. Though there are close to 12 presidential aspirants in the contested race, only two have really […]

It is a barely a month from the much anticipated election and every direction one faces in the country from news media, social media to small neighbourhood talks is filled with election campaign for who the better candidate is. Though there are close to 12 presidential aspirants in the contested race, only two have really caught the attention of both the masses and the media. As one cartoonist puts it when JJ was asked by grandma to name the 12 months in 2015, his reply was, “I only know of JONAworry & FeBUHARI”.
The Nigerian Bar Association i.e the umbrella body of all legal practitioners in the country has directed its branch chairmen to organise seminars in their various branches on voter education, it has also promised to write off certain percentage of the monies spent by branches to organise the seminar. While this is a commendable initiative to rouse election awareness amongst the electorate, young wigs who are energetic, vibrant and have little or nothing doing at the moment because of the JUSUN strike should not be left out in achieving this desired result.
How then can a young wig assist the Nigerian society in her bid to conduct a free, fair, and non-violent election? In the words of the Chairman Human Rights Monitor, Festus Okoye Esq, young lawyers can be of help in the election process by “monitoring the election, assisting the electorate protect the sanctity of the vote, carry out civic and voter education by educating people on informed choices and advocating against electoral violence…”
As a show of support and encouragement to both the young wigs and the process, NBA can train selected young wigs as election observers and send them to various polling booths to monitor elections and watch out for excessive exercise of power by security agencies.
 Just recently, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Plateau State at a meeting of security chiefs, community and religious leaders, said, “In line with international practice, we don’t expect armed security agents at polling units but we expect that there will be armed security men patrolling or stationed at nearby places where they can be reached,” the presence of NBA observes at election polls would help in compliance.
In the bid to assist the electoral commission in promoting knowledge of sound democratic process, selected young wigs could be trained by experts and sent to various neighbourhoods for civic education and voters’ enlightenment; bulletins on rights and obligation of the electorate at the polling booth can be published and distributed to the public. If the electorate are properly sensitised on these guidelines, they should be able to exercise their franchise freely.
Let me use this medium to call on Young Lawyers Forum nationwide and other groups like the Young Progressive Lawyers (YPL) in Kaduna not to sit idle and watch ‘political facilitators’ make decisions for the electorate when they can help in moving this nation to greater heights. This is not the time to be frightened or weighed down by financial difficulty; this is the time to show Nigerians that lawyers are not only interested in election petitions but also in saving the sanctity of our electoral process.
In my humble opinion, lawyers’ participation in ensuring Nigeria achieves a free, fair and non-violent electoral process this coming February would go a long way to rekindle the fading confidence and trust the general public has about ‘legal practitioners and their importance to the society.
“Voters need to have access to facts that will enable them to have the ability to make informed choices… community based organisations including neighbourhood associations must help their members to access information,” says Bishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon
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