As the countdown to the 2015 general elections continues, political activities in the country are beginning to gather momentum! The usual political rhythm is gradually taking the centre stage. Nocturnal meetings are not left out! Instead of directing precious times and energies on articulating and drafting unbeatable manifestoes on how to move the country forward, some politicians are still dissipating energies on pigeon holed political arguments.
Prior to the conduct of the 2011 General Elections in the country, many socio-political organisations and pressure groups sprang up championing one cause or the other. Instead of helping to educate voters on how to vote on Election Day, because according to reports, out of the 140 million population in 2006 census, 75, 751, 576 people representing 54.1 per cent of the population are illiterate. These are people who cannot read or write! The misplacement of priorities in the preparations for the conducts of the general elections in 2011 affected citizen’s participation in the poll. Imagine in a country where there are 73, 528, 040 registered voters, only 39, 469, 484 representing about 53.7 per cent of the electorates voted in the presidential election, of which 1, 259, 506 votes were cancelled. This means that only 38, 209, 978 votes were accepted. Like what happened in 2011, we are precipitating to the same diversionary politics that encouraged voter’s apathy!
The March 16, 2013 council polls held in the Federal Capital Territory has given us the inkling of what to expect in 2015 if nothing is done urgently to raise voters awareness. For example, out of the 476, 628 registered voters, the number of accredited voters were 34, 018 while the total number of votes cast was 30, 840 of which the total number of valid votes was 29, 23. As usual, 1, 717 votes representing 0.4 percent of the total registered voters for the council polls were rejected. What was witnessed again was voter’s indifference, lack of adequate voter’s awareness and voters education. I am not living in an ivory tower where I must expect 100 per cent turnout of voters, but in an election where the total number of valid vote is 6.1 per cent, I think something better than diversionary politics is what we need at the very moment!
Voter’s apathy is everywhere, but improvement is needed! According to The Washington Post publication of November 5, 2012, in 2008, 131 million Americans cast their ballots in the Presidential Election, while 15.5 million registered voters did not vote in the election. In the same vein, 30 million Americans did not even register to vote in the 2008 election! 5.7 million Americans either did not know how to vote or where to register or missed the deadlines. The report ranked United States among the countries with low voters’ turnout. But, theirs is still better than ours in Nigeria, where some voters don’t even know how to vote correctly! The report concluded that, to encourage voters’ turnout on Election Day, there should be voting by e-mail, while mandatory voting should be encouraged.
Declaring national holiday on Election Day was also recommended! Among the entire recommendations, I think what we need in Nigeria is making voting on Election Day mandatory. There is nothing wrong if Nigeria should join the league of nations with mandatory voting laws, as currently in practice in Australia!
Another pattern the coming 2015 General Election is taking is politicians jumping from one platform to form new platforms like what happened in South Africa in 2008, where some politicians went and formed Congress of the People, COPE, to challenge the dominant African National Congress, ANC, in the 2009 election. Instead of staying in their parties to deepen party discipline and grow internal democracy in their parties, some persons are busy floating new political parties without flouting formidable structures on grounds to make it competitive! As an active participant in the 2011 Presidential Election, I observed that most voters don’t even know the names of some of our political parties. Hence, they are voting based on logos. The problem with flouting new political party is that, it will take time, efforts and resources for the logos of the new parties to be popular and familiar with the people, especially the illiterates in the rural areas.
To have an improved election in 2015, we should stop the repetition of some of the dramas that heralded the conduct of the 2011 General Elections in 2015 election preparations. We need issue based politics; we need concrete blue prints on how to move the country forward, create jobs for the youths, house the homeless, provide health care for our people, and provide clean water, food and other infrastructures for our people. Hence, I dare say, enough of this diversionary politics please!