MEET NIGERIA’S FIRST-TIME VOTERS
Next week, more than 15 million Nigerians will vote for the first time ever in their lives. That’s not because they just turned 18 and decided to enjoy their right to vote. Many are beyond 18, have known about exercising their franchise for a long time, and willfully stayed out of anything to do with election and politics.
Efa Omagbale, from Cross River state, has never voted in her life for two reasons. “One, I have never taken it as something serious-that’s one. Secondly, I believed it is just politics. Even if I don’t vote, there’s no new thing about it. I didn’t even have a voter’s card,” she says.
Since last year, she has been visiting voter registration centres to secure one. “I struggled for it,” she says, for a reason: to change the system in her country. “I’m tired of all these things. Let’s make up our mind and do what is right. I want to do the right thing now, to cast my vote.”
Now she has decided to take part in politics, she recalls never feeling disenfranchised in all the years she stayed away from voting. “The way they were doing it, they were deceiving us; the politicians were deceiving us, but now all eyes are open. Let’s do the right thing,” she says.
And the right thing? “To vote the right person, but if the person is not doing the right thing, in four years’ time, you vote them out.”
It has taken 20 years of return to democratic rule, and several changes of government to get ‘voting virgins’ to believe their votes count. It could take a little shake-up to disillusion them as well. “I know that my vote will count. If everyone will believe their vote will count, we will put the right person in, no matter what,” says Efe.
She’s not alone. When she went to pick up her voter’s card, nearly a third of people she met were people who will be voting for the first time this February. A feeling was in the way, she recalls about their motivation. “Enough is enough, let’s do the right thing and vote the right person in.”
Personalities and history play right into elections this February, and both have also played the heartstrings of Nigerians. Firsttime voters, more than 15 million of them, according to data released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the polls, have already picked their voter’s cards and could
When she went to pick up her voter’s card, nearly a third of people she met were people who will be voting for the first time this February
make a difference. They could also signal a break from the status many previously unwilling voters have associated with politics before this time.
Democracy officially returned to Nigeria in 1999, but since then Adama Hamman has never voted. “I was never interested in voting during elections since when elections have been taking place. This year, I just felt a kind of zeal, I picked interest,” she says.
Adama’s reason for never voting is familiar to many who have lost interest in voting. “I felt the elections were always rigged,” Hamman continues. And the outcomes seemed to justify her concerns. Her feelings changed in 2015. Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to Muhammadu Buhari, the international community commended the elections as fair and credible, new voters emerged. “When the 2015 elections happened, it was generally applauded that they were free and fair. And then I just want to take part in the election to exercise my franchise. I just want to participate in the democratic process,” she says.
But will her taking part change anything? “Yes, as long as my vote will count,” Adama says.
Getting votes to count is a battle that’s played in Happiness Iyamu’s head and kept her away from voting booths all her life. She will vote in Edo State next week. “Whether I vote or not, my vote is not going to count,” she told herself. “There was no reason for me to vote.”
Her reason? “They keep reshuffling government. What’s the essence of voting when we know the particular person that’s going to win? Even if I vote, the person that’s going to campaign is the person that’s led us before; he doesn’t want anyone else to come in; he’s the person that’s going to win already, so no need for me to vote.”
The recycling of leaders touches raw nerves with ‘voting virgins’. This year, Buhari and Atiku Abubakar are about the old and known faces on the ballot. More than 90 parties are on the ballot, and the faces are not that well-known, albeit with a few exceptions. They certainly haven’t been in the corridors of presidential power before now.
That’s what’s convinced Happiness to give her voting card a go this time. “I just want to give it a try, to just do it,” she says. “And then I can even decide that day not to vote. I can change my mind. That’s why they are talking about change.”
The road to next week’s elections has been playing a lot on the youth angle. The ‘Not Too Young to Run Bill’ passed to great acclaim, reducing the age limit to allow younger people stand for political office. But that hasn’t bought some young people over. Says Happiness: “In Nigeria, there is nothing like ‘youths are leaders of tomorrow’, when you see a 75-year-old man still campaigning, instead of him sitting at home, giving advice to youths to become president, or politicians putting youths first.”
Elections are contentious, and sometimes spark violence. That’s what’s kept Zarah Ahmad away from voting booths all her life. At 12, she endured a cousin brutally wounded in electionrelated violence. “I used to be scared of going out during elections, because there always used to be fights,” she says. Now she’s rising above violence to claim her enfranchisement. “This time, something has to be done. I do have that right. There are lots of changes. Last elections were okay, so I will go,” she says. She believes there will be no violence associated with voting because “this government has tried.”
Zarah’s motivation: “We have seen Nigeria change from what it used to be before.” One change is getting younger people into politics. That angle helped tilt her. “It has a lot to do with my decisions. Youths have a right to be elected and to participate in politics. We are all Nigerians, we have a right to vote and be voted for. Their participation could change a lot of things. Their votes count.”
Getting his vote to count is still