Voter apathy and voter education

“Voter apathy apparent in Nigeria’s local elections with irregularities and violence, governorship and state assembly elections are marked by low voter turnout” -Aljazeera.

On February 22nd 2019 when we got to the polling units by 8.30am there were so many voters at various polling units spread across the country in line waiting for INEC staff to come out. On that fateful day the voter turnout was so high that some voters had to take numbers or use stones to mark their positions in the long queue at the polling booths, instead of standing for so long hours under the sun.

On that fateful day, the voter turnout was so high that counting in some polling units went into the dark of the night because voting closed late, even after voting at the polling units, Nigerians were glued to their television sets following the snail like collation of results that took three (3) days for the electoral commission to declare a winner.

Sadly, on March 9th, 2019 which was scheduled for the gubernatorial election in 29 states and over 1,000 seats of various state houses of assembly, by 9am the INEC staff had already positioned themselves at the polling units waiting for the electorate to come and cast their votes. The voter turnout was so low that in some polling units it was reported that the INEC staff, and security personnel present were more in number than the voters, while in some polling units counting of votes started by 3pm as voting had already come to a close.

To my mind, the recent voter apathy experienced in the country for the gubernatorial election is as a result of loss of voter confidence in the system. People generally love their efforts to be appreciated, so when the electorate, despite the financial and emotional burden placed on them to cast one vote during elections, get the feeling that despite their sacrifice to perform their civic duty to country their votes won’t really count, one cannot expect the same electorate to come out again in their numbers to cast their votes. This is where voter education comes into play. Information dissemination is key to the success or otherwise of an electioneering process, and when the body responsible for the conduct of elections allows the electorate to source for information concerning the elections from unknown and unverified source (knowing full well that we have so many Facebook journalists these days), then the commission stands a risk of its processes being disrupted by nonparticipation of voters on the election day.

So many electorate are unaware that a supplementary presidential election would be conducted in some polling units on March 9th, 2019 where voting didn’t happen on February, 23nd 2019 due to one reason or the other. Likewise, many electorate still don’t understand how some of their votes were cancelled or rejected by the commission when accreditation and voting happened simultaneously. When the electorate whose participation is key to any electioneering process don’t fully comprehend why their votes don’t count then they lose the enthusiasm to go out and vote, thus leading to voter apathy in the gubernatorial elections.

The electoral commission owes it as duty not only to conduct election but to also educate its electorate on information surrounding the process. It is not enough to put such information on the commission’s social media platforms, or inform political parties, it is paramount that the voter who is a major player in the process ought to be carried along so they feel part of the process, this way the election can boast of more participation.

It is not a thing of pride that a little over 30 million voters are allowed to determine the fate of over 180 million Nigerians when it comes to deciding who the country’s representatives should be. It is no longer news that most Nigerians don’t know their right as provided in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which makes it important that the commission takes voter education a notch further to ensure that majority of its electorate participate in the electioneering process, for is it really a government of the majority when a minority number of citizens are placed with the duty of electing the country’s leaders?

Godspeed!

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