Point One

Most observer reports on the recent Nigerian general election highlighted poor electoral culture by political actors, rather than the very conduct of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as the biggest hobble yet on this country’s democracy. While the electoral body may not have been perfect with its processes, there is a consensus that it fared commendably with the poll. Hence, the bottleneck of inconclusiveness that characterised the elections in some areas derived from primitive desperation by the political elite, which manifested in the rash of deadly violence and some other abuses that tainted the poll.   In its interim report after the March 23 rd supplementary election in some states, the European Union (EU) election observer mission red flagged voter intimidation, obstruction of the electoral process and ineffective security shield for eligible citizens to exercise their voting right, which it said its observers witnessed d...

With the notoriously slim profile of voter turnout for the recent 2019 general election, it may well be that the bulk of Nigerian electors are letting go the handle on who assumes political power in this country to designs from sheer expedience by the political class. The 2019 poll has been widely rated as recording the lowest voter turnout in all of elections that have been held under the present republic, which is into its 20 th year. This contrasts ironically with the swarming field of power contenders in this latest poll, compared to the contest fields for all previous elections. That is to say while the political elite are getting increasingly motivated to throw their hats in the ring for the power pie, voters who should make the choices from among them are inversely getting demotivated from stepping up to the plate. Official data showed that voter turnout for the presidential election held on February 23 rd was about 34.7 percent – representing a rollback...