How Long Will The Illiterate Continue to Decide The Country’s Electoral Fate? By Musa Abdullahi Pindar
AREWA AGENDA – Since Nigeria’s transition to democracy in 1999, when the world’s black most populous nation retraced her path and signed a new pact with democracy after over 2 decades in the dudgeon of successive military governments from the 1980s, particularly when the then military president, General Muhammadu Buhari (now President Muhammadu Buhari) toppled the then democratically elected government of Shehu Shagari, electorates have always been an avid desire of good governance that would nip in the bud country’s lack of social amenities, good infrastructure and as well as uplifting of people out of poverty.
Despite their dream, however these demands have always been nightmarish because most of the people who are in a firm grip of governance are mostly incapable intellectually, while illiterates are given the field day to control the outcomes with the little resources at their disposal, while the literate has little or no say as they are relegated permanently to the background of money bag politics.
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According to INEC, the total number of registered voters in 2019 by the commission is over 80 million and the total cast votes is not up to 35 million. 35 million people decided on a country with a population of over 219 million people. The apathy in Nigerian politics by the majority of good Nigerians is frightening and endangering for the future. Such ignorance also raises doubts about how democracy can really serve the interests of the majority.
Politics in Nigeria is often seen as a dirty game and responsible men with values and principles maintain their distance away from it, for fear of tainting and destroying their good image and reputations.
In Nigeria more than eighty percent of the votes during general elections were cast by illiterates, i.e to say those that have little or no knowledge of the candidate profile and previous struggles. The literates dictate the voting environment, they feel like election day is a kind of Public holiday or resting period for them, in their minds, they falsely told themselves we have nothing to do with this, the voting or polling units are not placed for us with such qualifications, titles or first class jobs.
They let ignorance vote for them, they allow the decision-making and the future of the country in the hand of people who lack the requisite knowledge of leadership, with incompetence, and end up criticising the process they fail to participate in when things go south, with a barrage of criticisms across social media platforms.
Obviously, the outcome of the election would have been different if those who refused to participate in the process had turned out to cast their vote and partake actively in the process.
Charles de Gaulle said, “in this era, politics is indeed too serious a matter to be left to the politicians”.
The question is, is everyone willing and prepared to be involved?
Musa Abdullahi Pindar wrote from Kano
