The citizens in a representative democracy have three duties and responsibilities. The first is to register to vote. The second is to participate in the voting exercise during the elections. And the third is to make sure that they cast their votes for the most capable candidate that will deliver good leadership and make live pleasant and enjoyable for the people.
All the three duties are sacrosanct. If you don’t register, you can’t vote. If you register and you don’t vote, you have perished your vote and lost the opportunity to elect the best candidate. I will also add that such a person has violated the trust reposed in him/her by the system. Finally while it is incumbent on the citizen to vote, the voting should not be based on sentiment, subjectivity, prejudice, bias, stereotype or hate, or if you like groupthink. Not voting is not an option.
In Nigeria, most of those people who voted based on hate, prejudice, bias, stereotype, or other sentiments are regretting their actions now. They are experiencing what psychologists termed “buyers’ remorse”. The problem with these people is that they are causing the rest of the population untold hardships by voting for a candidate who is least capable and least deserving of the opportunity to lead. They perished their franchise and sank other’s people’s power of vote as well by voting to power an incompetent candidate.
Will Nigerian learn from this grave error? I don’t think so. The country is vastly divided along religious and ethnic lines and religion plays a prominent role in our campaigns for elective office especially at the presidential level. Some opinion leaders who should know better are aggravating the problems. One columnist has descended so low as to recommend that people should put on their religious sleeves in a future campaign for governorship election in a state where religion is not considered a factor in choosing the representative of the people. That should not be one of the worries of the electorates. Rather attempt should be made to educate the citizens on how to better participate in the election process.
What say you?