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Is having a PVC Enough

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T here is a lot that is being said today about the need for Nigerians to actively get involved in the political process – civil society groups including ours have launched campaigns urging Nigerians to get their Permanent Voters Cards PVC and prepare to exercise their electoral franchise at the polling stations across the country. This enthusiasm is a great improvement from where we have been since we re-embraced democracy in 1999. However, based on my enhanced understanding of the electoral and political process, I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that just having a PVC and voting is not enough. You see, the majority of people involved in politics today – that are actually members of political parties mainly consist of people who have made politics their professions and have never really developed capabilities outside the political sphere to add any real value to our society. These people unfortunately determine everything – the structure of the internal party democracies and a...
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The Criminal Establishment vs. The Credible Alternatives

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When faced with new and different-looking candidates from political parties that they do not know, many voters respond with - the alternatives are not credible. They are not popular enough our people say, and they do not have experience, and most of all they are not prepared to do what the more popular and experienced candidates do to win the elections.  Let us examine each of these three characteristics of candidates that are considered not credible by Nigerian standards. Before we do, just answer this question - what are the results that we have gotten so far from the so-called "credible" ones? Are we more comfortable with the devils that we know than with the angels that we do not know? Or are we like rape victims who having been raped so many times start inviting their rapists to continuously violate them?  So, are the present crop of establishment Nigerian politicians who have failed to deliver the dividends of democracy actually popular or are they actually “notorious”....
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Vote for the Right Reasons

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In every election cycle in Nigeria there always emerges a brand of forward-thinking, energetic candidates that speak truth to power, campaign in disruptive and unconventional ways and unfortunately do not belong to the political parties that seem to know how to win elections.  The general sentiment around such candidates is that they are an unnecessary “distraction” since in reality they can never win the elections. In fact, putting it simply even people who believe in their approach, manifesto and plans remain skeptical and keep convincing themselves and others around them, that voting for such candidates will be a waste of their votes. Is it therefore a surprise that such candidates never win?  Let’s imagine that it takes 1,000 people to choose a winner in an election. 120 of the people (12%) already know that they will be voting for Candidates A or B - the usual suspects from the two dominant parties. There is a third candidate C from another lesser known party who has real...
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How Are Elections Rigged

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One of the reasons why many educated and enlightened people do not bother voting in Nigerian elections is that they believe that elections will be rigged anyway. Little do they know that in reality, the chances of rigging only exist and increase when registered voters do not actually go out to vote.  Let’s explore this with an example: You see if there are 1,000 registered voters at a polling unit and only 300 of them show up, it means that corrupt party officials can collude with corrupt election officials and security agents to finger-print unused ballot papers in alleys and empty buildings near the polling units and then stuff the empty ballot boxes with these fake ballots. This is how rigging happens! If on the other hand, all the 1,000 registered voters show up, there will be no excess un-used ballot papers to finger-print and stuff and even if fake additional ballot papers are introduced later, the total number of votes counted at the polling unit will exceed the 1,000 maximu...
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Our Votes DO Count

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You often hear people say rather dismissively about politics that “our votes don’t count”. This statement was spun in the deepest recesses of hell by Satan himself to deceive Nigerians and to prevent us from exercising our democratic franchise. In a country where only 12% of eligible voters actually vote, saying these words only discourages people further from voting.  So, let’s examine the veracity of this statement. If our votes do not count, why do evil politicians spend a fortune giving out gifts and inducements to voters before elections? Why do incumbents go around with public funds under the guise of state-sponsored empowerment initiatives to give out cash gifts and incentives while wearing party T-shirts just before elections? Why did we see videos of people exchanging cash for pictures of their ballot papers after elections in Nigeria?  The answer is simple, evil politicians are not stupid! They will not spend all that money and resources on trying to “buy the love” o...
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Why YOU must #GetInvolved

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There are three sides to politics - demand (the voters), supply (the candidates and parties) and regulation (INEC and law enforcement agencies)- pretty much the same with every industry.  Thankfully, in a democratic society like Nigeria, you have a chance to participate on any of these sides. The challenge is that too many well-educated and exposed people believe that politics is a dirty game and that they should FLEE from all appearances of it.  The challenge with that narrow way of thinking is that politics affects everything - the quality of education, infrastructure, healthcare, security, sanitation - everything! The decisions that political actors make affect our livelihood and well-being, so keeping away completely from politics is like a group of people watching the TV with an elephant in the parlour and pretending it is not there.  Everyone cannot be an entrepreneur in the same way that everyone cannot be a political office holder. However, we all can be good empl...
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POLITICS IS NOT A GAME, by Omagbitse Barrow

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  If politics is a game, then your life is a joke. This expression about politics being a game is as baseless as it is useless, and it is one of the paradigms that need to change about the way we view politics.  Democratic politics is not just some beauty contest of egotistic and highly confident people seeking high political office. Rather, it is the “collaboration of similar-minded people to create a positive influence in society through leadership and accountability”.  It is a collaboration because it requires the willful participation of the candidates and the electorate and involves both sides working together. It is not about manipulation, deceit or coercion. In this collaboration there will be trade-offs and negotiations in the same way that any other human system operates.  It must also be about similar-minded people - this is why Socrates doesn’t spare us from the guilt of electing incompetent, corrupt and inept leaders. We are certainly accomplices when we ...
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