Ex-INEC National commissioner, Lai Olurode, warns against voter apathy

A former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Lai Olurode, has urged Nigerians not to allow the current challenges facing the country to stop them from going out to vote.

Nigerians have been groaning under pains brought about by scarcity of fuel and new naira notes with protests recorded in parts of the country.

Some have died while many others have been injured in the protests in some parts of the country over the challenges.

But Mr Olurode, in a statement on Thursday, stressed that the only way to resolve the lingering challenges facing the country is to elect leaders who can tackle the challenges.

“If we think deeply, oppressors prefer to have a minority taking decisions during voting and during the entire gamut of the electoral process. Unfortunately, it’s only when we come out in large numbers as members of the oppressed class that we can secure alterations in the power equation,” Mr Olurode, a professor, said

“In our country today, there are enough justifications for wanting to stay away from elections. In private and public discussions, I have noticed indicators of voter withdrawal syndrome creeping in,” he said.

“High cost of fuel. Poor administration of naira swap. Indifference by significant state actors. Indifference by banks. And many more. For the past couple of months, there has been wholesale frustration,” he added.

“The ruling elite is engaging a fraction of it in an intra-elite war. There seems to have been a major disagreement among members of the ruling elite. Elite consensus seems impossible. A multiple of fiasco and bad belle with apology to former President Obasanjo. What options are open to the non-elite? ‘Siddon’ look or active participation? The first option cannot be a defensible cause of the marginal and the poor.

“To express our dissatisfaction through non-participation in the forthcoming elections is tantamount to strengthening the stranglehold of dominant forces in society that stand on a collision course with the generality of our people,” the former INEC commissioner noted.

“To reject the reigning value system and fiasco, we must come out strongly to vote our choices.

Mr Olurode concluded that, "street protests aren’t the required responses to tackle and address governance challenges that we found befuddling and perplexing. We need concerted efforts to right socio-economic and political wrongs of the past decades. We must not stay away from the polls but remain glued to our polling units. To do otherwise is to endorse the status quo.”