The 2023 general election is around the corner and there is every likelihood for the politicians to make the citizens believe that our voter’s cards can be treated as a meal ticket to surviving the present economic ordeal. There is every possibility to rekindle the old order of exchanging voter cards for food, such as branded rice, cassava, gari, bread, or any other general foodstuff, or materials things, such as customised clothes, T-shirts and Face-cap because of the high rate of hunger and poverty that is ravaging the land.
Over time, some politicians take advantage of the lack of voter education to swindle the electorate of their rights to determine who should be their leaders. Many electorates have lost their rights to the activities of some politicians, who take advantage of our ignorance, hunger, illiteracy, unemployment, and poverty in the land to dictate to us, how our voter’s cards should be used. It is pertinent to note that your Permanent Voter’s Card is not a meal ticket and it should not be treated as such. It is a tool, one uses to exercise its citizen’s right or responsibility to his/her country, apart from paying taxes. In our context, you should treat your voter’s card as a tool or weapon for liberation and restoration from slavery, bondage and manipulation. You should treat your voter’s card as a tool for freedom from all manner of oppression and suppression, and not a tool for stomach infrastructure.
The weapons some Nigerian politicians used against the electorate are called poverty and illiteracy, which have crippled our minds and limited our thinking to immediate gains, rather than the long-term. They used it effectively to make us forget about the future of our children and unborn generation. These tactics yielded to what we have today as Nigeria’s democracy, where the leaders lord over the people and do whatever pleases them with impunity.
Nigerians, it is important we know that the only weapon we have today is PVC, which can only be used every four years, either at the federal, state or local government level. And the repercussions of its abuse last for many years to affect our children’s children. Again, it is important we know the linkages between our voter’s cards, good leadership and good governance in a democratic setting, and what it can earn you as an individual and collectively as a nation. It is good you know that you can only elect good leaders through the ballot box with the effective use of your voter’s card, which will lead to good governance. But the reverse is the case when it is misapplied with wrong assumptions.
Lest we forget, Nigeria’s unemployment figure in 2014 was about 9.7%, representing 7.27 million unemployed Nigerians then. It skyrocketed to 17.5% in 2017, and 22.6 % in 2018. The present regime facilitated its growth, catapulting it to 33.3% in 2020, while under-employment was 22.8%, youth unemployment was 42.5%, and youth under-employment was 21% as of December 2020. It is also important we know that the people that were not working and were not looking for work are not part of these figures. It only covers persons between the ages of 15–64, who during the survey period were available for work and actively seeking work but could not find one.
Also, on the rate of poverty, the World Bank said Nigeria’s “poverty reduction had stagnated since 2015.” The World Bank report also hinted that the poverty headcount rate is projected to jump from 40.1% in 2018/19 to 42.0% in 2020 and 42.6% in 2022. The interpretation and implication are that the number of poor people was 89 million in 2020 and will increase to 95.1 million in 2022. Interesting!
Amid these, killings and bloodshed increased over time, likewise kidnapping and banditry. Nigeria’s university students have been at home for over six months due to the battle between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (strike) and the Federal Government. Many Nigerians trained medical doctors have fled the country for greener pasture, while Nigerians pray and fast before going to the hospitals in Nigeria.
Economically, our purchasing powers have drastically dropped over time due to the high rate of inflation, especially food inflation, which makes it difficult for many Nigerians to have three square meals in a day. The activities of herdsmen, to a large extent, contributed to this menace by making it difficult for farmers to go to their farms. To add it up, Nigeria’s currency has been depreciating from N240 to a dollar in 2014 and N700/$ in 2022, which also contributed to the general rise in prices of goods and services over time.
Eligible Nigerians should not be deceived that the voter’s card is a meal ticket, it’s a tool for liberation from oppression and suppression. Protect your PVCs, so you can protect your vote.
