The African Democratic Congress (ADC) recently held a retreat on voter apathy in Nigeria. ONYEKACHI EZE examines factors that are responsible for this and how it could be addressed

Last week, the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC), one of the 19 registered political parties, said it has taken steps to bring people it called “displeased voters” to a round table, to discuss the issue of voter apathy during elections in the country.

A former presidential aspirant of the party in 2023 general election, Chukwuka Monye, who addressed the retreat, explained that there is the need to know if the displeased voters will come back, and on what basis they will return to vote again.

Among the panelists at the retreat, which the party organised for its National Executive Committee (NEC) members in Abujam were drivers, market women and artisans, whom Monye said “are important to us.” Recall that 2023 general election witnessed the lowest turnout of voters in elections since the return of democracy in the country.

There was also disaffection at the outcome of the election. Many voters believed that the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were not true reflections of the votes cast. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the European Union said the election was corrupted with several irregularities.

Obasanjo in a statement, alleged that the results did not show the true reflection of the will of Nigerians Corruption in the system, violence and intimidation of voters by party thugs and security agencies, late arrival of election materials and disenfranchisement of voters, were blamed for low turnout of voters during the last elections.

Although voter turnout has always been a source of worry in Nigeria, it has continued to decline since the country’s return to civil rule in 1999. A report obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission (NEC) showed that the highest voter turnout since 1999 was in 2003 when the country recorded 69.08 per cent voter turnout.

The worse was the last presidential election in 2023, where a paltry 25,286,616 out of over 93 million registered voters elected the current president Bola Tinubu. The report further showed that 29.8 million persons or 52. 26 per cent of registered voters participated in the 1999 presidential election that produced Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as president. This figure increased to 39 million, which was 69.1 per cent, in 2023 when Obasanjo was reelected in office.

Unfortunately it fell down to 35.4 million, or 57.5 per cent, in 2007. Since then, it has been a downward slide – 38.2 million (53.68 per cent) in 2011; 28.6 million (43.65 per cent) in 2015; 27.4 million (34.75 per cent) in 2019; and 25.1 million (26.71 per cent) in 2023. Election expert, Ejikeme Jombo Nwagwu, who made a comparison between Nigeria and some selected African countries, concluded that despite political turbulence in the countries under review, political consciousness is higher in those countries than in Nigeria.

According to him, it was only in 1999 that voter turnout in Nigeria aggregated with the selected African countries. “In 2011, registered voter turnout was 54 per cent … equal to Zambia (54 per cent) in the same year. Registered voters turnout in Kenya in 2013 was 86 per cent in spite of its turbulent election and post-election violence, followed by Ghana with 80 per cent in 2012, South Africa (77 per cent) in 2009, Cameroon (68 per cent) in 2011, and Senegal (57 per cent) in 2012.

“South African political consciousness is overwhelming considering the trauma of apartheid system which the country experienced in the hands of minority white,” he concluded. There have been varied reasons why voter turnout in Nigeria has been on downward slide. The ADC National Chairman, Dr. Ralph Okey Nwosu, blamed voter apathy in the country on political party leadership. According to him, only right leadership could restore voter confidence in elections.

“The political party is the foundation and it sets the tone for the leadership to expect,” he said, arguing that “the much talked about strong institutional requisites for democratic and political leadership begins with strong political parties. “ADC wants change in the electoral process to start with the voters.

The voters are critical to democracy and nation building. ADC asserted that it’s liaison with the electorate must continue in good spirit.” Nwosu said the problem is not with INEC but business elites and politicians in Nigeria.

“The opportunism in most of us is beyond reason,” he said, and cited the case of INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kano State who was burnt alongside members of his family in 2015, because he refused to do the biddings of politicians.

ADC wants change in the electoral process to start with the voters. The voters are critical to democracy and nation building

“The recorded incidents of such deaths are many. Elected government officials have waylaid INEC officials with thugs and guns. Not many of us stood up for them. “The men and ladies of the judiciary, are exempted also. Many of them enthusiastically watch (politicians) maneuver as mavericks to power and have seen their hopes dashed, because no sooner the Nigerian politician got to office than the looting began,” he argued.

The introduction of technology in the conduct of elections, however, exposed the high figures previously returned as number of people who came to vote. Thus, whereas politicians could inflate the figure of supposedly registered voters, help them manipulate election figures, when the country depended on manual register of voters, the introduction of biometric permanent voter’s card (PVC) eliminated the imputation of such fictitious and nonexistent names.

Manual registration of voters allowed for multiple registrations and multiple voting. But these were eliminated by the introduction of technology. INEC moved further in the use of technology with the introduction of card-reading machines in 2015, to authenticate the PVCs and accredited the voters, which prevented double voting.

The low turnout in the 2023 general election was believed to be as a result of the use of BVAS, to accredit voters and upload polling unit results. The “incident forms,” which allowed politicians to often bypass the card readers on claim of technical hitch, was eliminated. That may be the reason why the figure of the 2023 was the lowest.

But the fact remains that the zeal with which Nigerian electorate register whenever INEC calls for continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise, is not the same zeal employed during elections. It is because most of them do not go to exercise their civic responsibility that often gives room for the manipulation of figures by politicians to rig themselves into office. And that is why the retreat by the ADC, to interrogate why voter apathy persists at every election, is germane.

The main reason is fear of attack by political thugs. A report by Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), a civil society organisation, showed that a total of 238 violence and 28 deaths were recorded during the 2023 general elections. The group disclosed that while a total of 98 of the violence occurred during the February 25 presidential election, 140 were reported during the March governorship and state House of Assembly polls.

“In total, we had like about 238 cases of election violence, which is spread across the country, and not good enough and each of them has their perpetrators and then also the victims, which we have close to 900 victims, and at the same time, reported 24 cases of electoral death,” KDI executive director Bukola Idowu further explained. Yet, this is considered lowest compared to previous elections.

This situation is worsened because the perpetrators of this violence have not been brought to book, because they are protected by persons in high places. INEC had demanded for establishment of special tribunal to handle election related violence, but those in authority are not willing to do that because they are beneficiaries of such violence. This means that addressing issue of voter apathy should begin with protecting the voter and ensuring that perpetrators of electoral violence were brought to book.

Many have called for the introduction of electronic voting in the nation’s electoral process. This is to guarantee the safety of voters and transparency of the electoral process. Chairperson of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Abuja branch, Precious Nwadimuya, agreed that electronic voting will eliminate electoral violence and voter suppression, just as she noted that “the introduction of BVAS prevented some regions of the country from producing humongous votes” in the 2023 general elections.

“With the introduction of technology in voting, I can sit down in my house and vote. Nobody will intimidate or suppress me or buy my votes at home,” she argued, adding that “People are crying foul because accreditation worked very well with the BVAS, but failed in the transmission of results. This resulted in the speculation that the results were manually manipulated.”