When I was in primary school, during social studies class, I was taught a couple of rights or freedom that every citizen of a country was supposed to enjoy. Some which included the right to religion, freedom of speech,, right to life, to vote and to be voted for amongst others. These rights as we know it are the basic tenet of living for a free citizen in a democratic nation. These basic rules are supposed to foster better living as we know it but is it achieving its goal completely?
The solution to someone else’s problem might not necessarily be the solution to my problem.
It is imperative that in my quest for salvation, I understand the fact that its a personal pursuit and ones model vivendi might not necessarily be mine, no matter how well it works for such one.
The problem of trying so hard in vain to fit a round peg in a square hole is a plague that has destroyed the nation of Nigeria. We seem to get the impression that the way it worked else where is the same way it must work here, and when it doesn't, we keep trying hard in vain and in the end becoming the very persons who either Mark Twain or Albert Einstein describe as fools doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.
The justification of any laid down rule of a civil society comprising humans who can think for themselves is such that in the end, orderliness and the best possible outcome is achieved. If we agree with this justification, then I’ll implore you to take one of the given rights as a case study as to whether it is completely achieving the purpose for which it was created.
Ziad K Abdelnour is not very famous for his important quote about power in the wrong hand killing the wielder of such power.
I am of the opinion that not everyone is deserving of the right to vote.
Voting right is a fundamental part of democratic movement but what is more important is the ability to properly and cognitively exercise a conscious choice of leadership. Nigeria still has majority of its population as illiterates who do not understand the effect of voting and the implication of selling their votes for two cups of Garri, another example of selling your soul to the devil to gain what I won't even consider as the whole world. During elections, we have
unscrupulous politicians who swindle ignorant citizens of their votes in exchange for little amount of money or food items and several sensitisation programmes have done little or nothing to put sense in the illiterate populace who engage in the voting exercise.
I recommend that putting the power of voting in the the hands of incompetent voters is utter abuse of such power and such a right should be taken from them and be left to those who can do the job of selecting a better ruler for a better Nigeria .
It is my view that if one of the prerequisites for political leadership in Nigeria is a certain level of education, the prerequisite for voting eligibility should also be a certain level of education.
If this rule is not adopted then the purpose of inserting a prerequisite for political leadership would have been defeated.
I, as an educated citizen with common sense will forever be against the idea of illiterates voting literates into power. And until we come together and fight against this archaic idea of indirect misrepresentation, we might
never really get apt rulership in Nigeria.