The Voter And Their Country -By Kene Obiezu

Last month’s Area Council elections across the Federal Capital Territory revealed a frightening possibility: that voter apathy could keep the Nigerian voter away from the ballot box, effectively ceding critical ground to the merchants and mercenaries who continue to sell the country to bad leadership and crippling underdevelopment.

After months of somewhat muted campaigning, February 21st, 2026, opened the ballot box for Nigerians living in the Federal Capital Territory to elect their Area Council area council chairmen.With the recent push for financial autonomy for local government areas around the country based on a Supreme Court judgment in the country and their crucial proximity to Nigeria’s long-neglected grassroots, Nigerians were expected to storm the polling units and mount the ballot boxes. Rather, many Nigerians tellingly chose to remain in their homes as the election witnessed a disappointingly low voter turnout.

The failure of leadership In Nigeria is well-documented. The catastrophic cost of this failure of leadership curses Nigerians with the insecurity that plagues the country, the crumbling infrastructure, grinding poverty, and crippling healthcare. But it is time for the Nigerian voter to look hard at themselves.

Nigeria did not descend into the doldrums by magic. It took the efforts of those determined to ruin the country to make it happen. In the same way, it will take the efforts of patriotic Nigerians to dig the country they love out of the hole into which it has fallen. It will take sacrifice. The least of those sacrifices is becoming a voter in the real sense of the word, which entails political participation culminating in voting on election day. This is the least demand that can be made. 2027 is around the corner.

There is a direct causal link between voter apathy and bad leadership. When those who should vote stay away from voting and guarding their votes because of their distrust of national institutions, more space opens up for the mercenaries and merchants who trade in Nigeria’s future and commonwealth to do business. Their business is a business of death, and until Nigerians do something, they will continue to die at the hands of those whose greed is their life.

Every vote is a choice, a conscience, a decision, and a crucial piece of history. In fact, the vote is the most crucial part of any democracy. It may be a choice, but while the choice must not be compelled to be exercised in a particular manner, conscience and indeed survival demand that it should be exercised in a conscientious manner.

Every voter is a country. Every vote is a country. No matter how inconsequential it may seem, there is always an enormous amount of significance and substance hanging on every vote.

The vote for the soul of any country must never be left to electoral brigands or chance

To refuse to vote at all is to surrender to the forces bent on tearing Nigeria apart without a fight. Whatever happens, refusing to vote is not an option. Nigerians must seize the bull by the horns, and it all begins with ink on the thumb and thumb on a ballot paper.

Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com