When my last @FinancialNG column was published, I decided not to talk about it here because I was keen not to be seen pushing an agenda that could be misconstrued as political while the #EndSARS protests were ongoing.
 
Big mistake. 

Here it is: https://bit.ly/37TTaXt 

As @lshaofficial, & the rest of #Nigeria's political class, have shown, the #EndSARS protests are political.

Heck, anything that threatens their ability to steal away all of the commonwealth of the Nigerian people, is something to be attacked.

This is the reason why, as the many videos published yesterday show, they are not concerned with the fact that @HQNigerianArmy killed peaceful protesters during the #LekkiMassacre, rather, they are more concerned about the fact that criticism on social media makes them look bad.

This brings us nicely to talk of voter apathy.

Back in 2014, I constantly kept reminding people that the legislative elections were a lot more important than the executive elections.

Unfortunately, the elections to the Executive always capture the imagination more, than those to the Legislature.

What is even worse, both sets of elections have been seeing waning interest, because of the abysmal performance of the political class.

This chart is for presidential elections, our elections which generate the most interest.

Think of it this way: the recent elections in Edo and Ondo states saw turnout hover just around the 30% mark based on the number of those who collected their PVCs.

If we extrapolate it to the number of registered voters, both elections saw turnout at just above 25%.

By the time you talk about the general population of each state, then the governor of each of Edo and Ondo state was elected by somewhere around 15% of his state's population.

The same applies to Buhari.

In the 2011 presidential elections, voter turnout came in at 54 percent, down from 58 percent and 69 percent in 2007 and 2003, respectively. By 2015, it had fallen to just 44 percent. In the 2019 presidential elections, it was just 35 percent.

Muhammadu Buhari was re-elected president by a paltry 18.5 percent of all registered voters.

In effect, less than one in five registered voters in #Nigeria backed Buhari in his re-election for a second term.

When you consider that the number of registered voters as of last year (82.3 million) is less than half of the entire Nigerian population, it can be safely inferred that just over one in 20 people in our country voted in the current president.

This raises questions about their legitimacy, and despite the hubris, they know it. This is behind the rising authoritarianism.

Deep down, our government knows it no longer represents the people, so it wants to shut down any avenues that may seize the legitimacy that it lacks.

I recommend you take the time to watch this @sbmintelligence video on the #SocialMediaBill to understand why it is so important that we resist it:

It is one of the balls to keep your eye on, and perhaps the most important one at the moment.

My advice would be this: our history shows that we cannot afford to let men with guns seize power. It ALWAYS ends in tears.

While protests and dissent are a valid part of democracy and given the #LekkiMassacre, the #EndSARS protests should continue in one form or the other, our young people, whom I am very proud of, should also organise especially for the state and national assembly elections.

Young people should also organise and ensure that competent people should attend every public hearing going forward.

The show of shame where there was no debate in Lagos over #LekkiMassacre, or the fact that @NGRSenate has willingly subordinated itself to Buhari, shows just how important proper representation is.

The price of a just and democratic society is eternal vigilance. We must show that we are willing to pay that price.