Political apathy in Nigeria

They say a stitch in time saves nine; it is idiomatic that means ‘mending a fault as soon as it is noticed will save time and cost.’ Damages quickly worsen if it is not repaired and have no choice than to go back to the drawing board, meaning starting all over again.

Political apathy is the fault that refused to be amended as soon as it was noticed which now costs time and lives in Nigeria today.

Apathy means lack of interest in thing. Political apathy means not participating in politics, electoral process, and joining political parties, or having total hatred for it.

Large percentage of Nigerians have apathy for politics. It is a serious challenge today. Many refuse to belong to, or support any political party. They see politicians as thieves, liars, and people who don’t have passion for the populace. Thus has been an issue which, in turn, leads to voters apathy, among many other issues, to the extent that people who are eligible to vote during election and those who are processing the voter’s registration turn out low or decide to stay back at home, believing that their votes don’t count and always refuse to turn out, having a general feeling and belief that their votes will have no impact on the outcome of the election.

Feeling of many also grows due to the level of campaign violence that always occurs during the build up to election, weak security measures at the voting centres, disruption of voting centres by thugs, snatchings of ballot boxes and history of election which made the matter worse, make people stay away for electoral process for the safety of their lives, because many believe that if they get injured, it doesn’t matter to them.

Political apathy won’t be this pronounced if there is good governance and leadership in the country. The current state of governance is probably the major reason for political apathy in Nigeria.

It’s an issue on its own for not believing in the way of governance that triggered lacking the interest to see the government improve also loss hope of better governance. Therefore, a reason for apathy.

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The effect of apathy has turned to a bone of contention. Apathist do not protest against bad government, high level of corruption, lawlessness flourishing in the country, which was assumed to result to imbalance of power, civil wars and resolution, development of the country becomes very slowly.

Being an apathist won’t help, but fighting apathy will itself change the mood instead of abandoning and avoiding our duties. Participating in election process will not do us harm but good. What about (learning) finding out biographies and political activities of any candidate, it will enlighten and gives us knowledge of whom to vote for.

We should have it in mind that politics is not a game and participating or joining political parties is not a bad omen.

Don’t let us leave fire on the roof while sleeping, but being vigilant, so we can laugh last.

Owolabi Kehinde

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