By Musa Baba Adamu
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Muiz Banire, has faulted the leadership recruitment process in Nigeria and called on Nigerians, especially the elite to, as a matter of urgency, find a solution before the 2023 general elections.
Banire maintained that the majority of the people at all levels of power in Nigeria do not know the difference between wrong and right and however, faulted the process of electing them from the electorate to the electoral commission.
He noted this while delivering a lecture on “The Nigerian State structure and the 2023 elections” organised by the College of Management and Social Sciences, Fountain University, Osogbo.
According to him, the electorate are the Nigerians who are eligible to cast votes and present themselves for voting in each successive general election.
He said that Nigerians who registered to vote but failed, refused to vote; and those that are eligible to register to vote but failed “affect the success or otherwise of the electoral process.”
He cited, “As at the 11th day of March 2019, the electorate population in Nigeria electorate, however, fail to exercise their franchise, thereby availing the 200,962,417 estimated population of Nigerians. Majority of the was estimated to be about 84,004,084 which represented 49.78% of the politicians the opportunity to manipulate the process.”
Elections in Nigeria, according to him, have always been hijacked.
“The causes of this can be located in the principal characters characterised by rigging, violence, manipulations, bloodshed” use of Independent National Electoral Commission official to manipulate elections and vote buying from the vulnerable and weak ones – defenceless people that are not only denied their democratic rights of choice but equally endangered in the process.”
He condemned the attitude of the elite to elections and appealed to them to rise up to sensitise the vulnerable Nigerians – the illiterate – the weak to be more circumspect and ready to sacrifice their immediate comfort for the ultimate goal of good governance.
