Engagement Challenge S8-W3 | Elections in my Country.
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Finally am dropping an entry for this contest... although with a mixed feeling. I feel happy about the topic at least it will afford me the opportunity to air my opinion and but I equally feel sad about what am about to share concerning my country's electoral process. The just concluded Presidential election is actually nothing to write home about.
Anyways journey with me as I attempted to share my though in line with the guidelines given for this contest. I hope you find my interesting. So leggo....😊
Elections in my country is unique and peculiar. unique in the sense that we have our own system which tend to be different from what others nation's or countries of the world operate, we have a way of customizing our approach to things here. Well I speak in parable but just journey with me, you will understand before reading to the end.
I will be shedding more light on it in the next section. Our election here is held every four (4) years. An individual is also allowed to run for a maximum of two terms as a President or Governor. Two terms here means 8 year.
A big thanks to God for a law of this nature, if not so many so called leader out there would have handled power and refuse to release it. Power they say, intoxicates and corrupt especially among the black, I say this with all due respect. We have seen and read history of how some blacks decided to hold on to power and become dictators along the line. They had to be force out of the seat, some died in the process.
We practice the Democratic system of government. Where the power belong to the people... Democratic system of government can simple be defined as the government of the people by the people and for the people. Well this is true in other civilized country, maybe not in my country
People are allowed to vote and be voted for in this kind of electoral system. Since am asked to tell what I think about the system, I would say the people do not really have the power as they should in a democratic setting.
It is a general believe in this part of the world that the people do not have a voice neither does their vote count. I really do hope that things change in this part of the world, that we would practice true democracy just like the way it is done in other developed and civilized countries where its been practiced.
Having establish the fact that we run a democratic system of government. We follow some strategic and due electoral process . The first thing first is to register electorates/voters. This is done months before the date scheduled for election.
Electorates register according to their ward. This enables them to cast vote in their immediate environment. We operate an open secret ballot system. Which means you will be casting your vote in the open but the candidate of your choice would be made secret.
You place your thumb in a ink and carefully place it in the space provided for the candidate of your choice. You also have to be careful to do this well so that it doesn't end up an invalid vote.
Anyways I featured as one of the electoral officers in the just concluded Presidential, senetorial and House of Representatives election. So what am sharing is experiential.
Having mentioned that I featured in the just concluded election, I would like to state that the whole process wasn't fair and transparent. Well it wasn't from our end, we did all that was expected of us as officials even in our pollen units.
Just recently we adopted a new voting and accreditation model called BVAS which is suppose to bring efficiency to the electoral process. Somehow this raised the hopes of many Nigerian who had given up on voting prior to this time because elections had always been rigged using the last card reader model
The people came out in Mass to exercise their Civic right but it's quite unfortunate that the BVAS model was still used to rigged the election as it didn't transmit result from pollen unit directly to the national collation center and this is contrary to what it's designed to achieve.
Anyway the process is still being looking into in the court of law. Aggrieved candidate have presented the case before the court of the law for proper handling.
The body responsible for free, fair and credible election in our country is called INEC. But it seems to me that they have been failing over the years due to one important quality they lack as a body and that quality is INDEPENDENCE. They seem not to be independent in their dealing.
Independence here means the ability to carry out their job with all fairness and without undue influence. If INEC as a body can uphold this quality, elections in my country Nigeria will be free , fair and credible.
Rumours with elements of truth have been flying around of how one of the presidential candidate bribe his way through to be declared the winner against the choice of the masses...This is not the kind of electoral system we desire.
Another thing that I would suggest is that there should be maximum security for electorate who desire to come out and vote. The truth is that it's not always safe out there. It's one thing to be willing to vote, it is yet another thing to be sure of your sefety out there.
If I have the ability to put things in place, I would priotize the safety of the people, the electorate so that they can all come out and exercise their right as citizens without fear.
I have always wished and hope for a new Nigeria. There are a lot of things that need to be checked honestly and this includes our electoral process whose real name should have been DNEC (Dependent Electoral commission) instead of INEC (independent electoral commission). Nevertheless, I have not given up on my country Nigeria. I still so much believe in the birthing of a New Nation.
Thank for so much for coming this far with me. I trust you enjoyed every bit of this write up. Just before I go, I would love to invite my friends @ruthjoe, @josepha @enamul17 @harun19. Gracias!
Regards
@lhorgic♥️
Dear @lhorgic, I found your post about the recent elections in your country to be very engaging and informative. your analys of the election process and its impact on your country Was insightful and thought provoking. It is great to see that youre taking an active role in the Democratic process by participating in the Election & encouraging others to do the same. your passion for your country and its future is truly inspiring . I look forward to reading more of your content and insights on current events in your country .
Thank you dear @hamzayousafzai, it glaring you took your time to go through the post. Am grateful for the warm remark. Gracias!
TEAM 1
Congratulations! Your Comment has been upvoted through steemcurator04. We support good comments anywhere..You have talked so well about the given talked which I most say that you an experienced in participating in Nigeria election. I wish you best of luck.
Thanks as usual brotherly... I really appreciate brother.
Hola @Ihorgico, creo que la falta de independencia de los organismos encargados de dirigir las elecciones es la mayor falla que sufren los sistemas electorales de muchos de nuestros paises. Saludos
Thank you so much for your warm remark, am grateful. Gracias!
Your post has been supported by @simonnwigwe from Team 2 of the Community Curation Program, at 40%. We invite you to continue sharing quality content on the platform, and continue to enjoy support, and also a likely spot in our weekly top 7.
Thanks brotherly. I really appreciate your support.