WHY FIGHT THE GOVERNMENT WHEN YOU CAN REPLACE THEM?

Democracy as we are thought in schools is a government of the people by the the people for the people!

It's simply explicit.

People have the power to make or elect the government that will be run by the people elected to their own benefits.

If this process fails the people why not replace them with another people? Why fight them when we're not in a revolutionary situation?

The law even gave provisions to recall if you can't wait till the next election exercise to recall :

Example!
The best option is to move for the
recall of the legislator as captured
in Sections 69 and 110 of the 1999
Constitution (as amended).
Section 69 states thus: “A
member of the Senate or of the
House of representatives may
be recalled as such a member
if: there is a presentation to the
Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission, a
petition in their behalf, signed by
more than one -half of the persons
registered to vote in that member’s
constituency alleging their loss of
confidence in that member; and
which signatures are duly verified
by the Independent National
Electoral Commission; the petition
is thereafter, in a referendum
conducted by the Independent
National Electoral Commission within ninety days of the date of receipt of the petition, approved
by a simple majority of the votes
of the persons registered to vote in
that member’s constituency.”
For the sake of simplicity, the
above provision is broken down
into the following steps: The
electorate must come up with a
petition alleging loss of confidence
in a law-maker. It should be noted
that what is “loss of confidence” is not defined in the constitution and this means there is no
need to accuse a lawmaker
of any wrongdoing or for a
lawmaker to be culpable of
any misconduct before the
electorate can say they have lost
confidence in him; the petition
must be signed by more than
one-half of the registered voters
in that member’s constituency.
For example, if a member’s
constituency has 1000 registered
voters, not less than 501
registered voters must sign
the petition; the petition must
be submitted to the Chairman
of the Independent National
Electoral Commission; Upon
submission, the Independent
National Electoral Commission
must do the following two
things: It must verify the
authenticity of the signatures;
It must conduct a referendum
within ninety days of the receipt
of the petition in order to get it
approved by a simple majority
of the votes of registered
persons in that constituency"

Fighting the government have too much risk than simply voting. You risk jail, death, national disgrace or permanent solitary.

Going by history, some of those human rights activists that fought for us in the pasts are yet to improve our living or national situations because they never provide a better alternative. Though they went to jail and exiles but they became popular and rich.

They lead us to hit the streets rather than tell us to go and vote better next time, they lead us into waiting batons and bullets, they make us believe that change can be achieved by rioting and protests, they never told us to go to our constituencies to participate strongly in electioneering. But when they negotiate and withdraw the protests or mellow they won't tell us the deal, we just wait to be called again to fight.

Reading a Will of one of the major front runner back in the days, I went through the property that can only be matched by government owned not an individual, no where there states that a portion of it should be given to Nigerians who fought with me to make Nigerian government sit up, yet we still believe in criticism rather than voting.

If I were Bruce or Dino, instead of criticising government I'm part of, I wil use my good work in my constituency to inspire young and vibrant youths to join politics and be the change.

If I were Reno or Audu! I will use my voice and resources to encourage my friends to vote out bad government in the next election rather than fight and strol to jail everytime then become popular on the other side of the law.

I know the law fairly, I can't fight the government but I can vote because I voted to elect, I can vote again to elect better. There's a lot of power in a voter's card. Go grab yours today.

In your best interests : save the fight till election day.

Agboola Odunfa
Youth Political Movement