“Dem give us dem culture, we no understand.” ---Fela Anikulapo-Kuti from Why Black Man dey suffer.

So the re-run elections in Delta state have come and gone, and while a result was declared it has been the same old story of snatched ballot boxes, voter intimidation and massive disenfranchisement of the electorate in whole communities.

However, what struck me the most was a statement by an election monitor who covered the elections in the Delta North area. He said, “the elections in these areas were largely peaceful and without incident. Voter turn out was low as a result of apathy, lack of adequate awareness and voter register issues. This was a classroom for INEC and other election stakeholders and there were many lessons to learn.”

The point I would love to pick on the most is voter apathy.

The biggest problem with voters in Nigeria is that apathy, and it is one of the things that is killing us with regards our electoral issues. Nigerians have time and again failed to constitute themselves into that critical mass that is required to make all efforts at electoral lawlessness to come to nought. We are too apathetic to our plight. The reasons for this apathy are many, chief amongst these the belief, mistaken or not, that our votes do not count.

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