₦airaland Forum

I got the inspiration for creating this thread after I finished reading an earlier thread about how Yoruba Nation Supporters staged a protest in front of the UN Headquarters in New York......
.....Yoruba Nation Supporters Storm UN HQ In New York, Demand Referendum (Video).
(https://www.nairaland.com/6755665/yoruba-nation-supporters-storm-un)
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SOME THINGS ARE VERY CLEAR TO EVERYONE AT THE MOMENT..
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1. The Nigerian Constitution allowed for Referendum Only when there is need to create a new state or a new LGA, or when there is need to adjust the existing boundaries of States or LGAs, or when there is need recall a member of the National Assembly or State Assembly the Constituents of the Representative.

2. According to the Nigerian Constitution, for a Referendum to be conducted, the National Assembly or the State Assembly (as the case may be) must raise the motion for which the Referendum is required, and then call for a Referendum to be conducted by the INEC.

3. The INEC should conduct the Referendum within the stipulated time-frame, and the Simple Majority wins in such Referendums.

4. Only Nigerian Citizens who have Valid INEC-Issued Permanent Voter's Card can vote in a Referendum, since INEC is the umpire.

5. The National Assembly or the State Assembly (as the case may be), can now make people-guided decisions based on the result of the Referendum.
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In this very case which we are discussing, the Referendum in question is a VOTE for the people to decide whether they still want to be a part of the Bigger Nigeria.. But this type of Referendum definitely has no place in the Nigerian Constitution.
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But since they cannot conduct a Referendum for the people, the people can still come out and conduct A Referendum for themselves, which would pass a very strong message to the tyrants, and also spread our message across to the whole world that we rejected our current tyrant leaders including those stooges they are planning to impose on us.
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HOW CAN THIS BE DONE??
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The Nigerian Constitution gave us a big clue.
The Section-134; Subsection-2(b) of the Nigerian Constitution says it all.
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I will explain better.
Voided Votes, otherwise knows as Rejected Votes, are also counted as votes, and they are also part of the TOTAL VOTES CAST.
If a presidential candidate wins in an election, but the voided/rejected votes are too many in such a way that the voided/rejected votes overshadowed his votes in a lot of States, then he cannot be returned as the winner.
This Simply Means that the people in such states rejected everybody on the list.
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(The Section-134; Subsection-2(b) of the Nigerian Constitution states that “the Candidate must have ONE-QUARTER of ALL the votes cast in at least TWO-THIRDS of all the Local Government In the State”.... It didn't refer to only the Valid Votes, but to ALL the Votes Cast, which also includes the voided/rejected votes)
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With such a Protest-Voting, and without the Usual Electoral Malpractice in Nigeria, the message could be heard loud and clear.
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Sitting-at-home on an election day cannot pass such a strong message, because those ones who did not vote cannot cause an election to be voided.

Ok..
I have finished wailing..
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I can now have some little peace of mind.

Lalasticlala,
Seun

Mynd44

Slap44

Emergingnation,

Nice one op. It is a good idea.

However such enlightenment cannot be passed across to the people in good time. It would take years for people to grasp this concept of protest voting.

On the other hand if people sit at home I don't think votes can be gotten in up to two thirds of a state. Which means inconclusive elections. Am I right op?

SlayerForever:
Nice one op. It is a good idea.

However such enlightenment cannot be passed across to the people in good time. It would take years for people to grasp this concept of protest voting.

On the other hand if people sit at home I don't think votes can be gotten in up to two thirds of a state. Which means inconclusive elections. Am I right op?

The only time when A Sit-at-home can have an effect is:
If the voting in a lot of Polling-units were cancelled, then it would be that the total number of Registered voters in the cancelled Polling-units are larger than the difference between the winner's votes and the person who came second.
But then, even if there is no Sit-at-home, cancelled Polling-units are still the major reasons for inconclusiveness of elections and not Low-Voters-Turnouts.
In fact, if there is a Sit-at-home on an election day which leads to lots of Low-Voters-Turnouts, then most Polling-units would be very peaceful., and there would be No cancellations, and therefore, no inconclusive results.
And there is no way you would expect An Absolute Zero Vote because there are party agents who are there no matter what, and they must vote.
So, even if just one person votes in each of the Polling-units, and all their votes were validly voted in favour of their preferred candidates, and there were no cancellations in all the Polling-units, then a winner must emerge, upon the fact that the turnout of the voters might even be as low as 0.0001%, because the two-thirds are only counted for only the votes cast, and not for the registered voters who refused to come out.. Thus, such an election will Not be seen as inconclusive.
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I hope you understand my direction of discussion up to this point??..
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Now,,, ... There is something that usually happens with the Nigerian Elections...
And it is called “Multiple Thumb-printing”.
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I hope you might have witnessed it, or even if you have never witnessed it, at least you might have heard about it.
This thing they call “multiple thumb-printing” is a reason why the Sit-at-home can never ever work.
If you sit at home, then those party agents are all alone at the Polling-units without any hindrances standing in their way, and they can happily stay for up to six-hours doing multiple Thumb-printing.
Now, the Sit-at-home becomes a useless exercise because the party agents at the Polling-units had already used their own greedy thumbs to represent the thumbs of those guys that decided to sit at home.

BluntCrazeMan:
The only time when A Sit-at-home can have an effect is:
If the voting in a lot of Polling-units were cancelled, then it would be that the total number of Registered voters in the cancelled Polling-units are larger than the difference between the winner's votes and the person who came second.
But then, even if there is no Sit-at-home, cancelled Polling-units are still the major reasons for inconclusiveness of elections and not Low-Voters-Turnouts.
In fact, if there is a Sit-at-home on an election day which leads to lots of Low-Voters-Turnouts, then most Polling-units would be very peaceful., and there would be No cancellations, and therefore, no inconclusive results.
And there is no way you would expect An Absolute Zero Vote because there are party agents who are there no matter what, and they must vote.
So, even if just one person votes in each of the Polling-units, and all their votes were validly voted in favour of their preferred candidates, and there were no cancellations in all the Polling-units, then a winner must emerge, upon the fact that the turnout of the voters might even be as low as 0.0001%, because the two-thirds are only counted for only the votes cast, and not for the registered voters who refused to come out.. Thus, such an election will Not be seen as inconclusive.
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I hope you understand my direction of discussion up to this point??..
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Now,,, ... There is something that usually happens with the Nigerian Elections...
And it is called “Multiple Thumb-printing”.
..
I hope you might have witnessed it, or even if you have never witnessed it, at least you might have heard about it.
This thing they call “multiple thumb-printing” is a reason why the Sit-at-home can never ever work.
If you sit at home, then those party agents are all alone at the Polling-units without any hindrances standing in their way, and they can happily stay for up to six-hours doing multiple Thumb-printing.
Now, the Sit-at-home becomes a useless exercise because the party agents at the Polling-units had already used their own greedy thumbs to represent the thumbs of those guys that decided to sit at home.

Excellent explanation. We watch events unfold.

Let all the Southern States Come Together And Carry Out This Indirect Referendum In the 2023 General Elections.
Can The Citizens Of The Southern States All Agree On This Without Cowardly Chickening Out??

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Let all the Southern States Come Together And Carry Out This Indirect Referendum In the 2023 General Elections.
Can The Citizens Of The Southern States All Agree On This Without Cowardly Chickening Out??

DubaiLandLord1, Decentdave, Immatex, Macphenson...

BluntCrazeMan:
Let all the Southern States Come Together And Carry Out This Indirect Referendum In the 2023 General Elections.
Can The Citizens Of The Southern States All Agree On This Without Cowardly Chickening Out??

Yes, except it is not about voting some looters and bullion van landlords, the south can go for it.

Validated:
Yes, except it is not about voting some looters and bullion van landlords, the south can go for it.

Please could you read the original post and understand better..
Thanks

BluntCrazeMan:
Let all the Southern States Come Together And Carry Out This Indirect Referendum In the 2023 General Elections.
Can The Citizens Of The Southern States All Agree On This Without Cowardly Chickening Out??

Your suggestion is by no means bad it's sound and doable.
It will however require educating the voters and those seeking a referendum.
This voters education will take time for these voters to understand this concept of ensuring their ballots are voided.
Perhaps this can be experimented in 2023!

Immatex:
Your suggestion is by no means bad it's sound and doable.
It will however require educating the voters and those seeking a referendum.
This voters education will take time for these voters to understand this concept of ensuring their ballots are voided.
Perhaps this can be experimented in 2023!

That is it.
With this, we the voters can frustrate them with our votes.
That will be the time that they will understand that we can do anything we want with our votes.
With this, they will stop trying to please their masters in the Politicial Parties, and start trying to please the people.
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All it requires is for us to have one mind as a people, because if we are divided, we can never ever achieve this.

This will only work if there is no electoral malpractice

Lalasticlala,
Seun

BluntCrazeMan

BluntCrazeMan:
Let all the Southern States Come Together And Carry Out This Indirect Referendum In the 2023 General Elections.
Can The Citizens Of The Southern States All Agree On This Without Cowardly Chickening Out??

It could be done but my fear is that desperate politicians could sabotage it.