I wonder now if it really matters anyway, after all it's just a single vote and majority will always carry the day in a normal democratic setting. But it just happened that I was left with two bad choices leaving me to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea, a situation where I rather be on the fence. That was my dilemma. GEJ is said to be a weakling and an under-performer and his opponent Buhari is also tainted as a coupist, tyrant and a religious fundamentalist. What separate both of them in my opinion are mainly tribe and party. As for who amongst them is better, read my lips - 'n***.'
I don't believe that out of 160m Nigerians, the opposition cannot throw up a more vibrant aspirant. For GEJ, he used his power of incumbency to win the party ticket. Since I have been given no option but these two aberrations, the fence provides more solace. This is my personal opinion and if you don't like it, too bad, because, there is nothing anyone can do about it.
Well, maybe if someone can give me good reasons why I should climb down, I just might.
Some people have said sitting on the fence will not help us or our country Nigeria, that we know our problems in Nigeria, so we should be able to know which of the two can best address the nation's problems as it were. They believe if we can reduce corruption a little bit, the nation's funds can be used to create jobs for our ever increasing jobless youths. As for thee, they rather chose one that's most likely to make than go with a clueless government that has brought us to this point in 6 years.
They believe that if we all seat on the fence, who will bell the cat? We will continue to complain of any eventual bad government and leadership. It is known across the world that Nigeria ' problems arose from bad leadership. Hence we followers can't afford to sit on the fence and allow things go bad again for another 4 years. Note that you didn't disappoint me. Our leaders have frustrated you and many others like you, but the only weapon we have is our votes (if they allow it to count). I still want to encourage us all to vote our conscience among the two of them.
Other argue that a bad choice is better than doing nothing. If you align your values with your expectations probably making a choice could be a lot easier.
Abstention is a legal democratic choice which is acceptable and practiced worldwide. There are times where ballot papers are marked {Yes, No or Abstain} as choices for the voter to choose from. Abstention does not always mean not voting at all, but sometimes a voter may print on both the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ option to invalidate the vote as a form abstention. In the 1970s the Speaker of the House of Commons, George Thomas warned MPs considering a stroll through both the "aye" and the "no" lobbies. There was a real threat of abstention by the Commons at the time.
It's not a crime to decide to abstain from participating in an election that has been compromised from the primaries by the two major parties. You reserve the choice to starve if you are offered between a rotten egg and a smelly chicken as meal, even in a precinct.
“Abstention is a useful political situation to being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Typically, you don't want to choose between two really bad situations or, for OpenElections?, you don't want to offend either camp. So, instead you choose to make no choice.
Believe me, you will be held responsible for your vote if it is successful. Ask the Iraqis or the Serbs.
By voting for some political group you accept responsibility for the actions of that group. If the system chooses to remove a person’s right to be represented by never representing their views, then to vote within that system is to endorse it. Democracy is about representation, not a charade of votes for essentially the same group of power-elite. I would welcome a RON entry or a 'no confidence' entry on a ballot.
This does not serve the system, however, and so is very rarely seen. Better to pretend people are too lazy or too stupid, rather than admit maybe people cannot respect a government which represents only itself and its sponsors. You are 'de facto' responsible for the consequences of your actions. Most criminal law is predicated on this.” http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?YesNoAbstainVoting
Our standards are very low here and so are our expectations. We use the poor performance of our past leaders as criteria to select new leaders. I am exercising my right to resist bad leadership and sending a message that you don't just throw bad choices with empty promises at me and get my vote. You have to earn it or you get the BOOT. And as for belling a cat, I don’t bell wild cats, I simply dispose them.
