Sir: I read with immense bewilderment, anxiety and disdain the untimely death of a teenage voter, Daniel Usman, who was shot dead during the presidential election on February 23rd at his polling unit in Ajetachi, Ayanba, Kogi State. Daniel was a 19-year-old 400 level undergraduate student from the Kogi State University, Anyigba.
He must have woken up with unfound zeal and enthusiasm to exercise his civic right to vote, the first ever. Having heard of how leaders are voted into power by the masses and the intrigues of electoral procedures, Daniel couldn’t have waited any longer. Like any other Nigerian, he wanted his voice to be heard, he wanted his vote to count, and above all, he wanted to participate in furthering the cause of democracy in Nigeria. Alas! He met his end.
Although the information about his death is still sketchy, some quarters have it that he was brutally killed when he insisted on voting the candidate of his choice, not succumbing to the intimidation by some party mercenaries and miscreants. Another report has it that he was killed by bullets fired by political thugs at the polling area during voting.
Be it as it was, Daniel died as a hero and a martyr; a hero of our democracy and a martyr of modern Nigeria. He believed in Nigeria and trusted to be fully involved in advancing democracy, but all he got was the dead end of insecurity, oppression, barbarism, and injustice characterizing our present society. Where is the civility our nation once stood for?
Since 2015, things have remained the way they used to be. The same old vices characterizing Nigerian elections years before 2015 are the same bedeviling us now in 2019, and even worse. The intimidations, killings, arrests, kidnappings, oppression, thuggery, assassinations, ballot snatching, vote buying etc. are daring us to our very face.
What the killings of several voters in Rivers State, the abduction of Delta State governor’s aide by unknown gunmen in military uniform and killings of voters in the state, the killing of Bayelsa State governor’s photographer, the burning of ballot boxes in Lagos and Cross River, the early dawn attack by Boko Haram in Yobe and Borno states, chasing of INEC officials by thugs in Egor/Ikpoba-Okha, Edo State, the tension in Ogbomosho which led to the fleeing of INEC officials from the collation center, thugs invasion of different collation centers across the country as reported, reports of politicians conniving with INEC officials, reports of tampering with results sheets, report of compromise by the military, police and other security organizations, and many other anomalies represent the perils of our democracy.
When will there be genuine change? When are we going to have an egalitarian society? When will our voices be heard and our votes truly counted? When will modern sanity and civilization engulf our electioneering and the nation at large?
Daniel stood for Nigeria, but Nigeria state failed him. What a promising chap! What a hope dashed! What a pain! What a death too many!
- Reuben Rine,
<kalomovaah@yahoo.com>
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