Ahead of the general election next year, the electorate in Nigeria have been called upon to vote against corrupt politicians.
Founder/Chief Executive Officer, Akin Fadeyi Foundation, Akin Fadeyi, who gave the admonition at the official media presentation of his agency’s 2023 General Election Sensitization project tagged: “Put on Your Thinking Cap”, called on the citizens to secure their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs), and turn out en-mass at the polls to effect the kind of change they truly deserved.
Fadeyi called on the citizens to shun election violence and vote buying, which he said had left them for years at the mercy of “money bags, with their future and that of their unborn children morbidly mortgaged by the pittance politicians often offer to secure their votes.”
More than 80 participants joined in the social re-engineering conversation virtually home and abroad, with a number of journalists in Abuja on Thursday.
Speaking from his base in Lagos, Nigeria’s prolific journalist, Jamiu Mojeed welcomed the initiative, even though he said the project may have come a little too late to change the narratives in 2023.
According to Mojeed, with political parties’ primaries around the corner and with the way the political system is currently structured, the two dominant parties (the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will continue to hold sway with their tickets firmly tucked in the hands of money bags.
He said only a constitutional amendment that makes provision for independent candidacy can possibly turn the table.
Responding, Social Activist, Petra-Akinti Onyegbule said time had come for positive minded young and vibrant citizens to populate the two major political parties and from within, engineer the desired change.
Another speaker, Kayode Akinropo, from his base in the United Kingdom (UK) agreed in principles with Mojeed.
He, however, pushed the button higher when he blamed it all on Nigeria’s faulty foundation.
“How did we get to this point”? He asked, calling on the citizens at all levels to be prepared to ask critical questions and demand accountability.
But even more profound is the submission of AFF Board Chairman, Simon Kolawole, who simply left the solution in a series of posers: “What is the guarantee that if the people do not collect bribes for votes that they will be rewarded with credible leaders?”
He asked even further, “How do we know the people who can perform?”
AFF has been in the business of raising citizens’ consciousness against corruption and other vices since 2006.
The group, in 2016, launched its mega anti-corruption campaign, “Corruption Not In My Country”.
