March 29, 2024

ELECTIONS: The Awful Punishment, Retribution that would befall Nigerians Who Refuse to Vote on 16 February 2019

(a passionate plea by Sylvester Udemezue)

Sylvester Udemezue

I hereby personally and passionately appeal to all Nigerians who are eligible to please go out en masse on Saturday, 16 February 2019 and vote for ANY candidates of their choice in the Presidential and National Assembly elections. I beg you all to let no one deceive or scare you away from voting in the 2019 elections. It is your right to vote; but you have a duty to exercise it, in the best interest of your country.

It is irrational, thoughtless and retrogressive for anyone to still think in this 21st century, that “votes do not count” or that “votes would not count.” If your votes truly do not count, the incumbent in Nigeria would not have been voted out in 2015. Further, a few months ago, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the opposition presidential candidate roundly defeated the incumbent. If votes didn’t count in that election, this would not have happened. I referred to these two recent examples ONLY for the sole purpose of demonstrating to Nigerian citizens that votes cast in elections indeed do count. I therefore strongly believe that these 2019 elections in Nigeria, citizens’ votes would certainly count. Our leaders have assured us that the elections would be peaceful and violence-free. Our leaders and the electoral umpire have assured us that the elections would be free, fair and peaceful. So, please be a good Nigerian; go out and cast your vote.

Your vote is your power; you have a responsibility to exercise it. Even if you’re not a politician, you have a duty to vote in order to determine who leads you. Any man or woman who refuses to vote has no protection against bad governance; he is bound by the outcome of the elections. The ignorance of one voter endangers the security and welfare of all others. As Plato once warned, if you refuse to vote or participate in an election, you would be condemned to being governed by your inferiors and by people who are incompetent. The era of “I would not bother voting, because I know my votes would not count” has become a thing of the past. I therefore beg you all, do not be left out; go out and vote. I repeat, votes now count!

Do not cause problems for yourself; because if you don’t vote, you would die complaining and lamenting, and your complaint and lamentations would have no meaning and would not make any impact unless you behave wisely now. Please, be bold, be a good Nigerian, go out to participate and cast your vote, in order to have a say on who governs you. Your vote is never lost, says John Quincy Adams. To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked (David Sedaris). Elections are about the future. It is your future. Stop staying at home on election day. Go out and vote! Vote!

Memory Verses
• George Jean Nathan: “Bad leaders are elected by good citizens who don’t vote.”
• Susan B. Anthony: “Someone struggled for your right to vote. Please, use it.”
• Larry Sabato: “The result of every election is determined by people who show up to vote.”
• Thomas Jefferson: “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate and vote.”
• Plato: “A major penalty for refusing to participate [and vote]
• is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
• George Carlin: “If you don’t vote, you lose the right to complain [afterwards].”

I wish Nigeria a free, fair, peaceful and successful Presidential and National Assembly Elections. May God help Nigeria; may we come out of this stronger. Amen!!
Respectfully,
Sylvester Udemezue
(udems)
(15/02/2019)

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