Your vote is the rare opportunity you have to determine, to some extent,
your destiny and those of your children. So before you vote, these are some of
the questions you should ask yourself:
- Is your life better today than four years ago?
- Are the lives of Nigerian children better today than four years ago?
- If there were to be a medical emergency in the middle of the night, would you or your family member be able to call an ambulance to get you to a hospital where you can be guaranteed quality treatment that is free at the point of need?
- Do you know the federal government's policy on education or health?
- Do you feel that the President, the Governor of your state, your constituency senator, your constituency’s member of the House of Representative or your local member of the House of Assembly represent your interest?
- Apart from during elections, do you have any means or opportunity of holding any of these people to account?
- Do you believe that any of the above people have ever been involved in corruption or shady activities that would have led to their resignation or perhaps landed them in jail in other societies?
- Do you think any of the above people i.e. President, Governors etc see themselves as servants of the people or behave as such?
- Do you think any of them are consumed by the passion to fight for your cause and for the poor and weak in our society?
- Are old people in your family entitled to government pension though they have never worked for any government body, agency, school or civil service?
- Do you feel the police protect you from criminals, and uphold justice?
- Have you found it easy to renew a passport, obtain a drivers’ license or any other benefits of citizenship in the past four years?
- Has your Senator, member of the House of Representative, or House of Assembly member campaigned for the funding of the hospital in your local area?
- Has he/she vigorously fought for a new hospital to be built in your ward or city?
- Have new primary and secondary schools been built in your locality as a direct result of the effort of any of the above politicians?
- Has your representative helped to improve the transport situation in your area?
- Can you mention one policy or issue that your constituency’s senator, member of the House of Representative or House of Assembly member has helped to bring to the statute book?
If the answer to any of the above
questions is ‘No’, then use your vote to get rid of them in this elections irrespective of the
party affiliation or any ethnic or religious sentiments. This way,
the next lot would learn to better represent you.
