Not Easy Choosing From Bad Alternatives...is It?

Forgive me for not registering to vote in the next elections....

I am not one of those persons who have had cause to junket endlessly from one INEC PVC Collection Centre to the other!

Neither have I had reasons to contribute money to fuel (community-donated) generators to power INEC equipment.

My decision to refrain from registering for the said exercise is a deliberate choice!

You may be right in admonishing me for not seizing upon the chance for change by exercising my franchise.

Afterall, what is the essence of critisizing a bad system if you divest yourself of a "golden opportunity" to change that system?!

But you see...I did all that in the last general elections. I registered for the election. I collected my Voter's Card. I presented myself at the Polling Station on the appointed date. But I did what I had planned for a while to do. I simply thumb-printed the margins of all ballot papers given to me and walked away! I intentionally defaced those ballot papers to render them invalid! I thought I was making a point! But who noticed?

The "wisdom" inherent in my apparently weird move is evident in the quality of governance given us by those elected into office through that election...consequent upon the actions of citizens who used their ballots "more wisely".

I have had cause to write severally on the abysmal quality of the various felons presented to us as choices for elective offices in Nigeria.

Why our political parties would determinedly...repeatedly...and relentlessly present us with hard-hearted felons as choices in polls is better left to the imagination.

A Choice Menu comprising an admixture of good and not-so-good candidates would have been much easier to deal with!

Making a choice among a crop of incompetents is not the easiest task in the world.

Is it?
So, as I have opted to take an electoral rest this time around and desist from "making a point" yet again, can you blame me?

Better than invalidating my own ballot, is it not?
Dr Tosin Akindele is a Lagos-based Medical Practitioner and public affairs analyst.

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Articles by Tosin Akindele