By Nick Dazang
From colonial to contemporary times, students have played uplifting and progressive roles in our country’ storied existence.
Under the auspices of the West African Students Union (WASU), students were in the forefront of our decolonization efforts. In the course of military interregnums and interventions, students have fought gallantly against oppressive and anti-people policies. Even in the course of our democratic dispensations, students have been unsparing of governments whose policies were out of sync with the yearnings of Nigerians or which tended to reinforce suffering and failure.
Since 1999, students have supported and helped in consolidating
our democracy project. Students of tertiary institutions have been co-opted to
join their peers engaged in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), to conduct
elections, many of which have been adjudged to be free, fair and credible.
Students have also been used to mobilise Nigerians on a number of
national causes and campaigns such as immunization and census exercises. The
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has found a strategic partner
and niche in our students – of secondary and tertiary institutions. It has
adroitly exploited this niche to set up Voter Education Clubs in schools in
order to expand the frontiers of the electoral process.
The Commission has carried out outreaches and campaigns in our
university campuses in the last two election cycles. For each of the off cycle
or off-season governorship elections, the Commission has engaged with
executives of Student Union Governments (SUGs), of each of the tertiary
institutions in such a state in lieu of the election. These outreaches and
engagements have helped tremendously to galvanize students to register and to
participate in elections.
The SUGs have helped in prevailing on their members to comport
themselves peacefully during the conduct of elections and to resist the
temptation of being used by unscrupulous politicians as cannon fodder or to
foment violence and to disrupt elections. The upshot of these engagements is
the conduct of more peaceful and credible elections.
Also, millions of students have turned out and participated in the
Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), which began on June 28, 2021 and was
suspended on July 31, 2022. When you add the number of students who have
registered in order to vote during the said period (3.8 million, representing
40.8 per cent) and other youths, we are looking at a humongous demographic of
7.2 million, representing 76.5 per cent, which is eligible to vote in this
month’s general elections. This huge number coincides with our acclaimed
youthful population bulge. It also underscores one salient fact: the outcomes
of the elections of 2023 will be determined by our youths. Little wonder,
candidates contesting the elections have been deliberately pandering to this
demographic and addressing youth concerns.
The youths also recognise that with the unhappy place the country
finds itself, Nigeria has not only arrived at a watershed moment, its destiny
and future will be determined and shaped by them. It is against this backdrop
that we must continue to create the latitude and space for our youths to
express themselves and to exercise their franchise. True, by virtue of the
protracted strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other
Unions last year, the academic calendar has suffered a considerable reversal.
Students pined away needlessly with nothing to occupy them.
It would therefore seem like a disruption and a reversal too many to let the students proceed on a short break in order to participate in the 2023 general elections. But when we consider the issues at stake, we should be persuaded to let them proceed. The students have been massively mobilized for the elections over the years. As a consequence of this galvanization, they have registered in their numbers and they are determined and eager to vote. Not only that, they are conscious of the fact that this election cycle is a defining moment – a moment which will make or mar their future and the country’s.
Against these considerations, the students should be given a short break and
allowed to exercise their franchise.
Such a break, however, must be centrally approved by the relevant educational authorities, with the robust support of the respective staff and Student Unions. I suggest this advisedly and informed by the following considerations: 1) INEC itself has no power(s) to compel the relevant authorities to grant or approve a break for tertiary institutions to enable students to vote; 2) a break centrally granted and uniformly observed will ensure that no one is either favored or marginalized; 3) apart from the fact that some of the schools are privately owned, they may be owned by persons who have political interests.
A uniform break will eschew partisanship and
guarantee neutrality; 4) a short break will enable those who want to travel to
do so and vote, assuming they registered outside the campus. Those who
registered in the precincts of the university can remain and vote in their
campus; 5) an adjustment can always be made on the school calendar to
accommodate or make up for the duration of the break.
Let the students be allowed to vote. It will be a huge let down
and an anti-climax if they are circumscribed. We cannot prime and galvanize
them to register and then hamstring them from voting. That is
disenfranchisement by other means. Besides, the students have a right to decide
the future of their country. Let us respect this right.
Galvanize them to register and then hamstring them from voting.
That is disenfranchisement by other means. Besides, the students have a right
to decide the future of their country. Let us respect this right.
*Dazang is the immediate past Director of Media and Public Enlightenment of INEC.
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