By Tonnie Iredia
In many societies across the globe, there is a high degree of consensus that democracy is the best example of a government of the people especially because persons in government are supposedly elected by the people to represent them. But how are we sure that those in government were the ones the people actually elected?
The only way to determine that is to critically examine the processes and procedures of regular general elections in a given society. But then, even in a free and fair contest, it is essentially simplistic to regard those who constitute government in countries such as Nigeria as bonafide representatives of the people considering the trend of an insignificant minority of the population who serve as electors. During the last general elections in Nigeria in 2023, about 93 million citizens were registered to vote, but only 25 million showed up to cast their ballots.
