Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, has severely criticized the proposed bill to make voting mandatory in Nigeria, unequivocally stating on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today that he “would rather go to prison for six months than to obey it.”
Agbakoba condemned the National Assembly’s attempt to enforce compulsory voting, arguing that it fails to address the fundamental issues driving voter apathy.
He questioned the logic behind such a bill, asking, “Why would the National Assembly want to impose compulsory voting? Why don’t they reverse the question and say, Why are Nigerians not interested? What is the apathy about?”
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He maintained that voter disengagement is a consequence of years of exclusion and broken political promises, not a lack of civic responsibility. “The apathy is that they don’t get anything. If I know that I’m going to get something—there’s an aspiration, there’s an interest—you will find people coming out to vote. But then people see the same old trick. You come, you take my vote, you disappear till the next four years. There’ll be apathy,” he explained.
According to Agbakoba, “exclusion is at the heart of Nigeria’s democratic failure.” He elaborated, “Right now, we have a big problem with having a system that excludes… People are not taking part in the process.”
Looking ahead to the 2027 general elections, he noted a concerning trend of “coalitions and defections,” and lamented, “I have not heard many politicians talk about people—about the welfare of Nigerians, about their suffering, about their inadequate opportunities. I have not heard that. All I hear politicians do is, every four years, they jump up; they become active. Once they get power, they disappear. So for all these reasons, I think we need to look for a new model.”
When pressed on whether the issue stems from the allure of public office and consistent leadership failures, Agbakoba reiterated that Nigeria’s political shortcomings are the core reason for low voter turnout.
He admitted, “We’ve had some good leaders, I must confess. But generally speaking, the leadership quality has been very poor. And the leadership quality has not led Nigerians to where they want to be. That’s why I refer to the fact that we have voter apathy and disinterest. So, unless we ask ourselves and interrogate the issue behind this lack of interest in voting, we will not get it right.”
He concluded by emphasizing the disconnect between Nigerians’ daily lives and the political process, stating, “I can tell you that the reason why Nigerians are not interested is because they don’t see anything. You should take a trip around Nigeria. Lagos is not Nigeria, by the way, because some people who live here, like us, think that.”
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