Child-voting: A dent on democracy
Elections in Nigeria have not always been free from eventualities; from the spates of violence that may precede the D-day [at the polls] to incidences of certain individuals [that are not officially saddled with collation responsibilities] being found with thumb-printed ballot papers and the unraveling of voting taking place at unaccredited centres, the list of misfortunes plaguing our electoral system just seems to keep broadening.
One disturbing drift that came up in 2015- but was never taken so serious- is the case of child-voting which is prevalent in Northern states. This was brought to the fold again as images of children queuing up at polling stations flooded the internet. The images were supposedly taken during the February 2018 local government elections in Kano state. As we have all come to terms with; only those that have attained the age of 18 years [and above] are legible to vote, and anything to the contrary is a stark disregard for the constitution of the nation. This, in turn, means those who encourage the act are punishable under the law, and votes from the areas of it is noticed to be rendered invalid. But the thing is that most of the pictures did not give a hint on the specific location where child-voting took place.
It is definitely not possible to leave the Independent Electoral Committee (INEC) out of this very matter. But the crux of this is that while we may not want to leave INEC out, the national electoral body, through one of its directors, Oluwole Uzzi did say that under-aged voting [as it concerned the recently concluded elections in Kano state] was out of its control as the election was conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission- KANSIEC, in this case.
From the submission of Mr. Uzzi, it can be drawn that INEC is not ruling the possibility that child-voting was indeed allowed to go on. And since SIEC was meant to work with the list of registered voters it obtained from INEC, the national body cannot just come out to tell Nigerians that the anti-democratic practice of under-aged voting was out of its control. If INEC is claiming innocence; how then did those children get registered in the first place. Plus if INEC had supplied the list [of voters that are legible] and KANSIEC failed to adhere to that list then is not logical for INEC to question the activities of the state electoral body in a bid to sustain the sanctity of the electoral system? It is often said that 'to whom much is given, much is expected. That INEC aims to stay within its legal purview- being the national electoral system- should not stop it from canvassing for the sustenance of ethical standard of elections anywhere within the nation. Moreover, under-aged voting is a breach of the constitution, and failure to address it [by taking the necessary correctional actions]- irrespective of the elections in view- is not only a dent on democracy but also a slap on the nation's electoral system.