The Nigerian National Assembly’s proposed bill to jail citizens for six months or fine them ₦100,000 for refusing to vote in national and state elections is a grotesque overreach that mocks the soul of democracy. Titled “Bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral Act 2022 to Make It Mandatory for All Nigerians of Majority Age to Vote,” this measure reeks of desperation from a political elite so distrusted that they’d rather threaten than inspire. In 2023, only 25 million of 93 million registered voters showed up—proof of a system so broken that people opt out rather than engage. Yet, instead of addressing root causes like voter intimidation, logistical chaos, or sheer apathy, they’ve chosen coercion over competence.
Logistically, it’s a joke. Nigeria, with over 200 million people and 80-100 million eligible voters, can’t even register everyone—PVC distribution lags, rural areas are neglected, and INEC’s tech routinely falters. How do they plan to track every no-show in a country where the basics still stumble? This isn’t a policy; it’s a fantasy born from a leadership too lazy to earn trust and too arrogant to see it.
Morally, it’s bankrupt. Democracy thrives on voluntary choice, not chains. Forcing participation under threat doesn’t make a system legitimate—it makes it a prison. SERAP’s right to call it out: this isn’t civic duty; it’s state-sponsored bullying. The elite’s failure to deliver—roads crumble, security’s a gamble, and candidates bore—has eroded faith. Now they blame the people? That’s not just absurd; it’s a damning self-indictment.
Philosophers have long warned against this. John Stuart Mill said, “The worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it”—not a state that coerces them into compliance. Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued, “The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.” This bill flips that: it’s strength without right, obedience without dignity. And Hannah Arendt nailed it: “Authority ends where force begins.” When you need jail cells to prop up your elections, you’ve lost the plot.
This isn’t bold; it’s pathetic—a tantrum from a ruling class out of ideas, clutching at control as legitimacy slips away. Nigerians deserve better than a democracy that punishes them for its own failures.
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