Renowned human rights lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba, (SAN), has joined other Nigerians in condemning the National Assembly for the proposed bill to make voting mandatory in Nigeria.
Similarly, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has also condemned the proposed bill, describing it as unconstitutional and impractical.
It could be recalled that last week, the House of Representatives passed for a second reading a bill seeking to amend the Electoral Act 2022 to make voting compulsory for all Nigerians of voting age in national and state elections.
The bill was jointly sponsored by the Speaker, Rt Hon Tajudeen Abbas, and Daniel Asama, a lawmaker from Plateau State.
The proposed legislation stipulates penalties for eligible voters who fail to vote without valid justification, including a fine of N100,000, a six-month jail term, or both.
It has been drawing criticisms from Nigerians, with many describing it as misplaced priority.
Many citizens are of the view that the parliament should be more concerned with relevant amendments that would guarantee the credibility of the ballot.
Agbakoba has now joined opposition to the bill, asserting that he would rather be jailed than comply with such a law.
He spoke on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today, during which he argued that it fails to address the root causes of voter apathy in the country.
The legal luminary said, “Look at the ridiculous one in the National Assembly about voting being compulsory. If that bill were to pass, I would say, ‘Agbakoba, we will not obey it.’
“I’ll plead conscientious objection. I’d rather go to prison for six months than to obey it.
“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?”
He went further to blame disinterest of voters on years of exclusion and unfulfilled 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.
“Right now, we have a big problem with having a system that excludes. I think you will find the biggest problem we have in Nigeria is around exclusion.
“That, I think, is the biggest problem—around exclusion. People are not taking part in the process,” he declared.
Meanwhile, Falana, in a statement titled 'Compulsory Voting is Not Enough', queried the legality of the proposed bill.
He said, “The Speaker of the House of Representatives probably wants Nigeria to join Egypt—the only African country out of 23 globally with provisions for compulsory voting.
“The said constitutional provisions protect the fundamental rights of the Nigerian people to privacy, freedom of thought and conscience, as well as the freedom to register and vote in national and state elections conducted in Nigeria.
“However, it is doubtful whether the Speaker and his colleagues have paid sufficient attention to the relevant provisions of the Constitution. Otherwise, they would have realised that the compulsory voting is constitutionally invalid in every material particular on the ground that it is inconsistent with Sections 37, 38, 77(2), 135(5) and 178(5) of the Constitution.
“Compulsory voting cannot be legalised in vacuo. Apart from the possibility that it may be declared illegal under the current political dispensation, it is practically impossible to prosecute millions of Nigerians who may decide to boycott national and local elections that have been reduced to the periodic renewal of misgovernance, corruption, and abuse of power by pampered members of the political class.
“Since Section 14(2) of the Constitution provides for popular participation in the democratic process, compulsory voting may only be justified if Chapter II thereof is made justiciable.”