27 years of June 12 and we are still arguing about PVCs

Public analyst Olalekan Ige made a point today that got me thinking deeply. He said June 12, 1993 was the first time in Nigeria where a southerner, MKO Abiola, won an election convincingly across every geopolitical zone, and the candidate who lost did not dispute the result. That is the standard we are still chasing 27 years later.

Ige also noted something that should shame all of us. In the 2023 presidential election, barely 30 percent of registered voters came out to vote. We have over 80 million registered voters but less than 25 million bothered to cast their ballot. And we have the audacity to complain about bad leadership. The BVAS and IReV have reduced vote inflation, Ige said, and states that used to return two million votes now struggle to return 400,000. That alone tells you how much the system has improved and how much fraud was happening before.

So here is my uncomfortable question. If MKO Abiola gave his life for this democracy, and we cannot even be bothered to collect our PVCs and vote, are we really worthy of the June 12 legacy? Be honest.