No longer at ease resulting from the economic hardship ravaging the country, some residents of Gombe and kwami Local Government areas of Gombe state have boycotted the local government elections saying election in Nigeria is not their priority the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has reported.
NAN correspondent who visited the areas reported that people were going about their normal businesses without giving a hood if election was going on while no voters were seen in some polling units.
One Mallam Ali Bomoi, a trader reportedly told NAN correspondent that he was not interested in the voting exercise having lost confidence in the present Nigerian arrangement adding that his business matters to him most that voting which will not yield him any fruitful dividend in the end.
An angry Mallam Ali Bomoi reminded the correspondent that even if he cast his vote, it will not count in the end, one of the major reasons he decided to abstain.
He said politicians were unwilling to do the proper thing that would enhance democracy and progress.
Malam Mohammad Abba, resident of Mallamsidi town of Kwami Local Government Area, said he had monitored council elections conducted in some states and had noticed that the exercise was just mere formality as in all cases, ruling parties won in all the areas.
“Hardly do you find an opposition party winning a single local government area. We should better stop deceiving ourselves. As far as I am concerned, public fund is being wasted conducting the council polls,” he said.
Alhaji Bala Umar, another resident of Mallamsidi, said that local government elections in Nigeria would continue to remain a ‘sham’ so long as State Electoral bodies were to conduct them.
These so called elections are not things that serious minded people should bother about because it is not possible to have them conducted freely and fairly,” he said.
He said that he would not waste his time going to vote until the time Nigerians realised the folly in the exercise and hand over the conduct of the council polls to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Others who spoke to NAN expressed the same sentiment, saying that their time was precious and would only be used in areas that would produce positive results.
NAN
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