Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, criticised the proposed bill that seeks to make voting mandatory in Nigeria, declaring he would rather face jail than comply with such a law.
Speaking on Monday’s Channels Television programme, Politics Today, Agbakoba attacked lawmakers’ plans to force citizens to vote, saying this doesn’t fix why people avoid elections.
“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,” he said.
He challenged the thinking behind the bill: “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?”
Agbakoba explained that voters stay away because politicians break promises, not because people lack 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,” he said.
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The senior lawyer pointed to a key problem in Nigeria’s democracy: too many people feel left out.
“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 noted.
Looking ahead to the 2027 elections, he warned that democracy will fail if it only works for a small group of elites.
“Suddenly, you have a big issue of coalitions and defections. Why? I have not heard many politicians talk about people—about the welfare of Nigerians, about their suffering, about their inadequate opportunities. I have not heard that.
“All I hear politicians do is, every four years, they jump up; they become active. Once they get power, they disappear. So for all these reasons, I think we need to look for a new model,” Agbakoba stated.
When asked if the real issue is that public office attracts poor leaders, Agbakoba insisted that bad leadership keeps voters away.
He said, “We’ve had some good leaders, I must confess. But generally speaking, the leadership quality has been very poor. And the leadership quality has not led Nigerians to where they want to be.
“That’s why I refer to the fact that we have voter apathy and disinterest. So, unless we ask ourselves and interrogate the issue behind this lack of interest in voting, we will not get it right.
“I can tell you that the reason why Nigerians are not interested is because they don’t see anything. You should take a trip around Nigeria. Lagos is not Nigeria, by the way, because some people who live here, like us, think that.”
The controversial bill to change the Electoral Act passed its second reading in the House of Representatives. Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and Labour Party lawmaker Daniel Asama Ago jointly sponsored the bill, which would require all eligible Nigerians to vote.
During last Thursday’s meeting, Ago claimed mandatory voting would increase participation and reduce vote-buying, pointing to Australia as a successful example.
Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu backed the bill, calling it “a step in the right direction”.
