Barrister Fabian Awhen
The election is significant because its failure or success will determine our preparedness or lack of it to imbibe the culture of democracy sustained by popular will.
Popular will in this context means popular participation.
As it is in any democratic practice, mass participation is the main ingredient in the political process of society.
Political participation in this sense refers to the participation of a citizen or group of people within a political unit in the political process of that unit.
Put more succinctly, the voluntary activities by which members of the society share in the selection of their leaders in a polity.
Political great minds of our time have extolled popular participation as a source of vitality and creative energy in defence against tyranny and as a means of enacting collective wisdom.
By involving many in the affairs of the state or in the act of selecting their leaders, political participation should promote stability, by allowing everyone to express his interest, political participation should secure the greatest good for the greatest number.
Therefore, informed by our sad experience of political history, we require nothing short of a foundation for lasting democracy based on the popular will of the people.
Our collective wish to revert this negative trend which our political history has adopted as a trade mark is to turn up en masse to express our franchise and our collective determination to establish for ourselves an enduring democracy.
We need a change both in thought and action that will express our intent and desire to establish for ourselves a prosperous nation where true democracy remains the propelling force.
This means that we must jettison all parochial interests and pursue citizens and ideals of building a new nation that will cater to the interests of all its citizens and Nigerians as a whole.
The challenge for achieving this objective rests in our hands and we cannot shirk this responsibility for no nation can adopt our problems or bear them in our place.
This means that the solution to our problems is within ourselves and must make conscious efforts to solve them ourselves.
Therefore, mass participation in elections is a litmus test of our ability to transcend the petty problems that have held us bound to urging a state founded on democracy, equity, and justice.
The good thing is that we have time on our hands and the will to make amends.
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