 Voter apathy in Nigerian elections the last dinner elections recorded a voter's turnout of 34.75 percent. This was the lowest record in history on the history of Nigeria's democracy. It was also the lowest among other African countries that conducted elections in that same season. Countries like Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Seychelles, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Liberia, and Guinea-Bissau had turnout rates of above 70%. Rwanda had the highest turnout rate in the continent at 98.2 percent. This low voter's turnout rate is not a new thing in Nigeria. It just happened to have been worse at the last general elections. It is therefore safe to say that many Nigerians do not consider voting as a civil responsibility. The obvious question then is why is this the case? A lot of factors have contributed to this apathy, such as insecurity over security, overt and covert intimidation, failure of democracy to deliver on results, the stress of getting a voter's card, in valid elections, and general feeling of helplessness amongst Nigerians. Nigerians over time have been made to believe that their votes do not count based on their previous experiences from past elections. Some others are just not patriotic enough to want to vote. Unfortunately, the group of Nigerians that usually fail to vote at the working middle class, especially those in the private sector, these are the people we need the most as voters in elections because they properly understand the consequences of their actions and are most likely not going to be influenced by vain promises or monetary words at the polls. Question for us today then is how can we encourage this set of individuals to vote in the 2023 elections? Well, you're always concerned, I'm just amazed how much you are concerned about figures, because you are an accountant, so I'm no surprise. I love that your statistics now. The thing is, I'm concerned about the middle class, the professional middle class, or what you call them, educated, professional, or careerally involved middle class. Now, I wouldn't want to blame them 100% as much as I want to blame them 100%. Yes, the reason. I will blame them anyway, because it's a matter of having a sense of responsibility as citizens, everybody, not just them. But why I wouldn't want to blame them anyway is there is a system that somehow is difficult to get first of all on both people as voters. We have to first of all work. How do we facilitate our voters' registration? Because some of these guys are working in private sectors like you see. It's not easy for them to just leave their office and want to go and spend hours in the queue to get voters, you see. But how can the government facilitate the process that even right in their office, when the dot com era, everything is just make use of technology, ICT, and get this done, and that's one. Number two, I think that will help many of them be encouraged. Then number two, for us to have voters' confidence, we were talking about ECN, sorry, electronic transmission of results. Now, some persons were pushing against it. They were talking about these local government don't have, certain local government don't have good network. Why don't you provide a busy infrastructure office and then encourage electronic transmission of results as so that means we can see the values in real time as the election is going on. We're seeing the values as it's done in other climes like US and the rest. I guess that will enhance voters' confidence. Thirdly, the government and civil societies and other women in Nigerians should do well to educate every Nigerian, especially those that are not very educated. You can educate them in your own dialect if possible. Tell them that, look, election is a process where we determine the leaders that will lead us for a certain period of time, but it has a way of affecting the country's future. So let's vote wisely and do say your vote. I mean, before Victor responds, while I was thinking about this topic, I think for me, I remembered my experience in the previous election. I voted, but I had people around me, a lot of people around me that had their voters' card, but never went to vote. So it's a theme of, I mean, before the election, I mean, my organization at that time gave people opportunities to go and pick up their cards. So there are organizations that have done those, but there's that general feeling of, I wouldn't call it irresponsibility, civil irresponsibility, but I mean, many people just do not, especially the middle-class people, they just do not necessarily think they should vote. However, I still believe that they are the ones we need the most at elections because they can make the right choice. So what do you think? So I stand here, or I sit here rather, representing the entire tech bros, you know, in the whole wild Nigeria, right? And I said that cause, why are we not thinking? Again, let me, I'm going to come back to that, right? Let's, let's look at the middle class are the problem of this nation. We are, and we, we all sit here, I believe we're sitting in that class as well, so. No, we are youths. We are youths. We are youths. I am very, I'm very realistic in things, right? Practical, logical. We are the problem. Okay. Why do you say so? Why I say so is, and it's a, it's a, it's a two-edged sword that looked similar. So on what part, on one part of the sword is the fact that, you know, I voted all through, all the elections have been qualified to vote, except for the last time Bohari came into power. I didn't vote. You know, I mean I was tweeting, I didn't vote. So the thing is, one part of the edge is the fact that we don't want to collect our cards. You think about it. It is the low income, whatever, that goes, stands in the song. They'll close their shop. They will not fry a car, they will not sell or fuck anything. They'll close the shops. I mean, stand in the song, I want to vote for my own man. But we, we don't see, even, even if the, the way we work says, you know what, stay home, you know, everybody, you have a holiday, go vote, we don't do that, all right? That's one part of it. And that same behavior has also trickled down to why we don't also come out. How many middle class people would want to come out to really contest for a seat, even at local level, at federal level, at state level? We really don't, so we are the problem. And we are, we can make so much different. I don't think it's education. We don't need education. We know what to do, but we're just not doing it. So I think we should incorporate- Education, but the quality of the education is not the same. The corporate town hall of all middle class. We left the door. People that, that we call illiterates, they go to vote. They perform the stage. Exactly. I mean, I think that for me is the thing. They feel more responsible, maybe because they know that there's something that they're going to get out of it. But there's that responsibility that they have. Whereas we are, because we are comfortable with where we are right now. Exactly. So we feel like our position is never going to change. This person from this side or this other side. And again, technology is important. Why are we not making, why are we not decentralizing or, you know, making it more seamless or put to really vote? Because, I mean, I don't want to go vote. And then, I mean, I get hounded up, I get killed, I get injured, you know, where last year was, I mean, the last election was that I had so much news around, oh, they are fighting or really, they are fighting in, you know, body. So I can't put myself in that kind of stuff. Okay. Why I agree with you, Victor, we talk to our safe, we talk to young people. But you know what's INEC, know this and know peace. INEC inculcates technological processes. We see us coming outside. So that's what I was saying. I mean, this conversation is something that's, you know, is, I think it's something we need to be having within costars, encourage our people, encourage our friends. But I mean, also, whatever it takes, whereas when the election comes out and come next year, let's vote. Are you voting this year? This year? Yes, I mean, yes. We must vote. I always vote. I always vote. So yes, I go out. So I mean, so Elijah is next after this break. Stay tuned.