 widespread voter apathy and vote-buying marks the local government elections held in Lagos and Oregon State on Saturday. And you've done nothing deserving of commendation. PDP Publicity Secretary Kala Lovadeon tells Governor Yahya Bailo of Kogi State. Well, this is Plus Politics and I am Mary Anifor. White-spread voter apathy and vote-buying characterized the local government elections held in Lagos and Oregon State on Saturday. Reports from different parts of the state show that many voters shone the polls for lack of interest in the exercise, fear of electoral violence and lack of faith in the outcome of the election. For instance, the presiding officer at Ujrodu Grammar School 1, polling unit 17, Ebel Obinna, said only seven persons had cast their votes as of 11.15 a.m. out of the 150 registered voters. In most treats in the councils that were visited, use of voting age was seen playing football while major roads were emptied due to the enforcement of no movement. Well, joining us to discuss this is Plus TV Africa's correspondent Aneta Felix and Jacinta Obuco who visited the polling areas and of course later on we'll be talking with Chike Chude who's a political affairs analyst. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen for joining us. Thank you. Good evening, Mary An. It's a pleasure. Great, great, great. So I'm going to start with you, I'm going to start with you Aneta, obviously. You were out on the streets on Saturday. I mean, I saw a news this morning of a PDP party chairman in the state at the time he showed up to cast his votes. He was the only person that had casted a vote at that polling unit showing that many people were not even interested in the election. But give me a feel of what you actually experienced and why you think people did not show up for that election. Okay, I think we should begin with the latest deployment of the material. The election was supposed to begin at 8 a.m. and end around 3 p.m. on Saturday. But what happened was that when we visited the Ateosa local government for Balindi on Saturday, we found that as at 9 30 a.m., full and addict staff of the Lagos State Independence Electoral Commission were still receiving election materials and they were actually jam-packed outside the gates of the secretariat waiting for buses that were designated to take them to different polling units in Ateosa local government area. So I think that really is the beginning of the issue that we saw regarding the logo to turn out. So it's possible that maybe people had gone to their different polling units at 8 a.m. but were still receiving their materials. So they definitely were nowhere to be found. So when eventually these buses came around and these electoral buses, they consumed your screen with the plastic ballad boxes with the card readers, when they eventually set out to go there, they had to begin to set up and ensure that all security measures were in place. And then what next happened was that I visited award in EJ. It was award 10 polling unit two in EJ in Ateosa local government area. When I got there that morning, I found that there were less than 20 people who had come out to vote. I had assumed that it's early in the morning people will still come out much later. But what I found shockingly was that rather than the crowds to increase, it instead declined. So I took a stroll into the estate and off in the state and I found that that it seemed like a normal Saturday. People were around on the streets, people were having fun, talking with neighbors. It didn't seem like there was an election taking place a few steps away from them in EJ. There was a primary school that was being used for the election. And it really makes me ask questions. Where did all our sensitization go? I mean, I co-hosted the breakfast and pasta in the Africa and we've had stakeholders in politics who have representatives of the independent national electoral commission, INE, come out to educate voters, educate Nigerians because people didn't really seem interested. And then when I discussed with security experts, political experts as well, the vibe I got from them was that a dissatisfaction by the public as to what's happening in the country probably is responsible. You see that people feel that they're not being respected, they're not being valued by the government. You see the security issues in the country. So it seems that people simply were just, you know, displeased with the government. And maybe also we can add to, maybe we didn't get enough sensitization of people, maybe people didn't really register to vote, even though according to the statistics we have, there are about 6 million registered voters in Lagos, 13,323 polling units. But across Etiusa, across Lagos, the polling units were scanty. I mean, begs the question if, like you said, orientation was properly done because I remember there were people who were still asking us at Friday if the elections were going to be on that weekend or it was going to be this week that we're in. So meaning that the Lagos state CIEC probably didn't do its job or maybe again it could be that people really don't care about the local government election. But I'm going to come back to UNS and let me go to Achike. Achike, I'm curious to understand why we complain so much about government not doing this or not doing that but when it's time for us to make decisions by voting, coming out to put a stamp on what we want government to do, we're nowhere to be found. And I keep pointing to the fact that we're very good at tweeting and posting on social media but most of us don't have valid voters card. Something as simple as local government elections, we didn't see people show up for it and is this enough to just say that we are not happy with the government? Is that enough a reason for us to not show up to the polls? No, I do not think it's enough reasons though that it's a reason but definitely cannot be enough reason especially when you know, I mean, ultimately that our ability to get involved in the political process goes a long way in putting some measure of pressure on the political actors to get them to do things that under normal circumstances they will not have done but simply because the people that they are watching and the people are also involved and the people can play a role in them getting elected or re-elected. So and somebody has made that argument before that politicians usually like this level of apathy because it is, they find it much easier to manipulate the process when the people are not greatly involved in their in their own politics. But how many Nigerians know that? Because you see you just you just went to the next thing that I was going to point out too. There's a video that surfaced on social media it's been making the rounds of a woman who was you know, Tom printing on different ballot papers. There's so many questions to that video. Where did she get those ballot papers? There obviously means that somebody within the Lagos State SIEC had facilitated those ballot papers getting into her hands. It means that the SIEC in the state is also complicit. Results in that area wherever it was needs to be recounted or something needs to be done about it and how many heads do we make sure get rolled. So yes there are people who take advantage of the fact that people don't show up. So let's Tom print and then you see a large turnout. Meanwhile in other places there was nobody. So but how many Nigerians realize that they're losing and these politicians in quote are winning? Yeah I think you have put it succinctly. I want to believe that there are so many Nigerians again and that is that the world we find ourselves in a season season of anomaly where those things that should matter to the people do not exactly matter to them. Where people are not able to make the connection between the life they are living now the lives they will live in future and that the politics of the day that determines the quality of life that they are going to live so they have not been able to make that connection and that I think that that is the is your fortunate situation and it's not even as safe that they do not realize that when they get involved you know with the right kind of you know politics that things can change. But if you look at I mean the order of elections in this country the fact that you have elections at the national level, presidential level, governorship level you have elections to the various you know houses of assembly as well as national assembly. You realize that in the scale on the scale of importance that you could again at the local government cancel elections which under normal circumstances because of its proximity to the people and because of its ability to touch impact more directly the lives of the people. But you will find that paradoxically it is the least important of the elections and so when you weigh most of these elections that are going on in this country in terms of notoriety you know you find that the most notorious in terms of the outcome of a local elections in the country is the local government election. Why do I say so? It is very clear that things are not working exactly well across the length and breadth of this country at the local government levels. It's not just legal state, particularly in all the states of the country. So when you talk about the you know failure of governance you also have to start from the grassroots and that is the local government elections. But when you look at it you consider the fact that you know most of the local government and that is the consensus among most Nigerians across the states, across political party lines that local government you know the chairman and the councilors are not doing much to change the lives of the people. Then the question you ask yourself is how come that in virtually every state in the country where local government elections are held there is a 90 to 100 percent you know success rate for the party for the political party in charge of the states in those states. That's a whole that's a whole that's another kettle of fish on its own and I want to revisit it you know we will revisit it but we're being joined by one of our correspondents um Jacinta Obu who also was in town to cover some of the proceedings of the elections on Saturday and Jacinta can you hear me? Yes I can. Great just give us an idea of what you experienced while covering the elections the local government elections on Saturday. Okay so I didn't get that but I assume you are asking what I observed during the election yes okay yeah so the parts of the areas we observe in meagres some part of meagres uh I could tell it's speechful I studied from a joey state although um the first one the first polling unit I got to um the deciding officer there complained of the card reader of them not working and we saw him putting a call across to get it verified and um people were already we got to explore people are already queuing waiting for the whole process of expression with the whole um delay and uh so we left that to first start first start through or speechful but just no turnout there then from there we went to ketchup and uh we we met with um one and this pitty pitty chairman that was um um and in the state pitty pitty chairman there and he complained bitterly um over the turnout of voters and that could tell and he said that could tell how people don't believe in the electoral process anymore in the country and um he as well called on his counterpart political counterpart to better know that um this is going to work for them and about them for about the people so as well we moved down to us born uh polling unit there where we witnessed um people and we saw some agents political editors there so in a complaining of missing polling units there as they said this could suggest um election region and all of that so but generally I can tell like what I witnessed it was peaceful except for the low turnout of voters in terms of the the the missing polling units did you probe forward to ask the siac members if you know iNEC had made them aware of these polling units not being available or it was just an oversight uh by the siac did you find out yeah yeah we we tried finding out from the the officers we met that they just said they don't know they were just sent there to um to their own part they don't know about the other uh polling unit I'm missing but the agents there said they are supposed to be two in that area like two in different areas there but just one one and they can't see the a senior uh political and a senior iNEC official to ask uh where about the polling unit so the other ones that if they want the very ones that are polling with their officials said they don't have an idea why um others are missing and wow it was a constraint for uh voters there and as well the agents there well Dostinto Bikku is one of our correspondents here in Plos TV Africa thank you very much Dostinto for speaking with us I'm going to go back to um I'm going to go back to Annetta because Annetta I remember we also uh Plos TV had a trending video of a woman who was given a thousand Naira um to vote uh what particular polling unit was that and what area that was at ward 10 that simple unit two that I mentioned that I went to in EJ that was you know just before the entrance of the estate um Dolphin and that's at equal your body in the ATSA local government area so I had been hearing that you know party agents were distributing a thousand Naira each you know if you voted for their party well I said I needed to get evidence of that and I watched closely and I you know observed that indeed some party agents whom I had personally met and spoken to you know at the secretariat you know were actually giving up how many I brought on my phone immediately started to capture that and I saw you know party agents giving a thousand Naira to women then I went to one of the women who received that one thousand Naira as you're seeing on your screen I went into her and I said oh I see your collecting a thousand Naira I'm simply for voting that why did you do that why did you decide to steal your vote and her answer was I don't know I really thought about the answers her answer since Saturday asking myself is this really what poverty is you know has made of us as a country and I remember that some other party agents had gone there to complain to the security agents the police officers who were there and the response was that whatever happened outside the gates of the pulley unit was not their concern that they were deployed to the pulley unit to make sure that the operations of the election was smooth and whatever is happening outside the gate was under the business and indeed this was happening just out near the gates now if you take a look at that video that I sent you and you find that these party agents first of all the school has a low fence so these party agents I don't know if maybe they find a way to talk to the people they bait them and then they overload the low fence and then once you come out the hundred thousand Naira it's just so sad I mean the reaction we've gotten on social media has been massive people even saying oh they've even doubled the money like some elections ago they were distributing 500 Naira and we know this is nothing new in Nigeria it's just the hard evidence that seems to be lacking when we talk about the stories you know the fact that I was able to in the spot of that moment bring up my phone to capture when that woman was receiving a thousand Naira and interrogate her you know so we know that this is something that happened Nigerian party agents you know distributing money simply to buy votes so you say you ask the question that is this where poverty has led us as a people but do you really think it's poverty or is ignorance because if I mean yes poverty can be you know it can be a problem but really could it also be ignorance at play because she probably doesn't even know and that's her answer and she doesn't even know the consequences maybe I'm saying maybe she doesn't even know the consequences of that one thousand Naira that she's taken and whatever party that she voted for exactly Marianne one of the first questions I asked you know when I was bottom was where did all our sensitization go so it then seems like we're not seeing a lot maybe we are over 200 million and it seems that our voices you know are not loud enough our voices are not reaching the ears of people they supposed to reach because I mean look at an election as basic as a local government election I mean how bad can he get it yeah we're talking about a local government election people who are coming out for champion championship positions championship candidates councillor and you know aspirants and all of that these are people that should be closed close to the grassroots these are people that you know the community should know these are people that should be known in the community these are people that should be influential these are people that should have already been doing things because I mean if you know of your community audience I think we're having connection problems with Anessa so we'll just let her go for a second if her connection is great we'll bring her back but back to you at 2k today Anessa has raised some of the issues I wanted to raise how many of us really understand that the government that we need most is the government that's closest to what's the most and I'm talking about local elections I'm talking about local government because we as Nigerians seem to somewhat accord the responsibilities of our local government to states and mostly the federal so the gutter in your area is blocked or or maybe you have a problem you know a local government problem and then you say Buhari is not doing his job Bwari is bad Bwari must go that is also a you know a result of the ignorance on our part but when these people who are running for offices whether they belong to party A, B, C, D or E how many of these people do we know how many of these people can we say we understand their track record or can vote for to even vote for because I mean really it's one thing to come out and vote it's another to know who you're voting for especially in Lagos state do we really pay attention to our local leaders do we want to know them or we're more interested in Governor Sao Anu? Well I think it's it speaks for the problems that we have in this country and it's all over it would appear that there is a sense in which it would appear it will seem that the people have given up you know when it comes to governance and people are no longer interested in what happens you know with regards to the politics of their country so they all believe that the only way to get by is just to face those things that matter most to them but they do not see the connection between like I've said the policies that are you know taking that have been dished out on a daily basis by government officials and the way their lives turn off and so this has been a major issue it's the inability to understand that connection that they that they ought to be much more involved than they are that they have been involved you know in the politics of their their country especially the you know their the politics within their immediate environment I think that that has been the you know issue and and again hello can you hear me I can hear you hello can you hear me yes I can okay so that has that has been the problem but but beyond that again is a fact that yes we know that to some extent poverty has played a very terrible role in manipulating the Nigerian people politically but at the same time you talked about ignorance ignorance has also played its own made its own share of a play its own you know role and as well as you know sentiments on on due sentiments too especially when it comes to national elections but beyond that it would also appear and that is one thing that a lot of us are are failing to grasp and that is that that the political parties are the ones that have a duty to ensure that they are that voters come to vote for them because they are the greatest losers of an election that goes badly for them and they are the greatest you know beneficiaries of elections in which they have you know play the role in which they have won so everything about election campaigning it's about how to bring the people to the polls to the polling stations and so if they ultimately at the end of the day it comes to election time and you do not have the people coming to the polls to vote it simply means that both politicians and the politicians and the political parties have failed in the ability to get their messages across to be able to get the people to the polling stations to vote but perhaps there's a reason for that perhaps they believe that they don't need to spend so much money because ultimately they know that the results of the elections have been written and and and that is ultimately the you know the mindset of of the people and that's why I did ask the question you know I made the observation that in virtually all of the elections that take place especially at the level of local government councils about 95 percent or 100 percent of of victories in those elections you know go to the party in power you know the party of the day but who's responsible who's whose responsibility is it to make that change because like you are one of the electorates obviously you are one of those people who's complaining that oh if the PDP is in power the PDP sweeps the local government I mean literally happens across all the states of the federation for the state governors who've decided yeah but but but but the owners who where is the owners who who has the responsibility of changing that because if if like you just said if if political parties take it upon themselves to not just campaign when it's time for campaign season especially at the local levels acquaint yourselves with the people in those areas so they know who you are and not what you're about but who you are and and then they now decide what you're about and decide if they want to vote for you but we only see these people when it's time for elections and then you hope that people would vote for you because maybe the government of the day is not doing right you see obvious we see the issue you expect magic to happen you know you're absolutely right so but what it means yes I agree that that should be the thing you know because it is because it is and the government that is closest to the people so the possibility there's a greater possibility that the people would be in a better position to know them they see them on the streets they know their children and all of that but obviously that is not happening and the politicians are not even reaching out to them street to street to talk to these people and why are the politicians not doing that because they also know they also enjoy the apathy of the people because ultimately whether out of you know an electorate of about 100,000 maybe 50 people 100 who cast their vote they are going to be declared as winners of that you know political process so it doesn't really matter to them even if they don't spend as much as they used to they used to spend like that's why I say that ultimately voter apathy is more beneficial to the politicians because they make a lot they make a lot of you know they take a lot of mileage you know from from from the apathy of the people but ultimately I agree with you it is the people themselves they are the greatest stakeholders in the political process because they are the biggest victims of an election that has gone wrong you know and then if if if they have competent you know people in power they are the ones that benefit you know also from that process but the fact that they are not doing that also shows that the people and themselves are not responsible and so what you have is an abdication of political responsibility by the people themselves and ultimately if there is a you know a price that will be paid the people themselves are going to pay the price so when we already we're already bringing that price on to it oh yeah we are because I mean people talk about talk about about the cost of foodstuffs in the country people talk about bad roads people talk about insecurity people talk about but you are not doing anything to put pressure on the people who have a constitutional mandate to get these things done you're not doing that you are abdicating your responsibility and then the next thing is also holding responsible where things do not go well but the people perhaps are even much more irresponsible than the politicians yeah well Anessa is back Anessa in closing you and I obviously are representatives of the fourth estate of the realm and half the time when you know when it comes down to it you know the media is pointed at and and they say oh you're not doing enough to sensitize the people we and then we also know that NOA comes alive just quarter to the elections which is not enough time for the kind of voter education that we're looking at but we also noticed Anetta I'm sure you covered the elections in 2019 and the level of you know low turnouts wasn't as bad as this obviously but you know could this also be a you know a pointer to what we might be expecting in 2023 with the you know the dampened spirits of the average Nigerian voter what are your expectations Mary Ann you took the words right out of my mouth I was thinking to myself just before this meeting asking myself what witnessed during you know Saturday's local government elections could this possibly be a pointer to what we're about to witness in 2023 and I fear for our political future because if you know youth do not come out to represent themselves in the electoral process come 2023 I really wonder what our future would look like because we continue to complain on social media about the lack of infrastructure about just the death of everything in the country we got in politics so you know our socioeconomic reality everything education and I like how Mr I think that Anetta it's frozen again unfortunately Achiketure I want to thank you but we have to go we're almost out of time. Achiketure is a political affairs analyst and Anetta Felix is a an anchor of the breakfast show here on Plus TV Africa and she's also a correspondent once I want to say thank you to Justin Taubeco who is also one of our correspondents here in Plus TV Africa thank you gentlemen and ladies for being part of the conversation. It's a pleasure thank you. All right well we'll take a short break and when we come back we'll be discussing the performance of the Kogi state governor and of course what the PDP publicity secretary has to say about it but yes we will be joined by the Honorable Commissioner for Information in Kogi State. Stay with us.