The word apathy means a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern. It describes an emotional indifference to things that others might find important or exciting.
For example, someone who shows apathy toward politics might not care about elections or government decisions.
Simply put, therefore, voter aparthy means lack of interest or motivation to vote during election.
According to National Bureau of Statistics, which reported a population of 7,578,755 in 2019, the projected population of Oyo State for 2025 is approximately 7.84 million people. This increase reflects ongoing demographic trends in the region.
But, the projected population for Oyo State was 7, 976, 100 in 2022. This statistics was higher than that of 2025; but, it is closest to the election of 2023. Hoeevery, there wouldn’t have been any significant demographic difference or change between 2022 and 2023 when the election took place.
Now, talking about election, the total number of registered voters in the 2023 general election in Oyo State was 3,276,675. This statistics clearly show that the difference between the 2023 projected population and those who actually registered to vote during the election was 4, 699, 425. But, out of 3,276,675 eligible voters that registered, 2,305,903 voters collected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), a figure that represented the number of individuals who were expected to vote during the 2023. This represents approximately 70.4% of the registered voters who collected their PVCs. The numbers of uncollected PVCs were 970, 772, close to a million people, which also indicated nothing other than voter aparthy.
Using 2023 election to support voter apathy, and I can say categorically that the situation has still not changed, the voting statistics of the 2023 in Oyo state Governorship Election becomes handy. The list of voting results from one the region to other is as follows:
- Ibadan – 353,466.
- Okeogun – 200,842.
- Ogbomoso – 127,295.
- Oyo – 95,885.
- Ibarapa – 55,721.
- Total votes – 833, 209.
Courtesy of Legit.ng. Nigeria News, another useful statistics for review is the votes that each candidate scored during the 2023 election as follows:
- Seyi Makinde of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – 563,756.
- Teslim Folarin of All Progressives Congress (APC) – 256, 685.
- Adelabu Penkelemesi of Accord Party – 38,357.
- Total votes – 858, 798.
If we deduct the total votes of this regional statistics, which is 833, 209 from the total votes for the Gubernatorial Candidates of each party, which is 858, 798, the difference is 25, 589.
But, while the difference between the first statistics and the second one is very wide, my concern in this article is not about the wide margin, but my concern is that both statistics are not up to one million votes, which is a far cry margin if we calculate the difference.
Now, if we deduct the total votes of the 2023 election that brought in Engr. Seyi Makinde as the current Governor for the second term, using the highest figure of 858, 798 from 2,305,903 which is the total votes expected based on the collected PVC, we are going to have a whooping difference of 1, 447, 105 votes that were not cast.
Again, the above figure clearly reveals nothing but a big voter apathy in Oyo State, which gives every party and political candidate a large pool of people in the political market to reach out to and win to his or her side during elections.
But, apart from the fact that the above figure suggests a big voter apathy, it also provokes a serious question and the question it provokes is: where are the rest people who didn’t exercise their voting rights and why are they not interested in exercising their voting rights?
For crying out loud, where are 1, 447, 105 people who refused to come out to vote? Now look at the following statistics to further elucidate the point I’m making:
- The highest votes that brought the current Governor in as Governor was just 563,756.
- If we multiply 563, 756 by two, we are going to have 1, 127, 512.
- The total of 1, 127, 512 above which is double of the figure that brought in the current governor is still not up to 1, 447, 105 which is the population that didn’t vote.
- We still have the difference of 316, 593, which is more than 295, 042, which is the total of votes cast for both APC and Accord Candidates. On this, we still have excess of 21, 591.
From all the above statistics, there is no mincing words that the numbers of people who are not exercising their civil right when it comes to voting during elections are many. With this fact in our possession, a critical look into the available statistics also reveals that any party or candidate who can do extra work to dig deep into why people are not voting and find solution to the problems will always experience good success in elections.
Once I have been able to expose with facts that people’s attitude to voting is very poor in our part of the world, the next question to ask is: why are people not voting? What are the reasons for Voter aparthy? Voter apathy can be caused by several factors and the following are some key reasons why electorates do not vote in elections:
- Political Factors:
a. Lack of Trust in the System:
Many people feel their votes won’t make a difference due to corruption, rigging, or lack of transparency. And, truly speaking, all these have been the experiences of people for many years which made majority of people to lose interest in coming out during elections to cast their votes.
On the day of election, instead for many to spare their time to go and vote, they will prefer to be sleeping or engage some household chores while the young people will be playing football on the streets when election voting is going on.
b. Disillusionment with Politicians:
Many voters who have seen politicians as self-serving and ineffective have lost interest in participating during election. There is no gainsaying that the political class, especially the political elite, has disappointed the electorates or the citizens on many occasions. They make promises with their manifestos during campaigns that they don’t always fulfill.
Today, politics has become an easy way to amass wealth. The worrisome experience is that things are moving from bad to worse in terms of poverty, lack, want, hardship and hunger as a result of fraud, embezzlement, misappropriation and corruption being perpetrated by the political office holders who are mostly politicians.
c. Lack of Competitive Choices:
When elections seem predetermined or major parties appear similar, voters may feel there is no real choice and they won’t be motivated to go out and vote.
In other words, there are no clear-cut ideological differences among our political parties. Party A is not doing anything different from party B. They are birds of the same feathers flocking together. When people see that the parties are almost the same in all things and there is not competition which will allow for choice to take place, the next thing is to withdraw to themselves and don’t participate.
Another thing is that, in elections, votes don’t count. Up till today, rigging is still the bane of our elections. Election violence is as a result ballot-snatching, changing figures of election results, vote-buying, thuggery activities denying people their right to vote, etc is still in force in Nigeria and, one cannot tell when it will end.
- Socio-economic Factors:
i. Poverty and Survival Struggles:
People struggling with basic needs may prioritise daily survival over voting. This scenario can aply be captured by two Yoruba proverbs that said:
- “Ebí ń pa mí, Ọlọ́ṣẹ ń p’olówó, ṣe bẹ́ni tó fọ’nú ní ó fọ̀’ta”.
- “Ebi kìí wọ’nú k’ ọ́ràn míì ó wọ̀ó”.
The two proverbs above interpretes to mean that attention to take care of hunger by every individual cannot be shared with any other priority. People will consider finding to solution to hunger as opprtunity cost instead of going to vote during election which, to to them, would be their alternative forgone to borrow from the popular economic concepts manuly of us learnt while in school.
ii. Illiteracy and Lack of Awareness:
Some voters, especially in rural areas, may not understand the voting process or its importance.
Electoral awareness of the importance and significance of exercising one’s voting right during election has not dawned on many people in the rural areas. Ignorance on the part of the electorates is still very much high; and, to deal with this, there is need for widespread electoral education in the nooks and crannies of Oyo State in particular and Nigeria in general because it is the same thing that obtains in Oyo State that obtains in all States of the country.
iii. Disenfranchisement:
Disenfranchisement during an election refers to the act of depriving a person or a group of people of their right to vote. This can happen through legal means, such as restrictive voter ID laws, felony disenfranchisement, or gerrymandering, or through informal barriers like intimidation, misinformation, or lack of access to polling stations.
Disenfranchisement undermines democratic participation and can disproportionately affect marginalised communities. Certain groups (e.g., ethnic minorities, prisoners, or ex-felons) may feel excluded or face legal barriers to voting.
- Institutional Barriers:
a. Difficult Registration Processes:
Complicated voter registration can discourage participation.
Voter’s registration should be made simple. People should be able to register online in this age of internet when the whole world has become a global village.
b. Election Day Challenges:
Long queues, bad weather, transportation issues, or strict voter ID laws can make voting inconvenient.
Again, ICT and internet facilities should make electronic voting become the solution to all the problems mentioned above. Voting should made very easy like in advanced countries. People should be able to vote from the corners of their rooms and get the results of their voting the same easy way.
Introducing electronic voting will enable those in the diaspora to be able to participate in elections from any country they may find themselves per time.
c. Fear of Violence or Intimidation:
In a politically unstable region, voters may avoid elections due to fear of violence or threats.
During eldctions in this country, many souls have been destroyed as many met their untimely death while others were maimed who are still suffering till today.
- Psychological and Cultural Reasons:
i. Apathy and Indifference:
Some people simply do not care about politics. There is nothing that can be done to such unconcerned individuals except they have encounters that would have given them new orientations about the need to show comcern to an important matter as voting which is a destiny moulding platform for all citizens of a country.
ii. Perceived Ineffectiveness:
If past elections didn’t bring change, people may lose hope that voting really matters. This is exactly the state we are now as a people where many people have lost hope in our elections.
For over sixty years, we are still crawling on one spot politically and economically because elections have been coming and going, but, instead for life to be better, things are going from bad to worse.
Let me stop by saying that until we retrace our steps to do the right thing to fashion out how our elections can be free, fair, credible and acceptable to all, we are not going to have the country of our heroes dream.
This article will continue with a second part where I will look at why is voting important and what are the consequences of not voting?
Thank you.
Pst. Favour Adéwoyin,
Writer, Public Analyst, Current Affairs Commentator, Content Creator ans Community Developer.
