Mr Bulus Dabit, the General Manager, Plateau Radio Television Corporation (PRTVC), says leaders’ attitude of abandoning the electorate, immediately after election, is responsible for the general apathy to voting.
Dabit, who made the observation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos on Sunday, said that such betrayal “leaves a tinge of regret among most voters’’.
“Overtime, people who begged for votes, had often suddenly become harsh masters, and they develop hatred and contempt for the voters, who they then see as servants.
“They chase them out of their sight and severe any link with them until another election is around the corner. That is why many people no longer feel they should suffer to vote for people that would later turn round to maltreat them.’’
He expressed regret that such politicians, out of desperation, would often woo the electorate with “very cheap items like salt, wrappers, palm oil, rice and other vain things’’.
Dabit also said that bad governance by many politicians, nepotism and corruption had made voters believed that there was no need to suffer for others to enjoy.
He said voters would return to the polling booths once they were sure that elected leaders would be accountable to them and address their needs.
“People feel that governance should be about them. They believe that the elected should merely serve as think tanks for them.
“But when such leaders sideline the electorate, who should be the owners of the power they (leaders) are holding in trust, the people will run away.’’
Dabit, however, said that the people of Plateau had gained “substantially’ from democratic governance.
“Currently, there are so many on-going projects. Jos city, for instance, is almost like a construction site, with housing, road and bridge projects going on.
“There are great efforts to expand infrastructure, hence the mass movement of different people into the state,’’ he said.?
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