As another election season approaches in Nigeria, familiar emotions are resurfacing. Anger, anxiety, hope, and fear are all part of the democratic process, especially in a society where politics intertwines with identity, survival, and aspiration. However, a troubling trend must be addressed before it becomes normalized: the tendency to treat political disagreement as betrayal. Some people curse those who disagree with them, insult those who refuse to support their preferred candidates, and label others as ignorant or wicked simply for making different choices. This is not democracy. It may be passion, frustration, or anxiety, but it undermines the core of democratic principles.
The Core of Democracy: Freedom of Choice
At the heart of democracy lies the freedom of choice. The majority may determine the winner of an election, but it does not own the voter's conscience. The majority may decide the outcome, but it cannot erase the legitimacy of dissenting choices. Democracy derives its operational outcomes from numbers, but its moral legitimacy comes from citizens' freedom to choose without coercion, intimidation, or fear. This distinction is often confused: choice and majority are related but distinct. The majority is important for producing outcomes, but before that, individual citizens must be free to make their choices. A majority produced through free choice is democracy; a majority demanded through intimidation is anti-democratic.
The Voter's Right to Choose
The essence of adult suffrage is that the voter owns their vote. They may choose wisely or poorly, based on ideology, ethnicity, religion, class, or sentiment. One may disagree with that choice, criticize it, or campaign against it, but one cannot legitimately deny the person the right to make it. There is no democratic rule that requires a voter to support a candidate certified by others as the only acceptable option. A citizen who chooses differently has not betrayed democracy; they have exercised it. Democracy is not designed to impose one universally accepted candidate but to provide a process for competing preferences to be expressed and converted into political authority.
Persuasion Over Intimidation
Political persuasion remains legitimate. Campaign, canvass, mobilize, argue, write, speak, and organize. Present facts, expose contradictions, defend your candidate, and criticize others. Use every lawful instrument of democratic engagement. But do not curse people because they disagree with you. Do not assume your political choice is the only evidence of intelligence. Do not turn your preferred candidate into a compulsory article of faith. The ballot belongs to the voter. To disagree with a voter's choice is legitimate; to treat that choice as treason is to misunderstand democracy. One may appeal to the voter but must not seek to own them. One may persuade but not force submission through insult.
The Danger of Intolerance
On social media, a citizen's voting preference is often met with insults, curses, or accusations of betrayal. While choices have consequences, the answer to poor choices is not to abolish freedom through abuse but to improve persuasion, organization, political education, and institutions. If a person is uninformed, inform them. If misled, engage them. If afraid, understand their fear. When the first response is insult, persuasion becomes impossible. Politics is not evangelism by force. Democracy is not a congregation where dissenters are excommunicated. Elections are not wars where those who choose differently are treated as enemies.
Nigeria's Pluralistic Challenge
In a complex society like Nigeria, with many ethnicities, religions, and histories, democratic maturity requires more than enthusiasm for one's candidate. It requires the discipline to accept that others may see the same country differently. Today's majority may become tomorrow's minority. Power rotates, sentiments shift, and alliances collapse. Destroying the principle of choice today may harm you tomorrow when the political tide changes. The duty of the politically passionate is not to curse the voter but to convince them. The duty of the democrat is to defend the process that allows different choices to contend peacefully.
Conclusion: Protecting the Soul of Democracy
Democracy may reward the majority with victory, but it must protect the minority in dignity. It may count votes collectively but must receive them individually. As the political temperature rises, let us be careful. Market your candidate, promote your party, and challenge opposing views, but do not pretend democracy has failed because others choose differently. The freedom of choice is not obliterated by emotional outbursts or intimidation. The voter is not obligated to agree with you. At best, convince or 'confuse' the voter to accept your choice, but respect their right to reject. Whatever choice the voter makes, they should be satisfied that they freely exercised a democratic right. Democracy is not the death of choice; it is the protection of it. Freedom of choice is not treason; it is the soul of democracy.
