_The Prisoners' right to vote.*_

*_The Prisoners' right to vote.*_
By: *Olokooba Omobolaji Abdulwasiu(olokson_the_eminent)*

Before he gave up to the ghost, Jose Marti, a communist, once said "The first duty of a man is to think for himself". Without missing words, honestly, if I say I had known the man's intent for this prophesy if not until now that I am writing this; I might turn to be an inmate.

It is no more a news that Nigerians; we are almost near the cusp of authoring what may be the faith of this great land for some years to come. The time when every qualified adult citizens of this country will be allowed to choose, with their one finger respectively, the candidates they dislike least to eventually lead this country for certain fixed years.

Against that background, we, Nigerians, are fond of weaving a fiction that lacks credibility that 'our votes is not matter in an election because it won't be counted'. What a cheapened ignorance of us! Indeed, if our votes is not matter in deciding the election, why will the cabal always campaigning their manifestoes vigorously to us? Or why will they be using millions of naira to buy votes even when knowing fully well that same are not matter in the leaders? Definitely, like all fakes, that fiction will soon fade in our midst. 

Metaphorically, Are we not callous fellows for contending weather it is ideal or not if our sisters and brothers in prisons are granted their birth rights to elect who will be their leaders in their own country?

As a matter of law, it is no more a disputatious fact that the whole provisions of section 30 of Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria(CFRN), 2011 as amended, specifically inoculates and immunises any citizens by birth from its application. Hence, it can be authoritatively asserted that conviction does not take away one's citizenship. And once you are still a legal member of a country; you are entitled to elect the candidate of your choice during election.

Similarly, I will vehemently commend the decision of the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin city, Edo state, for affirming the prisoner's right to vote in the election on Friday, 7th December, 2018.

Doubtlessly, I humbly align myself to the opinion of President Aigbokhan of the Initiative for Rural Development, Information and Legal Advocacy (IRDILA) that prison inmates have their own communities and polling units should be allocated to there because they also have right to vote in an election to author the future of their country. This right is in line with provisions of both section 77(2) and 132(5) of CFRN, 2011as amended.

Truly, if franchise is given to the prisoners, attention will be focused and shifted to their community which will utimately improve their situations and health conditions there.

With statistics, the population of our inmates is almost million in numbers, this could be a measure of deciding in having a good or a bad leader in this country. As Shomope Abdulrasheed, a present 300level student of Common and Islamic Law Department, University of Ilorin, has aplty said "their numbers could sway the waves of polls and thereby participating in the dawning of new era'.

Actually, I am still anxiously waiting for that day when these prisoners will be allowed to invest in the future of the country they are bound to rejoin back sooner or later. But before that time, GOD BLESS MY FATHER LAND. AMIN!

11/12/2018

© *Olokooba Omobolaji Abdulwasiu* ; He is a poet , an essayist, a satirist, a campus writer and a 200level Udus Law student.
Gmail: oomobolajiabdulwasiu@gmail.com
Phone: 08160590983

® For ' *The News Digest Press Club, UDUS* .